Thunder Canyon Homecoming (17 page)

As always, just thinking of Corey made her heart ache. She hadn't heard from him since he'd left Thunder Canyon, and through everything else that had happened, she'd remained conscious of his absence, of how empty her life seemed without him. True, she'd told him she needed time, but she thought he could at least have called.

Or you could've called him.

Damn, but there were times when she hated that rational side of her.

She knew it was her turn to make the next move. No way was she going to let her last memory of Corey Traub be of him walking across the parking lot of the Super Saver Mart.

 

Erin had to work the Friday and Saturday immediately following Thanksgiving, but her parents stayed through to Sunday morning and spent a lot of time with Elise and Helen. As she went about her usual routine, it surprised Erin how normal everything seemed. On the outside everything was exactly the same, but on the inside so much had changed—and definitely for the better.

Since the summer, she'd been living in limbo—trying to answer questions about her past and not at all certain about her future. Recent events had somehow solidified her relationship with her parents and her brothers, and she was building new ones with Helen and Elise and Grant and Stephanie. It was her new sister-in-law who pointed out to Erin that she was going to be an aunt very soon, and she knew that both she and Elise would spoil the baby terribly when he or she finally arrived.

She had so much to be grateful for—her life was full
and rich. And still, there was an emptiness inside of her, a space that she knew only Corey could fill.

I'm not going to wait forever for you to decide what you want.

His words echoed in the back of her mind.

Okay, seven days wasn't exactly forever, but it certainly felt like it.

When she went into work the next day, she was going to ask Grant for some time off, and if she had to play the sister card, well, she wasn't above doing so. She wasn't going to wait another seven days to book a plane ticket to Texas.

Just making the decision made her heart feel lighter, and she resolved to check the flight schedule to Texas so that she could discuss specific options when she talked to Grant. She was booting up her computer when the doorbell rang.

 

Erin peeked through the side window, but she didn't see anyone on her porch. All she could see was a huge evergreen tree, but she was pretty sure it hadn't pressed the bell.

She pulled open the door for a closer look. The tree topped six feet and was at least that wide at the bottom. And be hind it—laden down with shopping bags—was Corey.

Her heart started pounding; her knees trembled. She wanted to throw her arms around him, but there was no way she could get near him with that forest between them, so instead she only asked, “When did you get back?”

“Can I come in and put this stuff down?” he asked.

She automatically stepped back. Somehow he maneuvered around the massive tree and through the doorway.

“Late last night,” he answered her original question.

“What the heck is all of that?” she asked, indicating the bags in his arms.

“Decorations.”

“Why?”

He nodded in the direction of the evergreen propped up on her porch. “Because the tree will look much more festive when it's dressed up.”

“Okay, maybe the question I should have asked is, why did you bring me a Christmas tree?”

“Because Erika said you didn't have one yet.”

She watched as he wrestled the tree through the doorway. It occurred to her that maybe she should offer to assist him, but she would probably be more of a hindrance than a help, so she just stayed out of his way.

When the tree was inside, he stepped into the family room and turned in a slow circle, surveying the location. “Between the window and the fireplace?”

She pushed the wing chair aside to make room.

He came over to help her—then pulled her into his arms. He felt so good—so solid and strong—that she melted against him. And for a moment, she just held on, breathing in the warm, masculine scent of him and marveling at the fact that he was there. He was really there.

“I guess I won't have to make that trip to Texas after all,” she said.

“You were planning to go to Texas?”

“Well, I wasn't going to wait for you forever.”

“Forever?” His brows rose. “I've been gone a week.”

She slid her arms around his neck and pulled his head down to hers, kissing him softly. “It was a really long week.”

“Tell me about it, darlin',” he said.

She shook her head. “I don't want to talk.”

He caught her hands as they began to tug at his clothes. “I promised myself that I wasn't going to pressure you. I
wanted to give you the time you said you needed, and it hasn't been that much time, but—”

“It was enough,” she interrupted.

Ever since he'd walked away from her in the parking lot of the grocery store a week earlier, Corey had lived with an uncomfortable pressure in his chest. With Erin's words, her kiss, and her touch, the painful tightness finally eased.

She touched her mouth to his again. He let her set the pace, content to just hold her, so happy to have her in his arms again. But when she deepened the kiss, when her soft breasts flattened against his chest and her hips pressed against his, he felt the pressure building again, but it was much lower this time.

As passions escalated, clothes fell away, until they were both naked and panting and wanting.

“I should take you upstairs,” he said.

But she shook her head. “I want you here—like our first time.”

So he tugged the blanket off the back of the sofa and spread it out on the floor.

Her skin was pale, creamy silk that trembled when his hands stroked over her. He wrapped her hair around his hand, and tugged her head back, feasted on the long, slim column of her throat, savored the frantic pounding of her pulse. His lips moved lower until he found her breast, and he laved and suckled until she was whimpering and shuddering beneath him.

She reached down between their bodies, seeking and finding the hard length of him. And when her fingers wrapped around him, he knew that he was as close to the edge as she was.

“I want you inside me,” she told him.

“I want to be inside you,” he admitted.

Later he might regret that he hadn't taken more time with
her, that there had been no quiet words or soft caresses. But in the moment, the need was too great. They would have a lifetime to take things slow—at least if he had anything to say about it—but for now, her hands were as rough and frantic as his, her kisses equally greedy and demanding.

“Now,” she said breathlessly.

Now,
his body echoed her plea, and he sank into the sweet, wet haven between her thighs.

Her muscles clamped down on him, and he groaned at the pleasure of being so tightly and intimately embraced. Then he began to move, and her head fell back as she closed her eyes and surrendered to the delicious friction of their mating.

She'd missed him.

Not just the intimacy of their lovemaking, but simply being with Corey. And as Erin lay cradled in the warm strength of his arms, her body still joined with his, she knew that she had finally found where she wanted to be.

“I've figured out what I want,” she said.

“What's that?” he asked, skimming his fingers down her back.

“I want you in my life. It doesn't matter whether I'm in San Diego or Thunder Canyon or Texas, so long as I'm with you.”

“Well, lucky for me, that fits right into my plans.”

“Which part?”

“The part where we're together.”

“I love you,” she said softly.

He brushed her hair away from her face, kissed her gently. “It seems as if I've waited forever to hear you say those words.”

“Forever? You were only gone a week,” she said, echoing his earlier statement.

“It was a really long week,” he told her.

She pressed closer to him. “Tell me about it.”

He rolled away from her, laughing. “We can't spend all day on this floor.”

“Why not?”

“Because we've got a tree to decorate, darlin'.”

 

It took them a while, but they finally did get the tree set up. Erin tried to help Corey with the lights, but the needles were sharp and after she'd hissed several times in response to being poked, he sent her into the kitchen to make hot chocolate.

By the time she returned with two steaming cups, the tree was illuminated from top to bottom with hundreds of tiny colored lights.

“What do you think?”

She thought it was perfect, but she wasn't going to tell him that. Instead, she looked it over carefully, critically. “There are more lights at the top than the bottom.”

“I was running out.” He came over to stand beside her, eyeing the tree up and down, then shrugged. “Well, next year you're doing the lights, no matter how much you whine.”

Next year.

She liked the sound of that but felt compelled to protest, “I did not whine.”

“You did so whine.” He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, grinned. “And now you're pouting.”

“I don't pout,” she denied.

Corey took one of the mugs from her hand and sipped. “I dated a woman once—well, I've dated a few women,” he said, as if telling her something she didn't know, “but this was one I was dating around the holidays—and she had this stunning Christmas tree. Every branch was full and
precisely shaped, the decorations were beautiful and color coordinated. It was the most perfect tree I'd ever seen.”

She wasn't sure where he was going with the story, but she couldn't resist cocking her head slightly to the side, so that the slightly off-balance tree would appear straight. “You mean like this one?”

He shrugged. “It may not be perfect, but it's real. Which is what I realized was wrong with my relationship with Rebecca—she was always so precisely put together, so perfect and unreal. And the longer I stood there, looking at the tree that was so much like Rebecca, the more I realized that I didn't want perfection.”

“I'm not perfect,” she warned him.

“Neither am I,” he admitted, “but I think we're perfect for one another.”

She smiled. “I can live with that.”

“Can you live with me?” he asked.

Her heart skipped. “Are you asking me to?”

“Actually, I don't want to live with you—I want to marry you.”

She'd barely had a chance to get her head around the idea of living with him and he'd moved straight into talk about marriage. “For a man who talks slow, you sure move fast.”

“The usual response is a ‘yes' or a ‘no,'” he told her. “Preferably ‘yes.'”

“If those are my only options, I'll go with ‘yes.'”

“Really?”

“Do you want me to change my answer?”

“No way.” He pulled her close and brushed his lips against hers. “I've got you now, darlin', and I'm never letting you go.”

She settled into his embrace, not wanting him to ever
let go, not wanting to be anywhere but precisely where she was.

So much had changed in her life since that last meeting with her great aunt Erma, and though there were times when she'd questioned her decision to come to Thunder Canyon, she wouldn't wish any of it away because it had brought her here—to this time and place and this man.

She wondered what Erma would have thought of Corey, if she'd had a chance to meet him. No doubt her aunt would have loved him.

“What are you smiling about?” Corey asked her.

“Just thinking about how very lucky I am.”

He kissed her again. “I'm glad you came home to Thunder Canyon.”

“Me, too.” She'd come to town in search of a family, but she'd found so much more.

She snuggled deeper into his arms, secure in the knowledge that she was where she truly belonged.