Page 34 of Meet Me in Ivy Falls

We stumbled back into the crumbling sink. He ran a line of kisses down my neck and I arched into him. Ten years had passed, but our bodies had no trouble recognizing each other. I’d sworn we could only be business partners, but the ache between my legs screamed for much more.

Beck threaded his fingers through my ponytail, inching down the tie. The grip of his fingers sent another shock through me. My hair spilled across my back as he wound me in closer.

‘You don’t know how long I’ve dreamed about this,’ he sighed into my mouth. His fingers slid down the front of my shirt, expertly releasing the first set of buttons.

With every movement the rational part of me screamed to stop, but the heat of his stare, the weight of his body against mine, felt too good. I tightened my arms around his neck and he lifted me onto what was left of the counter. Another small scar peeked out from underneath his right sleeve. I wanted to ask about it, but he distracted me with the desperation in his kisses.

After years of thinking about him, wondering what he looked like, how he’d changed, I needed to feel the warmth of him to prove he wasn’t some fantasy. I eased my fingers beneath the hem of his shirt, but he gripped my hands and tugged me closer. I pressed my breasts into him, my lips seeking the sensitive spot under his chin hoping it was still his weak point. His low moan said I’d met my target.

His fingers slid around the edge of my jeans and then down the side of the zipper to the spot that ached for him. I arched into his touch and he smothered my mouth with another hungry kiss.

‘Excuse me for interrupting.’

My father’s broad body filled most of the doorway. His face was set in its usual hard mask. It only took a single look for him to turn me into a fumbling seventeen-year-old again.

I pushed away from Beck and clutched at my open shirt.

‘Dad, what are you doing here?’

He glanced around the chaos of the bathroom, focusing anywhere but on me in my half-state of dress. ‘I was on the ninth tee at the club yesterday when I heard you’d be working on this place.’ The edges of his jaw worked as he stepped further into the bathroom. ‘For the life of me, I don’t get why you do this job. It smells like the inside of a porta-john.’

I swallowed the urge to scream at him and his judgment. Sick of the way he glared at me like I was hawking my body on Main Street rather than trying to preserve Ivy Falls’ rich history.

Once he’d surveyed the space, he turned his irritated gaze on me. ‘Can I speak to you out in the hall, please?’

Beck stood frozen and I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me.

Dammit. How had I let this happen?

With shaky hands, I buttoned up my shirt and brushed past him. In the hall Dad gave me that look of disappointment I was used to by now.

‘Your sister was upset you didn’t join us for dinner the other evening.’ He stared at the crumbling wallpaper like he couldn’t bear to look at me. ‘Your nieces hardly ate a thing because they were too sad that you weren’t there.’

He knew just what to say to hurt me. Tessa and the girls meant everything to me and I already knew how upset they’d been by the way they’d treated me when I got home later that night. Still, it galled me that he thought he could shame me when it came to them.

I’d stayed on the phone with Tessa for hours after she got the seven-word text from her husband saying he’d run off with Trini from the Pool and Brew. After I moved back to Ivy Falls a few weeks later, there were more than a few nights where I held her shaking body as she sobbed. Cared for her girls when she couldn’t get out of bed.

‘I find it ironic that you’re lecturing me about not showing up for one dinner when you spent half my childhood in other states. Hell, you couldn’t even be there for Mom when she needed you most.’

I knew how to hit where it hurt too.

‘I didn’t come here to fight,’ he said with surprising calm. The act was for Beck’s benefit – I was sure he could hear us from inside the bedroom.

‘Why did you come here?’

‘I know your finances are tight.’ He lowered his voice. ‘Why are you taking on another project when Parkview isn’t finished?’

I couldn’t believe he was here, getting into this with me right now. For the last year, he’d watched me and Manny at town council meetings. Fighting to keep the history of this town alive. Why couldn’t he see that the work I was doing was important? That if Mom was here she’d be supporting me through all of this?

‘I’m paying Torran and Manny to help me on this project.’ Beck stepped into the hall and stopped next to me. The heat of him burned into my side. ‘I need their expertise and intelligence to make sure the house is renovated the right way. As you may remember, I used to live here.’

My father’s lips thinned into an unhappy line. ‘Yes, I remember.’

Beck glanced at my father’s starched khakis and blue polo. ‘Were you here to help, sir? I can put you to work. There’s an extra pair of gloves in my car and a sewer line out back that needs fixing.’ A wicked grin ticked up the corner of Beck’s mouth. I loved that one line from him could make my dad flinch.

‘That will not be necessary.’ Dad’s gaze moved to the hole in the ceiling. ‘Looks like there is a lot of work here. I hope it will be done to code.’

Another zinger shot my way. He’d morphed into Mr Mayor now.