“What are we going to be remembering?” Lulu asked, her heart fluttering in her chest. The look in his eyes was so incredibly romantic!
Sam walked into his bedroom, shut the door and turned on the monitor on the bedside table. Then, pivoting back to her, he lifted her up, so she was sitting on his bureau, arms wrapped around his neck, his strong, hard body ensconced in the open V of her legs. The insides of her thighs rubbed the outsides of his. “Our first date,” he murmured.
She trembled as his palms molded her breasts through the knit of her shirt and the lace of her bra, his thumbs rubbing over the tender crests. His mouth hovered above hers and Lulu felt herself surge to life.
“Our first kiss,” he whispered as their lips met in a melding of want and need.
Yearning spiraled through her and she ran her hands through his hair, giving back, meeting him kiss for kiss. The feel of his mouth on hers imbuing her with the kind of love she had wanted all her life. The kind of love only he could give.
She kissed him passionately, adoring the way his tongue stroked hers, once and then again and again, all while he never stopped touching her. Caressing her breasts, the curve of her hips, cupping her buttocks in his palms, before moving around to trace the lines of her pelvic bones and the sensitive area between her thighs.
Aware it was her turn, Lulu reached between them to unclasp his belt. Dropping hot kisses along his neck, she slid her hand inside his jeans. Felt the velvety heat and hardness, even as his mouth moved on hers in a way that was shattering in its possessive sensuality. “The first time I touched you,” Lulu whispered, when they finally came up for air.
He found his way beneath her panties. “And the first time I touched you.”
Deciding it was time they both got naked, she lifted his shirt over his head and tossed it aside. Taking a moment to admire him, she let her glance sift over his bare chest. His skin was golden and satiny smooth, covered with curling tufts of golden-brown hair that spread across his pecs, before angling down toward his navel. Lower still, his hardness pressed against the front of his jeans. “The first time we were together all night, in Tennessee.”
Sam grinned, recalling. He helped her off with her shirt, bra, skirt. “If I could do that entire trip over, I would.”
Lulu lifted up enough so he could dispense with her panties. “So would I,” she admitted huskily, as the rest of his clothing followed suit. He came back to her once again, and she wound her arms about his neck. “But I’d make sure we had a different ending this time.” One rife with love and tenderness, instead of heartbreak and anger.
Sam smiled over at her in a way that made her feel beautiful inside and out. He tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear. “We may not be able to go back in time and have a do-over,” he said, kissing her thoroughly and claiming her as his. “But we can certainly put all our mistakes behind us and start fresh again.”
Lulu luxuriated in the feel of his mouth on hers. “I’d like that, Sam,” she whispered back, pulling him close once again. “I really would...”
Sam knew Lulu was still afraid their reconciliation would turn out to be short-lived. But he knew better. He’d lost her once; he wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. He set about showing her that he was in this for the long haul as they resumed kissing again, long and deep, soft and slow, sweet and tender.
She ran her hands over his back, across his hips. He luxuriated in the soft, silky feel of her. Caressing, exploring, entering and withdrawing in slow, shallow strokes that soon had her arching against him, clamoring for more.
And still they kissed. Taking up the rhythm he started. Until their breath caught and their hearts thundered in unison, and there was no more playing and delaying. She held fast, claiming him as he claimed her. Giving and taking everything. Tumbling into the sweet, hot abyss.
Afterward, they snuggled together, the aftershocks every bit as potent as their lovemaking had been. “This was nice.” She sighed, looking utterly fulfilled as they moved from bureau to bed.
Aware he felt the same, he lay on his back. With her draped over top of him, her head nestled against his chest, he stroked a hand languidly down her spine. “Ah. You mean Sam-and-Lulu time?” he teased. Knowing he never wanted to be without her again.
She bantered back, “Where we see to our own...very adult...needs.”
Realizing she looked for comfort from him as much as he yearned to receive it from her, Sam nodded. A contemplative silence fell. Moments drew out. He could feel Lulu drifting away from him, the way she usually did when her guard went back up, but he was determined not to let their closeness fade. “What are you thinking, darlin’?” Sam rasped, still enjoying how beautiful and utterly ravished she looked.
Lulu drew the sheet up over her breasts and rolled onto her side, facing him. Her honey-brown hair spilling over her shoulders, she rested her arm on the mattress and propped her head up on her hand. She met his gaze equably and drew in a bolstering breath. “That maybe we should just stop fighting our attraction to each other and accept it.”
Glad she’d told him what was eating away at her, he traced the curve of her lips with his fingertip. “I haven’t been fighting mine.”
“I know.” Their glances met, held. Her turquoise eyes sparkled ruefully. “But up to now, cowboy, I have.”
How well he knew that! He took her free hand and lifted it to his mouth. Gently kissing her knuckles, he felt comfortable enough to ask, “Any particular reason why?”
She wrinkled her nose at him and let out a beleaguered sigh. “I just don’t want either of us to be disappointed if things don’t work out in the end.”
The fact that she was beginning to feel the kind of heartfelt emotion that had drawn them to each other in the first place, in addition to the sizzling physical attraction that had always existed between them, made Sam very happy. To his frustration, however, beneath her outward pragmatism and acceptance, Lulu still seemed somewhat ambivalent.
Up one moment. And fully on board with their increasing intimacy. Wary—and down—the next.
“You don’t sound deliriously pleased with the situation,” he deadpanned, trying to make light of the maelstrom of emotions running through him.
“No, it’s not that at all,” Lulu explained. “I’ve just been trying really hard to keep our situation from becoming overly complicated.” She shifted slightly, and the sheet moved lower, giving him a seductive glimpse of her breasts.
He felt himself grow hard again.
She raked her teeth across her lower lip and shyly admitted, “And I don’t want us to have expectations of each other that we can’t possibly meet, the way we did before.”
He could see why she didn’t want them to be disappointed in each other. Again. But it bothered him that she always expected less of them than they were capable of giving.
Still, this was progress. It was the first time they’d made love that she had expressed acceptance instead of worry or regret, at least since they had come together to care for the triplets.
“So.” She waggled her brows at him mischievously, looking happy and relaxed again. “As long as this is good...for the both of us...”
“We can make love however, whenever, wherever you want,” Sam promised her gently, folding her close. And as her body began to respond to the urgency of his, he made love to her all over again.
Saturday morning, Lulu and Sam attended the grief group for parents of orphaned children. As was her custom with new attendees, psychologist Kate Marten-McCabe asked them to stay after for a few minutes. “So how are things going?” the silver-blond therapist asked.
“Better.” Lulu explained what they had done thus far to help the children remember their parents.
“The storybook sounds wonderful.” Kate smiled.
“We still can’t get them to spend the night in their own beds though,” Sam said.
“Although we did get them to actually go to sleep in their beds last night,” Lulu added.
“It’ll come,” Kate promised, and then gave them a few more tips.
“Kate’s right,” Lulu’s brother Jack said. Sam, Lulu and the triplets had stopped by his home for lunch and an afternoon playdate with his three little girls and Jack’s old friend, rehab nurse Bess Monroe. “Progress does come. But it’s often in infinitesimal degrees.”
“Are you trying to encourage me or discourage me?” Lulu joked while making lunch with Bess. Her famous honey-grilled chicken salads for the adults, PB&J and apple slices for the kids.
Sam and Jack stood in the doorway of the kitchen and kept an eye on the six nicely playing kids. “I’m just saying the sleep thing is a hard thing to work out,” Jack retorted, sadness creasing his face.
Concerned, Lulu went over to hug her brother. His surgical skills were legendary among the returning veterans that he and Bess both helped. However, he was not so great at dealing with the grief left by the death of his wife, Gayle.
Lulu stepped back to take him in. “Are you okay?”
“It’s Father’s Day,” Bess put in.
Jack shot her a massively irritated look.
She raised both hands. “Well, it is. You get like this every year.”
Lulu turned back to Jack. “Why would this make you sad? Your children love you! I’m sure they made you gifts at school.”
“They do and did,” Bess put in.
Pushing aside his usual stoicism, Jack said thickly, “It’s just that Father’s Day reminds me of Mother’s Day. Which makes me think about Gayle. And all the holidays she’s never going to celebrate with us.”
Lulu understood, and she knew Sam did, too. Her eyes suddenly glistening, Bess slipped from the room. She disappeared down the hall and into the bathroom. Which was no surprise, Lulu noted, since Bess and Gayle had been very good friends.
Lulu wrapped Jack in another consoling hug. “I miss her, too,” she admitted, tears welling.
Sam walked over to clap Jack on the shoulder. “We all do. She was a real force of nature.”
A recuperative silence fell.
Seconds later, Bess emerged. Her nose was red and her eyes too bright, but she had a cheerful smile plastered on her face. Completely ignoring what had just happened, she asked, “What do you all think? Should we eat lunch inside or outside?”
The rest of the afternoon went pleasantly. Mostly because the kids played well and the adults avoided talk of anything the least bit sensitive or uncomfortable.
As they were getting the kids ready to leave, Jack took Lulu and Sam aside. “About the nighttime travails... My only advice is to comfort them when they wake and then always put them back in their own beds for the remainder of the night, even if it means you’re stretched out on the floor next to them, so they get the idea that their beds are for sleeping, not yours. Unless it’s very special circumstances, like they’re running a fever or there’s a big thunderstorm or something.”
“And that works?” Lulu asked as Bess came to stand next to Jack.
Jack smiled. “It does.”
The events of the day stayed with Lulu.
On the way back to Hidden Creek, Lulu said to Sam, as casually as possible, “Hey. What do you think about stopping by the Honeybee and letting me and the kids off for a few minutes, and then you going and getting lost for, oh, an hour or so?”
He slanted her a quick glance. Clad in his usual snug jeans, custom-fitted boots and solid-colored cotton shirt, he looked so ruggedly masculine and handsome it was enough to make her go weak in the knees. “You serious?”
She shrugged and checked out the kids in the rearview mirror. They were all wearing their bucket hats and sunglasses, looking cute as could be, and were surprisingly wide-awake. “You must have some stuff to check on at your ranch.”
“Tons.”
Which was no surprise, Lulu thought. Since they’d taken custody of the triplets, Sam had been all kids, all the time.
He made the turn into the Honeybee Ranch and drove up to the house. He put the pickup in Park, then turned to look at her with a mixture of curiosity and affection. “You sure you can handle them by yourself?”
She was going to have to if she wanted to succeed with her secret plan. Lulu smiled. “Yep.”
Sam reached over to cup her face in one hand. He rubbed his thumb across the curve of her cheekbone. Said admiringly, “Your older brother sure did infuse you with confidence.”
Tingling all over, Lulu smiled back at him. “And good ideas,” she said mysteriously.
As Lulu expected, the boys were delighted to sit at her kitchen table and play with the kids’ craft stuff that she kept for her preschool-age nieces and nephews when they visited. The triplets were covered with washable glue and glitter and colorful markers and still working on their “projects” when Sam came back an hour later.
“Surprise!” they shouted in unison. “Happy Day!”
They rushed at him, wet and sticky artwork in tow. “Here! For you! Sam!”
Looking surprised and touched, Sam hunkered down and wrapped them all in a hug. “You fellas did all this for me?”
For the second time that day, Lulu felt herself welling up. She edged closer to indulge in the group embrace. Knelt down. “Even though we’re technically still guardians, they wanted you to know what a fabulous father figure you’ve become to them,” she said hoarsely.
Sam wrapped an arm about her waist and drew her in close. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Right back at you, darlin’.”
One day, they would be Mommy and Daddy. But for now, Lulu thought, returning Sam’s warm hug and cuddling the boys, this life they’d fashioned was more than enough.