Free Forever's Promises (Forever In Luck Series Book 1) by J. Darling

said, to no one
special as he started clearing the table.
    Getting
up to leave, her dad took her arm and pulled her down, giving her a kiss on the
cheek. “You done good. Thanks for staying.”
    After
hugging him, she headed for the family room. With the nip in the air, she couldn’t
imagine a better way to end this day but by sitting around a cozy fire. As she
knelt in front of the fireplace, Nate came down beside her. Stopping what she
was doing, she looked at him. He reached out and touched her face, caressing
her cheek gently with his thumb.
    “I
worried when you slept so long. You doing okay?” he asked.
    She
nodded.
    So,
she still wasn’t talking, he thought. Taking a deep breath, he asked, “Linnie,
will you talk to me?”
    Turning
and working to build the fire, she replied quietly, “I don’t know what to say.”
    “How
about we talk about what happened,” he suggested.
    “I
don’t need to talk about it,” she answered quickly, as she lit the fire.
    He
shook his head. If he wasn’t so torn up about her, he would laugh. This was so
like her. He didn’t know a woman out there who’d let this sleeping dog lie.
They’d want to know every detail and then some, while raking the guy over the
coals. This was one of the reasons he loved her so much, she just wasn’t like
other women. “It’s important we talk about it,” he pushed.
    Resisting
him, she responded, “No, not we, you ,
it’s important that you talk about it.”
    Well,
hadn’t she just hit the nail on the head? “Okay, when then? When can I talk
with you about this?”
    “Not
today.”
    “Can
I ask why?”
    Answering
him as she built and banked the fire, she explained, “Because today, I woke up
feeling the best I’ve felt in years, and I ran into some friend’s while I was
out shopping and we had a nice visit, then I made one of my family’s favorite
meals, and now we’re about to eat chocolate cake made from my mother’s recipe. I
don’t want to ruin this day by being upset.”
    She’d
needed all that, he thought. Honestly, they’d all needed that little bit of
normal. “Fair enough,” he said, and because he felt like he needed something,
anything from her, he asked, “You want me to leave?”
    Sitting
back on her heels, she hesitated and answered while staring at the fire, “Only
if you want to.”
    “I
don’t want to. I want to stay with you, and hold you, and love you forever.”
    Turning
slightly and lifting her eyes to his, she said softly, “Then don’t go.”
    Taking
her face in his hands, he kissed her with a passion.

CHAPTER
6

 
    Linnie
woke in Nate’s arms. The night before, they’d eaten cake, and sat by the fire
watching TV to the point they both fell asleep on the couch. He was so warm,
and she was surrounded by him. Turning to him, she snuggled in close against
his chest. Tightening his hold, he dropped a sleepy kiss on the top of her
head. He kissed me, she thought, thinking back on the moment. It was a sweet,
yet passionate kiss, and she’d felt a small frisson of energy, a little leap,
deep inside when his lips touched hers. It’d always been that way with him.
Whenever they’d been apart, her stomach would be all butterflies and knots at
the thought of seeing him again, and when they kissed, she’d get all warm and
syrupy inside, leaving her wanting more of him.
    Because
of their closeness, she was certain people, including their families, assumed
they’d been sexually active, but they’d never gone beyond touching and kissing.
It wasn’t because they hadn’t wanted to, it was because it’d been smart at the
time given their ages and the consequences. How smart were they being now, she
wondered. More to the point, how smart was she being? Her heart was telling her
to slow down, while her head was trying to convince her he’d come for her, and
it was okay to throw caution to the wind, or wait, was it the other way around?
    Oh
man, they hadn’t even gotten started, and she already needed