Free Valentine Next Door by Willa Edwards Page A

at him.
    “I think I know just the way to begin.”
    “I bet you do.” She laughed as he grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the bedroom. Even with the broken leg, he moved quickly through her home.
    He winked back at her. “We’ll talk about wedding plans after.”
    Once inside the room, he twirled her in his arms, then turned her around, pressing his lips to hers. He enveloped her in his embrace. There wasn’t anywhere else she’d rather be. And she wanted him to feel the same with her. He’d already given her so much and she wanted to offer him something too. To show him that she loved him just as much as he loved her. And she knew only one way to do that.
    “I don’t know about all this.” She tightened her arms around him, unable to let him go, even if it was the best thing for him. It felt too good in his arms to relinquish it. “I can’t ask you to give up your career. You can’t stay here and become a wedding photographer. You’re better than that.” And she wanted better than that for him too.
    He smiled down at her, his bright eyes almost twinkling. “Having you will be more than worth it.”
    Before she could respond, he tugged her down to the bed beneath him. He settled his mouth on hers as they rolled across the mattress. A sharp pain echoed up her knee where his cast knocked against her joint, but she didn’t care. No pain mattered. She’d take fifty knocks to be close to him.
    She wrapped her legs around him, dragging him closer. He groaned when she ground her pussy into his thigh, sucking in a breath at the zip of pleasure that radiated from her crotch through the rest of her body. He palmed her head in his hands, holding her in place for his deep kisses.
    She gasped for breath when he finally withdrew. He slid his lips down her throat as he gave her a minute to catch her breath.
    “I don’t feel right about this,” she whispered close to his ear.
    He sucked on the column of her neck. A shiver ripped through her.
    “You love your job. You shouldn’t have to give it up.” She ended the words there, forcing herself not to add on, I’m not worth it.
    “I’m willing to.”
    She shook her head. “But I don’t want you to have to pick one or the other.” That’s the choice she’d been faced with—Jeremy or a baby—and it was a horrible choice to make. She hated to force those same requirements on him. He deserved more. “You should get to have everything you want. Like you’ve given me,” she whispered, her heart lodged in her throat.
    He pulled back, staring at her for a second, studying her expression.
    “You only have to work at the library for the school year, right?”
    She nodded. The library required all their employees during the busy school year. But in the summer, they shortened the hours, depending on employee availability. Since she didn’t have any kids, or even a husband anymore, she always volunteered to work.
    “Did you mean what you said about wanting to travel? To see some of the places I’ve been to?”
    She nodded again. She’d love to see all the exotic places he’d traveled to, all the glorious wonders of the world. She wished she’d been more adventurous before now, that she’d experienced more of what life had to offer before settling down. But the most adventurous thing she’d ever done in her life had been letting Jeremy kiss her. No matter how great a kisser he was, there had to be more to life than that.
    “I could bring you with me. We could spend the summers traveling and the winters here. Would you like that? I don’t think I could last a few months without you, not after getting a taste of you.”
    He nipped at her ear and she giggled.
    “Really?” She wrapped her hand around his cheek, loving the friction of his short beard against her palm as he turned into her touch. “You think we could travel and have a baby?” She’d always been jealous of Jeremy’s travels. She’d looked with such longing at the pictures his parents had