Sunrise Point (Virgin River #19)(92)

When he found her, he lowered himself to her so that his mouth could be on hers as he slid into her. “I want you,” he whispered.

“I want you,” she whispered back.

“I want this to last.”

And she thought, How can I give him up? “I’m ready, you’re ready… .”

He began to move and she moaned, her hands finding his butt to hold him inside her. He shifted a couple of times until her moan turned into a helpless squeak and when that happened, he just rode her and it happened again. BAM! She was holding him captive with all her internal muscles. “Oh, my sweet baby,” he whispered against her mouth. “That is so good.”

She collapsed, limp as a noodle. It took a few minutes before she could summon any real strength. “You’re not done,” she finally whispered.

“I know,” he said. “I’m dying here.”

She chuckled and gently rubbed her hands over his shoulders. “No point in that. Take your turn.”

He rose up enough to look into her eyes. His were still on fire, they were so hot. “Come with me?” he asked.

“Don’t know if I can,” she said.

“I know where the secret spot is… I bet you can. I want to feel it again—together.”

“Well, don’t hold it against me if…” He started to move again. His lips brushed hers then dipped to her breast for a hearty suck. “Oh!” she cried softly. “God,” she said. And he pumped for a while, hitting that favorite spot until she lost her mind, her legs wrapped around his waist, her arms around his neck, and she gave him exactly what he wanted.

And he gave it right back, bowing his back a little and letting out a deep growl of pleasure.

* * * Tom held her against him, gently stroking her back. “Stay with me tonight,” he whispered.

“You know I can’t.”

“Let’s call Adie and tell her we need her to stay with the girls. Tell her I’ll pay her a thousand dollars to stay the night with them. Two thousand.”

“You’re kind of cute, all desperate. No, I have to go home.”

“Not yet. Please, not yet. Just give me a little more time with you like this… .” He kissed her shoulder, neck, ear, lips.

“A few more minutes,” she said with a sigh that sounded as helpless as Tom felt. She curled into him.

“Letting go of you tonight will be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. You know what we’ve had is special. Tell me you know that, Nora.”

She put a palm against his cheek and nodded. “I am not going to cry,” she said with a shaky voice. “I’m going to be grateful for every beautiful thing and I am not going to cry.”

They made love again and Tom tried to make it as slow, as luxurious, as precious as possible. In his life, even in war, he had not felt this close to insanity—he felt as though his life was slipping away from him. When he finally relented he had to let her go, his head began to pound. He took her to her car, rode with her to the gate, kissed her hard and held her close one more time and then, with a lump in his throat, he watched her drive through the gate.

He closed the gate and gripped it, his fingers locking into the aluminum mesh, his forehead leaning onto the fence. He stood there until he was almost too cold to walk.

* * *

Jack Sheridan was manning the bar on Sunday morning when Hank Cooper walked in. “Hey,” Jack said, but he didn’t say it with an abundance of friendliness.

“Hey.”

“Coffee?” Jack asked.

“Thanks. I came to say goodbye.”

“Heading out?”

“Yeah, kind of sudden. There was a phone call last night—kind of sketchy, but the short version is our friend Ben, from up the Oregon coast—he’s dead.”

Jack was jolted. He damn near spilled the coffee. “Dead?”

“He was killed. He’s buried already. Some old guy said Luke’s phone number was written on the wall of that old store of his—and there were some personal effects for me. Well, for someone named Henry Cooper.”

“Henry?” Jack asked.

“Henry. Hank. I answer to a lot of things. So, I’m headed up there…to pick up whatever it is. And to find out what happened to him.”

“Aw, man, I’m sorry. Luke going?”

“He offered, but no point in both of us going. I can call him if I need him.”

“And me,” Jack said. “If you get up there and find out you could use a posse…”

“Decent of you,” Coop said, sipping his coffee. “Thing is, I don’t know when I’ll get back this way, so I wanted to say…” He hesitated. “Look, I get that you did what you had to do back then. And I get that it looked bad on me and that wasn’t your fault. I don’t want that on my conscience.”

“Consider it cleared up, but why you worrying about your conscience now? We could’ve settled this when you got back… .”

He gave a shrug. “I have no idea what’s going on, that’s all. It could be complicated.”

“I hope you know how to be careful,” Jack said.

Coop grinned. “That’s one good thing that came out of our last encounter. Careful is my middle name.”