The Sweetest Thing

Something he’d been wanting to do for days-eat her up from head to toe and then back again, until she came for him. Again and again. He started at her throat, tasting every single inch of her, nibbling certain interesting spots, stopping to tease whenever she gasped or wriggled. “So sweet,” he murmured against her skin. “You’re so damn sweet.” By the time he got to her belly button, she was fisting the sheets at her side and murmuring his name in a chant, a prayer, a warning to hurry the hell up.

It made him laugh. “Just lay there and take it, Tara.” Take me… “Give me the control. I’ll get you where you want to go, I promise.”

“I-Ohmigod,” she managed when he drew her into his mouth and gently sucked, his hands sliding beneath her sexy ass to hold her still. “Don’t stop,” she demanded.

Still trying to be in the driver’s seat. “Please,” he corrected. “Don’t stop, please…”

She slid her fingers into his hair, tightening them to an almost painful grip, holding him to her, making him laugh again. “Say it,” he demanded.

“Don’t stop, please,” she ground out, doing her best to make him bald.

“See?” he murmured. “Sweet as hell.” And he didn’t stop. Not until she begged him to.

Nicely.

• • •

Afterward, Tara fell asleep curled into Ford’s side, one hand tucked beneath her chin, the other across his chest.

He lay there, relaxed and boneless, listening to her breathe, not wanting to move. Not wanting her to stir and remember that she was trying to hold back from him. Because then she’d get up, get dressed, and walk away.

She was good at that.

And he was good at letting her.

He had no one but himself to blame for that. Bad genes, bad childhood-all excuses and he knew it. And they no longer cut it.

Tara’s coming back to Lucky Harbor had been circumstance. Her staying in town even more so. No one would argue that their connection wasn’t still there, possibly even deeper than before, but she was holding back, and he couldn’t blame her.

She’d been burned.

He knew that. He got it. Hell, he’d even been one of the ones to burn her. Up until now, he’d been willing to give her all the time she needed, because the truth was that he’d needed time, too. Time to deal with some of his own past mistakes. Time to understand that he was in this for the long haul.

Because she made him. She made him laugh. She made him feel. She made him think. She made him happy.

She made him… everything.

And with that everything, she also made him vulnerable. Bone-deep, scary-as-shit vulnerable. Just as gun-shy as she was.

Christ, he really hated that about himself.

With a sleepy sigh, Tara stirred and untangled herself.

“Don’t,” he said.

She lifted her head in surprise. “Don’t what?”

He drew a deep breath. “Don’t go. Stay the night.”

She smiled softly, and he knew by the light in her eyes that his words meant something to her, said something important. A step in the right direction, that light said, and he smiled back.

But she still climbed out of the bed. “I can’t stay tonight. I have to go check on the inn.” She slipped back into her dress and bent over the bed to kiss him. “ ’Night, Ford.” Then she was gone, her heels clicking on the deck as she walked away in tune to the only other sound Ford could hear-the roaring of his own racing heart.

Okay, so she’d left a little abruptly, but she’d kissed him first. A step in the right direction, he told himself again, and there, alone in the dark, smiled.

The next morning Tara rose and showered, determined to make their guests the most outstanding breakfast they’d ever had. She would burn nothing. First, though, she went to wake Chloe as Chloe had requested-but her bed was empty. Tara hadn’t heard her come in after rock climbing, but most likely she was already in the inn kitchen making a mess.

Resigned, Tara walked to the inn, let herself into the kitchen, and prepared to be annoyed.

But the kitchen was empty. Huh. Tara called Chloe’s cell, but it went right to voice mail. She tried Maddie next.

“ ’Lo?” came Maddie’s sleepy voice. “Who’s dead?”

“Is Chloe with you at Jax’s?” Tara asked.

“It’d be a bit crowded here in his bed if she was. Why?”

“I don’t think she came home last night.”

“From rock climbing? Crap.” Sounding more awake now, Maddie asked the question already on Tara’s mind. “You suppose she’s in jail again?”

“Anyone’s guess.”

“I’ll be there in fifteen.”

“No,” Tara said. “You took the late shift here last night. I’ll handle this.”

“Honey, I was coming in anyway to help you serve breakfast. Give me fifteen.”

“Okay,” Tara said, grateful to have someone to worry with. “Thanks. You want to call Sawyer or should I?”

“Call Sawyer what?” Sawyer asked, coming in the back door, filling the kitchen with his big build. He was in his uniform and looking very fine as he went straight to the coffee pot.

Tara handed him one of the to-go mugs.

“Thanks.” The very corners of his mouth tipped in a barely-there, bad-boy smile as he leaned back against the counter, the mug in hand. “Tell me what?” he repeated.

Tara thought about not going there with him. After all, typically when Chloe got herself in some sort of trouble, poor Sawyer was the one forced to deal with it.

But if Tara didn’t tell him and something had happened to her sister… She sighed. “Chloe didn’t make it home last night.”

He didn’t so much as blink, and yet there was a new stillness about him that told her he wasn’t happy to hear this. “And she was supposed to?”

“Yes.”

“Was she with the group of rock climbers out on the Butte?”

“Possibly,” Tara said warily. “Why?”

“Because I arrested one of them this morning.”

Oh, God. “Who was it, and for what?”

“Todd Fitzgerald. Public intoxication.”

Todd. Of course. Tara sighed, and Sawyer pushed away from the counter. “I’ll make some calls.”

She knew he meant he’d call the station, the hospital… the morgue. But before he got to the door, Chloe came in-hair wild, face flushed, wearing yesterday’s clothes and carrying her shoes.

Sawyer looked at her impassively.

“Don’t start,” she said and brushed past him. Limping.

He eyed her body carefully. “You okay?”

She turned to face him. “I’m always okay.”

There was a long, awkward beat between the two of them. There always was. Tara had no idea what to make of it or how to help.

“Don’t you have sheriff-type stuff to do?” Chloe asked him.

Sawyer gave a short shake of his head, one that clearly said fuck it before he moved toward the door. Tara gave Chloe a recriminating you-are-so-rude look, and Chloe rolled her eyes. “Sawyer,” she said with reluctant apology.

He pulled open the door. “Glad you’re home safe.”