82
" Maybe there is a way to have it all,” he said, lowering his head to hers. “If you want me, Starfish, we’ll find that way.”
“I do,” she said, the sudden prickle of tears surprising her, but it was such a huge rush finally to admit it, to tell him. To tell herself. “But--”
“No buts,” he said, kissing the damp from the corner of one eye, then the other. “We’ll sort it out,” he said. “It’s what we do for the people we love.”
If she hadn’t already been certain her heart had tipped his way, it was definitely in free fall now. She reached up, stroked his face. “What have I done to deserve you?” she asked, quite serious. “Why me?”
“Because you’re made for me,” he replied. “I knew it from the moment I met you.” He leaned in, kissed the side of her jaw. “It’s not about earning or deserving. Everyone deserves to be loved.” He lifted his head, and the intensity of his gaze was matched by the slow slide of his beautiful, cocky, sexy-as-hell grin. “We just have to be smart enough to recognize our perfect match when we find it.”
Her smile matched his, her heart bumping hard inside her chest. “Are you calling me a dummy?”
“Not at all. I’m just saying that maybe some of us caught on a bit faster than others.”
She tried to hook his ankle and roll him to his back but he was on to that move.
“Now, now, my little pirate wench, the only one with a hook is me.” He rolled fully on top of her, then, bracing his weight even as he nudged her thighs apart.
“My, my,” she teased, her heart full to bursting, “what a big…sword you have.”
“All the better to pillage you with,” he murmured, lowering his head again.
“I should tell you one more thing,” she whispered, making him lift his head a bit, an eyebrow raised in question. “I’m protected. Makes traveling easier when you know what will be happening when,” she explained. “So if you’re okay with, uh, keeping your sword there unsheathed, I’m okay with--”
“Oh, aye, I’m very okay,” he said, eyes gleaming that much more brightly.
“Good,” she sighed, then tipped her head back and arched up into him. “Please feel free to pillage away. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
83
" Have I mentioned that I grew up working in my much older brother’s dojo?”
“Dojo?” Kerry repeated. “As in karate? Judo?”
“Tae kwon do,” Maddy said. She shot a knowing grin Kerry’s way.
“Ah,” Kerry said, understanding dawning. “And what color would your belt be, jongyeonghaneun yeosong?”
Maddy laughed. “I don’t know if I’m an honorable woman,” she said, surprising Kerry by understanding her very rough Korean. “But my belt, it is black.” Maddy sketched a quick martial arts bow, making both women laugh. They glanced toward the back of the bar at the same time, only to find a grinning Hardy looking their way.
“See? He’s the guy who assumes women are always talking about him,” Kerry said.
“Well, we are,” Maddy replied. “He can’t know we’re discussing how best to dismantle his manhood if he so much as thinks about laying a finger on me.” She said all this with a serene smile.
Hardy lifted his beer in a salute, presumably to Maddy, before downing the rest in a single gulp, as if beer consumption somehow proved his manly man prowess.
“Poor Hardy,” Kerry said with a mock sigh. “But then, he never did seem big on wanting to have children. Just ask his ex-wife.” She ducked her chin as both women shared another laugh before continuing with their work.
After that, the rest of the night didn’t seem all that arduous. Maddy was happy to return Kerry’s wingman favor, and between the two of them, they managed to distract, deflect, or defend much of the ribbing being thrown Kerry’s way and actually had a much better time doing it than Kerry would have imagined. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
85
" There’s something here,” he said, searching her gaze. “Something beneath all the pheromones dancing about whenever we’re within reaching distance of each other. Something beyond this…this crazy hunger.”
“I know,” she said in a hushed whisper, the words barely reaching his ears over the sound of the wind and the snap of the sails.
He leaned his head down until his forehead brushed hers. “I want both,” he said. “The friendship and the hunger.”
Her eyes were luminous pools of the deepest sea green as she looked into his, and he thought he could fall into them and never surface again and die a happy man. “Explore them with me,” he said, “and let’s see where it leads. That’s all I’m asking. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
87
" It’s where I want to be most in the world, Starfish. I know my home; I’ve found my place in the world. I shouldn’t--won’t--keep you from finding yours.”
“But--”
He kissed her, gently at first and then with all the hunger of a man who might never eat again.
Tears were trickling down her face now. “What if I want to come, if I know the risks, but--”
“You might be able to handle that,” he said roughly. “But I’m not sure I could.”
“Life doesn’t offer any guarantees,” she said, knowing she had to push, had to make him understand. She wouldn’t get another chance. “I want to try. I want us to try. What happened to figuring things out because that’s what you do for the people you love?”
He kissed her wet cheeks and pulled her close. “Can’t you see?” he whispered hoarsely. “That’s exactly what I’m doing.”
And then he was gone. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
88
" Would it be so bad, to stay in one place? I mean, you loved it there, didn’t you? Fergus said--”
“Seriously, I’m never telling him anything ever again,” Kerry grumbled.
“He wants to help you. We all do. I mean, you have to understand, it’s hard for us. We know you were happy there, and weddings and strokes notwithstanding, you’ve surprised us all by sticking around such a long time. Now here’s this amazing guy showing up, proposing marriage to you--who, let me tell you, is also not hard on the eyes--or the ears, for that matter. Wow, with the accent. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
90
" My, my,” she teased, her heart full to bursting, “what a big…sword you have.”
“All the better to pillage you with,” he murmured, lowering his head again.
“I should tell you one more thing,” she whispered, making him lift his head a bit, an eyebrow raised in question. “I’m protected. Makes traveling easier when you know what will be happening when,” she explained. “So if you’re okay with, uh, keeping your sword there unsheathed, I’m okay with--”
“Oh, aye, I’m very okay,” he said, eyes gleaming that much more brightly.
“Good,” she sighed, then tipped her head back and arched up into him. “Please feel free to pillage away.”
He laughed, a deep, sexy, guttural laugh, full of joy and promise. He moved slowly inside her this time, both of them groaning in appreciation of the increased pleasure with no barrier between them.
Their lovemaking was slow, yet all the more intense for the increased intimacy, as they kept their eyes open, looking at each other, kissing, playing, moving, enjoying.
And, for the first time, she let herself believe that maybe he was right, maybe there was a way to have it all. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
91
" Grab your phone from the truck before you go in,” he said.
“Why?”
“So I can send you suggestive and encouraging texts when you take too long with the party planning of course.”
“Of course,” she said. “I really might have to revamp my whole not-thinking plan and put you in charge.”
He lifted his hands. “I’m willing and able,” he said, then sketched a bow. When he stood, he slid his phone out and handed it to her. “To put in your number,” he said when she looked confused.
“Oh, right.” She did as he asked, then that mischievous light sparkled in her eyes as she took a moment and typed in a little more before turning it off and handing it back to him.
“What was that last bit?”
“Just helping to get that encouraging conversation going.” She left him standing there, looking down at his phone then at her retreating back as she headed back around to the parking lot and her truck.
He pocketed the phone without reading the message, thinking he should probably be alone when that happened. And possibly naked.
“Yes, much better when we don’t think.” He planned to do his best to keep them both not thinking for at least the remainder of that day and, if he was lucky, all of the night, too. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
93
" I want you, Leilani. I'm so hard it hurts. But your scent entices me, lures me." He drew the sheet farther down, past her navel, along the soft swell of her stomach. "I want to taste, to savor. Here." He kissed his way to the tender flesh high inside her inner thigh. "And here." He traced a similar path to the other side. "But I want to feast... here." He drew his tongue along the center of her, and groaned at the sweet taste of her.
Lani's hips started to pump harder, and he could feel a fine quivering begin along her skin. She rocked and keened, and when he plunged his tongue deeply into her, she cried out, reached down and buried her fingers in his hair. Guiding him, urging him, demanding him, release broke over her in wracking, wrenching waves.
"Baxter, please... please." Her hips slowed, but her body continued to gather and jerk as the aftershocks kept twitching through her. "Now," she demanded. "I'm- I'm safe, protected, we don't need-" She broke off as he kissed his way back up the center of her torso while she continued to writhe beneath him.
The way she responded to him, making herself vulnerable to him, moved him in unpredictable ways. He shifted so he was directly on top of her and pressed himself between her thighs, which she parted, wrapping them around his hips, digging her heels into his lower back as she lifted for him, and took him in.
Take her, he did, sliding all the way in, groaning as she gripped him fully, so tightly, so wetly, so perfectly, it was the fulfillment of every fantasy he'd ever had. Even though his heart was drumming inside his chest, and his body was priming itself for a ferocious release, climaxing wasn't the only thing dominating his thoughts. He met her every hip thrust, echoed every groan, every growl, as they worked their every frenzied way to completion, together.
He could feel her climb again as she rolled her hips beneath him, and reality continued to eclipse fantasy. "Come with me, yes," he said, claiming her mouth even as she was nodding in agreement.
He pulled her into his arms and moved more deeply, as she instinctively shifted to take him more tightly inside her. They moved with a rhythm that was as old as man's creation, and uniquely and utterly their own. "
― Donna Kauffman , Sugar Rush (Cupcake Club #1)
94
" We’ve got things under control here.”
“‘We’?” Kerry repeated. “Shouldn’t you be out sampling cake or agonizing over invitation fonts? Assuming you don’t have clients to design interiors for.”
“I have clients,” Fiona replied easily, honest joy beaming from her every pore. “Very happy ones. Trust me, after running McCrae Interiors, I can juggle Fiona’s Finds and planning a wedding at the same time with my eyes closed.”
Kerry gave her sister a hard time--it was what they did--but she was truly happy for Fiona, with both her new business success and her lovely and loving relationship with their longtime family friend, Ben Campbell. Fiona had sold a successful business in Manhattan to return home and start over. She’d just opened a small design studio in a converted cottage near the harbor, focusing on recycling and repurposing antique and vintage items into something fresh and new. Her designs were both eco-friendly and wallet friendly, and the Cove had embraced her return home and her new business with equal enthusiasm.
“Remember you said that,” Kerry commented. “When it’s go time on the big aisle walk and you’re still running around like a crazy person trying to pull everything together at the last second, I don’t want to hear about it.”
Fiona batted her eyelashes again as she took an extralong sip on the straw in her glass of lemon water. “I’m the epitome of a happy, relaxed bride. McCrae girls don’t do bridezilla. Well, Hannah didn’t, Alex was lovely, and I’m charming of course.” She looked at Kerry over the tip of her straw, smiling sweetly. “We’ll reserve final judgment until it’s your turn.”
“Har, har,” Kerry said, but Fiona was high on wedding crack again so she let her run with it.
“Besides, after handling weddings for Logan, Hannah, and the Grace-Delia double do out on that island, this will be a cakewalk. Ha!” Fiona went on, then laughed. “Cakewalk.”
“You’re a designer? And you do weddings?” Maddy turned on her stool and spun Fiona on hers until they were facing each other. She gripped Fiona’s forearms and grinned. “Hello, my new best and dearest friend.”
“Oh, brother.” Kerry surrendered, tossing her towel on the bar. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
95
" She shielded her eyes from the sun, her truck keys dangling down the back of her free hand, as Cooper lowered the passenger window and leaned forward so he could see her. “G’day, Starfish. Need a lift?”
She needed a lot of things. Hot coffee, sisters who weren’t nosy, a clear vision about what should be next on her life agenda. Being inside a small, sporty vehicle, trapped mere inches from Cooper Jax, even for the short ride down to Half Moon Harbor? That she definitely did not need. “I’m good, thanks. And can we retire the nickname? Please?”
He’d begun calling her that after she’d regaled him with a steady string of childhood stories of life lived by the sea, and he’d commented that she seemed too big a fish for such a small pond. A starfish, as it were. She’d rolled her eyes at the very bad pun, but the nickname had stuck. Aussies were big on nicknames. And the honest truth of it was, she hadn’t minded hearing him call her that, even though it had been a joke, delivered as a ribbing, not an endearment.
Now? Now she wasn’t sure how he meant it, or what it made her feel when he said it. Better to just bury it right, Ker? Like you do everything that makes you uncomfortable. She really needed to find a way to strangle her little voice. “I’ve got a meeting,” she went on, not giving him a chance to respond.
He nodded to the basket in her arms. “Yes, I can see that. Demanding lot, laundry.”
She glanced down, then back at him. “No, with my sisters. About Fiona’s wedding.”
“Yes, I heard about it.”
She didn’t ask how he could possible know that, or who he’d been talking to this time, because any person in town could have brought him up to speed on the goings-on about pretty much any person he wanted to know about. The downside to being home. One of the great things about being a wanderer was that folks only knew whatever parts of her story she opted to share with them. Cooper, she realized now, had already known more than pretty much anyone she’d met in her travels up to that point. God only knows what he’d learned in the twenty-four hours he’d been in the Cove. She didn’t want to examine how that made her feel either.
“Three McCrae weddings in less than a year,” he commented, as if casually discussing the weather. Then he grinned. “Is it catching? "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
97
" What’s so amusing, wench?” came a gravel-throated voice from behind her, followed by a gentle swat across her sheet-covered backside.
“Just plotting my mutiny, Captain,” she said.
“Mutiny?” he said, pulling the sheet, and her, closer to him. “I thought I’d convinced you to join my merry little band of thieves.” He tugged at the sheet she’d grabbed in her fist, rolling her neatly over and right up against his side. “You don’t want to be the pirate queen of the high seas?”
“You’re a merry band of one who can’t sail a boat, so--”
He silenced her with a kiss.
When he finally lifted his head, she sighed and let her head loll back on his arm. “Well, when you put it that way…”
He rolled on top of her, making her squeal. “I’m happy to put it another way, if that’ll help persuade you.”
“Sheath your sword, pirate king. Your wench needs some sustenance before she can allow you to have your pirate ways with her again.”
“I thought I was sheathing my sword,” he said, then laughed when she hooked her leg over his and rolled him to his back. “I see you’ve been paying attention to my pirate tricks.”
“Indeed I have,” she said, looking down into his handsome face and twinkling blue eyes. She didn’t want to think about the next chapter, not now, not yet. But there it was, staring up at her, framed in tousled blond hair and five o’clock shadow. This could be your life, Kerry McCrae. Just say yes. "
― Donna Kauffman , Starfish Moon (Brides of Blueberry Cove, #3)
