Angel's Rest(70)

He could just imagine how she’d look after an orgasm.

Gabe grimaced and stepped gratefully out into the fading light of day. The sooner it got dark, the better.

A boardwalk led across the delicate grassy dunes to the beach where a gentle surf lapped against the sand. Gabe took Nic’s hand for balance as she stepped down from the boardwalk and then paused to remove her sandals, and he didn’t let it go.

They walked without speaking, hand in hand, the haunting notes of a bagpipe drifting on a salt-scented breeze as the inn’s piper saluted the end of day. As the golden sphere of the sun dipped into the sapphire ocean, Nic halted and faced the sea, where streaks of mauve and purple and pink painted the sky. Gabe watched his new wife’s face as she smiled with gentle delight. Softly she said, “Thank you, Gabe. This trip has been lovely.”

“Lovely,” he repeated as something new flickered to life in his heart. Guided by instinct and a freeing sense that this much, at least, was right and good, he tugged her into his arms and kissed her.

A real kiss. Not a chaste peck or a friendship kiss or an alcohol-blurred assault. It was their first real kiss—a second-date sort of kiss. A kiss with no ghosts between them.

This was Nic. She tasted both sweet and sultry, and Gabe allowed himself to become lost in the sensual pleasure of the moment. He explored her mouth with his tongue, nipped her lips with his teeth, and encouraged her response with a low-throated groan. He held her tight, wishing to pull her even closer. He stroked his hand down the curve of her waist and across her hip, resisting the more intimate embrace his instincts urged.

He drew back, ending the kiss, and held her for a long moment as he soaked in the sensation of having a woman in his arms. It felt so good. Nic felt so good. He had been alone for so long.

As the shadows deepened around them, time hung suspended. She waited for him to speak. He waited, wanting her, wondering just how far to take this. Was this the right time?

But even as the question formed, he heard the whisper of ghosts on the soft ocean breeze and knew he couldn’t do it. He leaned forward, rested his forehead against hers, and spoke from his heart. “I’m sorry, Nic. I wish … I just … I’m sorry.”

“Me, too, Callahan,” she said with a sigh. “Me, too.”


Nic awoke the next morning to a gray sky and a blue mood. The evening had ended abruptly last night. Right after the kiss on the beach, right after she’d realized that she’d fallen in love with Gabe Callahan, he’d gone into full retreat.

True, she’d been cold in her sundress after the sun went down, but she knew that Gabe’s insistence they return to their suite had more to do with his comfort than with hers. Claiming tiredness, he’d turned in early, but she’d heard him leave his room an hour later and watched him return to the beach for a solitary walk.

She’d gone to bed alone and lonely once again, grateful that at least she had her pride to keep her warm. Thank goodness she hadn’t confessed what she’d realized was in her heart.

As she packed to return to the real world and Eternity Springs, Nic admitted that as much as she’d loved the trip, she was ready to go home. She missed her work, fretted about how Tiger was doing at Sarah’s with her goldens, Daisy and Duke. He’d been with Nic since Christmas, and she’d given up finding a permanent home for him with someone else in town, at least until the seasonal residents began arriving in May. Technically, he was still on the adoption list, but since he slept in her living room every night, everyone considered him hers.

She believed he still considered himself to be Gabe’s pet. She wondered where he would end up once Gabe returned to Eagle’s Way.

That’s where her husband intended to live upon their return to Colorado. They’d talked about their living arrangements over breakfast this morning. That is, he’d talked and she’d listened. Apparently the separate-bedrooms arrangement was off. Now he wanted separate houses. He’d offered up a list of reasons why they’d both be better off living apart, but Nic saw past them to the heart of the matter. Gabe was pulling back. He had spent this time in California working on their friendship, not their marriage. Sharing a home in Eternity Springs, even if they didn’t share a bed, would take it too close to a real marriage for his comfort.

She was adding the last of her clothes to her suitcase when he rapped on her door. “Nic?”

“Come in.” She took one look at him and saw his worry and concern. “What’s wrong?”