Authors: Tasha Ivey
Every Kiss
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Every
Kiss
Book
Two in The Every Life Series
Copyright
© 2013 by Tasha Ivey
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Design by Letitia Hasser
Interior
Design by JT Formatting
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This
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents
are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various
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“YOU KNOW YOU’D better rock Sawyer’s
naughty little world tonight after all this. I’m impressed, Mak.” I squeeze her
lean frame to mine as tightly as I can. “I’m so happy for you.”
She playfully swats my arm. “Thanks, Callie, and believe me,
I will. How long have you known he was going to propose?”
“Just a couple of days, actually, and it’s been killing me
to keep my big mouth shut. He played the song for me yesterday, and I swear I
cried for an hour.”
“You actually kept a secret?” She laughs musically, the
highs and lows of it make the perfect song to match the look of absolute bliss
on her face. I can’t remember the last time I heard her laugh like that.
“That’s a pretty big deal.”
“I wouldn’t do it for just anyone. But Sawyer? I think we
all need him around. Even Wes is happier now that he’s in our lives. They act a
lot like he and Shane did together, and it’s heartwarming to see someone
filling that empty place in him. In you, too.”
Before she can respond, Sawyer steps up behind her, circling
his broad arms around her waist and pulling her against him. “What are you two
pretty ladies talking about?”
“Oh, just about how impossibly perfect you are,” I reply,
batting my eyelashes at him dramatically.
“Not even a little bit.” Sawyer snickers as a soft pink
creeps into his cheeks. “But I’m glad I have you fooled.”
Makenna spins around in his arms to face him. “Well, I think
you are. Thank you for today.”
“No, darlin’. Thank
you
for saying ‘yes.’” He lowers
his mouth to hers in a smoldering kiss that almost makes
me
blush.
Almost. I begin to step away quietly, but Sawyer mumbles something
unintelligible into Makenna’s lips and grabs my elbow.
“What did you just say?”
Instead of stopping the kiss long enough to answer, he digs
his cell phone out of his pocket and holds it out to me. I take it from his
hands, unsure of what I’m supposed to do with it, but I unlock the screen
anyway. There’s a message from my husband.
Wes Baxter:
‘I’m ready for her. Can you send her
to the backyard?’
Ready for what? My husband is not a planner. At all. I can’t
imagine what he’s up to, but I’m not going to stand here all day, trying to
figure it out. I pass Dalton in the kitchen, and he doesn’t say a word, but the
sly grin on his face is quite telling. He knows something. I’m going to have to
keep an eye on these three guys from now on. They’re quite the little schemers.
Sexy little schemers, nonetheless.
The back door slams shut behind me, and I immediately pull
my sweater tighter around me when the cool March wind filters through the thin
knit of my shirt. My eyes scrutinize the backyard, scanning through the trees
for any sign of Wes. The apprehension coursing through my veins has me on
high-alert, so when I hear his voice, I nearly jump out of my own skin.
“Hey, beautiful.”
I spin on my heel so fast that I have a hard time stopping
myself. “What are you doing out here?” I descend the steps hurriedly and meet
him at the side of the house just under the old oak tree. The weathered rope
swing gently sways in the breeze, creaking slightly as it lumbers at the mercy
of the wind.
He motions for me to sit on the wide plank of the swing,
kneeling in front of me when I do. “I know things haven’t always been easy for
us, Cal,” he begins. His crystal blue eyes bore into mine with an intensity
that rivals anything I’ve ever felt. “Especially the last couple of years.”
“Wesley Baxter, you’re scaring the shit out of me. What’s
wrong?”
The softest smile curls the corners of his mouth. “Nothing
at all, love. Everything is perfect. Seeing what Makenna has gone through with
Sawyer has made me appreciate every minute that I’ve had with you in my life.
It reminds me of all the heartache we’ve been through and how we survived the
storm. You stuck by me; you never left, even when I deserved it. I know I don’t
tell you enough what you mean to me. You helped me through the darkest parts of
my life, too. You made me a better man.”
I shift forward in the swing and wrap my arms around his
neck. “No, you’ve always been a good man. You just lost sight of it for a
little while, and I helped you find your way back. But it’s always been there.”
He begins to speak, but I lean forward and catch his bottom
lip between the two of mine, knowing that he’ll argue with me all day over it.
He groans softly and deepens the kiss, threading one hand into the hair at the
nape of my neck and urging me closer. As soon as his tongue sweeps across my
lip, warmth blooms just under my chilled skin, and I lose myself in him.
Forgetting where I am, forgetting
who
I am, I plunge one hand down the
back of his shirt, aching to feel his skin against mine. When my nails bite
into the soft flesh at his spine, he hisses into my mouth, which encourages me
to do it again.
“Damn it, Cal,” he whispers before dropping his mouth to my
neck, gently sucking just below my jaw. “The things you can do to me with just
one kiss.”
“You don’t do so bad yourself.”
He presses a final kiss to the hollow of my neck and growls
impatiently before sitting upright again. “You totally made me lose track of
what I brought you out here for, and now all I can think about is dragging you
out to a secluded place in the woods and finishing what you just started.”
Well, hot damn. I’m game. “I like the way you think,
cowboy.” I pause to trail my fingertip down his firm chest. “If we disappear
for a bit, they’ll understand. Hell, I’m sure Makenna would be disappointed if
I didn’t find the time to get you naked at some point today. She thinks
I’m
the sexual deviant. Never in a million years would she imagine that sweet
Wesley Baxter is way worse than I am.”
“Yeah, well, I like that it’s our little secret.” His hooded
eyes look up at me, and he nods in the direction of the thick wooded area
behind the house. “Do you seriously want to? Out there? We can wait until we
get home, you know. I was only kidding.”
“No, you weren’t.”
“Okay, maybe I wasn’t, but I wasn’t expecting you to take me
up on it.”
I shrug. “Maybe it’s the pregnancy hormones invading my
body, or maybe it’s all the sexual tension radiating from Makenna and Sawyer
after that incredible proposal. But, yeah, I suddenly can’t think of anything other
than getting my husband alone and making out with him in the middle of the
woods.”
He cups his hand on my behind and pulls me into the warm
wall of his chest. “
Just
make out?”
“Among other things.”
A wicked smirk spreads his lips slightly, and he uses the
ropes of the swing to raise himself to his feet. “Let’s go before they come
looking for us.”
He grasps my hand and pulls me along behind him, and I
glance back at the house. I don’t expect to see Dalton staring back at me from
the kitchen window, and I’m just about to tell Wes that we’ve been spotted
already, but Dalton pretends to zip his smiling lips and steps out of sight.
Something in his approving grin tells me he’s probably done this a time or two.
Wes takes one determined step after another, weaving through
the bare trees and gnarled vines and brush. He leads the way, searching
carefully for the perfect spot as he walks, and when he stops suddenly, I crash
into him and nearly fall.
He whips around to catch me, and his strong hands grip my
waist until I’m steady on my feet. “You okay?”
“Yeah, just a little too preoccupied to be walking, I
guess.”
He takes a few slow steps, urging me backward until I feel
rough bark pressing into my back, and he inches closer until there’s not even a
millimeter of space between us from our chests to our thighs. “I love you,
Callie Baxter.”
“And I love you. More than anything in the world.” I look
into his eyes and see so many emotions swirling around in them. Respect. Trust.
Love.
Lust.
Which explains the hardness I feel pushing painfully against
my belly. “Umm . . . you wanna ease up there a little, cowboy? Believe me, I
get that what we’re about to do is a major turn-on, but you’re kinda killing
me, jabbing into my stomach like that.”
He scrunches his eyebrows together for a split second, but
realization immediately follows, and he steps back. “As much as I’d like to
take credit for it, that’s not me. Again, you made me forget why I wanted you
to meet me in private in the first place.” He reaches into his jacket pocket
and pulls out a little blue box adorned with a silky white ribbon. “Mine isn’t
the only package I want to give you right now,” he chuckles. “This is for you.”
“Tiffany’s? Really?”
“Really. Open it.”
I tug on the ribbon and lift the lid to reveal a gleaming
silver necklace. The pendant is a silver heart-shaped lock with “Tiffany’s”
engraved on it, and a little skeleton key dangles beside it. “It’s gorgeous,
Wes. I love it. But why did you get
me
a gift on
your
birthday?”
He carefully extracts it from the box and makes a twirling
motion with one of his fingers until I turn around. I feel the cool metal slink
against my skin when he brings it around my neck to clasp it. I turn back
around, and he places a hand on the tree behind me on each side of my head, caging
me in. “I couldn’t let Sawyer get
all
the glory today. It’s a special
day for us, too.”
“Us? Like I said, it’s
your
birthday. You shouldn’t
be getting gifts for me.”
“No, no. It’s more than that. You don’t remember? What’s
today?”
“The only thing I know of is your birthday. There’s nothing
else in March that I can think of.”
“Yes, but what happened on my birthday besides the fact I
was born?”
The blank stare on my face is a dead giveaway that I have
absolutely no clue. What’s more surprising is the fact that
Wesley
remembers something that I don’t.
He laughs softly and shakes his head. “It’s the day we met.”
“Oh my God, how did I forget that?”
“Well, you won’t forget it now,” he says while taking his
jacket off. “Let’s see if we can make it a little more memorable for you.” He
lays it out on the ground and then reaches behind his back to tug his shirt
over his head to lay it out, as well.
I take the opportunity to drink in the sight of him. He’s no
hulking man by any means, but he has a long, lean muscular build that reminds
me of a surfer, which is further amplified by his naturally bronze skin and
dark chocolate hair, which is now beautifully mussed from my greedy fingers.
When he stretches out on his impromptu bed and looks up at me, full of expectation
and promise, it’s all I can do to keep from pinching myself to make sure I’m
not dreaming. I still can’t believe this man is my husband.
“Knowing Makenna, we have about five minutes before she
starts looking for us,” I say, crawling over the top of him teasingly slow. “Are
you up for the challenge?”
He tugs my shirt loose from my jeans and caresses the soft
skin at my sides. “I married you didn’t I?”
“WHERE HAVE YOU been?” Makenna asks
while eyeing Wes’ wrinkled shirt as he joins Sawyer across the room. “Oh jeez,
Cal. You didn’t . . .”
Oh, yes I did. “What?” I ask, feigning innocence.
She raises her eyebrows at me and plucks a pine needle from
my hair. “You and Wes never cease to amaze me. You’re like a couple of horny
teenagers.”
“Excuse me? Wasn’t it just last week that you were telling
me about getting freaky in Sawyer’s car in an empty parking lot on the way to
Mobile?”
“Hush!” she admonishes. “My parents will hear you!”
I wink at her. “Welcome to the club. It’s about time you
joined.”
“Well, no wonder you dragged him off into the woods.”
Makenna inspects the pendant of my necklace. “It’s gorgeous. And Tiffany’s,
too. Wow.”