Katie did not come to play. Her mouth teased the tip first, one hand gently exploring his balls while her other hand roamed everywhere on his body she could reach.

  Inch by inch, she took him deeper into her mouth, switching to strokes with her hands when she wanted to bathe him in kisses. He let go of her hair and shoved a pillow under his head, tightly gripping the softness of it between his fingers as he let her take control.

  He lost himself in the stroking and squeezing. The kissing and sucking. She was building him up slowly, ensuring that when he reached the point of no return, there would be nothing left of him.

  He knew he shouldn’t look down when he felt her mouth let go, replacing it with her hands. But he couldn’t help himself. His gaze showed her slowly bathing his V-lines with slow, drooling kisses.

  “Fuck,” he rasped, unable to control the jerking of his pelvis. He gritted his teeth, letting out a feral growl.

  She looked up at him, smiled, then resumed kissing him all over while her hands continued to lay waste to his shaft and his balls. The kissing was exquisite torture, and she increased his torment by feathering her eyelashes against his sensitive skin as she kissed.

  His body bucked against her face again. He tried to control the impulse. Had to. He wanted her to do whatever she wanted to him.

  But then, she looked up at him and said, “You want to fuck my mouth, then fuck my mouth.”

  With a rasping grunt, he held on to the bedpost and leaned into the overwhelming urge thrust. Katie took it, took so much of it, then opening her throat and taking even more. He bucked and grunted like a man possessed, sure she would want to put a stop to it. Her actions said otherwise as she slipped one finger between his cheeks. He belted out a roar as his raging orgasm overtook him. And just in case he’d been thinking of pulling out to spare her from tasting his cum, her arms gripped him in tight. She drank him dry.

  When he’d completed and had her wrapped up in his arms amidst the chaos of bed linens that now practically vibrated with the aftermath of sex, he had to kiss her to keep from blurting out what he really wanted to say to her.

  “Katie…”

  She smiled. “I know. Now we can shower.”

  Holden laughed. “We?”

  She nodded. “You’ll need me to show you how it works anyway.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Katie

  After they’d taken their time helping each other get clean in the shower—and Katie had walked him through all the spray settings—she dressed in her favorite Saturday look. Hair up, another oversized cashmere sweater, and leggings that complimented her shapely legs. She skipped her full makeup routine and only applied a little mascara and lip gloss.

  Rifling through her overnight bag in the main bedroom, she realized two things. One: she needed more clothes if she stayed here with him all weekend before going back to work on Monday. Two: she really didn’t want to go back to the penthouse. Like, ever again.

  The condo felt like home. She felt at him with Holden in it.

  When she entered the great room, she came face to face with Holden bottle-feeding the little gray kitten he called June. And…wow. Her imagination had nothing on the real thing. She’d seen internet videos of a lion befriending a fawn and a tiger caring for an orphaned duckling. Holden was the human embodiment of those videos.

  “So much squee,” she said.

  He looked up and laughed. “Come on.”

  “No. This,” she gestured to indicate the entire picture of him, “is all of the squee ever squeed. It’s done. Internet kitten videos can all go home. It’s over.”

  He continued to laugh softly, then beckoned her to come over and give it a whirl.

  “What? Me? No. I’m… not all that maternal.”

  “Whatever. Here.”

  The next moment, she was holding a kitten upright against her sternum and feeding it a bottle.

  “Aw,” she said. “I didn’t think I was much of a cat person, but she’s adorable.”

  Holden cocked his head and gave her a wink. “You’re better at the maternal stuff than you give yourself credit for.”

  Eager to change the subject from—eek, children and babies and maternal instincts—Katie asked what was on the agenda for the day.

  Holden replied with a wicked smile. “My budget allows for only one form of entertainment. Fortunately, we won’t need to leave the condo to experience it.”

  Katie handed the kitten back to Holden. “Why don’t you show me where you grew up.”

  Holden stood and brought the kitten over to the litter box in the half bathroom since it appeared neither he nor Katie would be using that one anytime soon. “Not much to see that you haven’t already.”

  “Don’t start getting shy on me now. I’ll let you drive again. You pick.”

  The two of them spent the rest of the day driving around Dockside, where Holden showed her the house where he grew up, his school where Fr. O’Brien had taught him how to box in the basement, the church, the playground, and, finally, the gym.

  Katie was starting to recognize that glint in Holden’s eye. “I have an idea,” he said, parking the Camaro in front of Pounder’s Gym.

  “We’re going in there?”

  He ran around to the curbside and held open her door, taking her hand to keep her steady as she exited the car. It touched her heart to be on the receiving end of so much attention. He was so different than anyone else in her world. Her business associates were all well-mannered, but all the polite gestures with them felt basic. With Holden, the chivalry felt sincere. She felt sure that her feet would not touch the ground ever again if she deemed it necessary. He put others before himself, and she felt herself falling for him more and more the longer she spent time with him. She’d yet to see a selfish act from him. Even in the bedroom, when he took from her, he checked in. He drove into her greedily and hungrily, but only when he knew she wanted to give.

  She loved everything about him. Did that mean she loved … him? Was that it? Was she in love with him, or in love with this thing between them that seemed to morph into something bigger every minute?

  He winked at her when he held the door open to the gym, and she knew. He started out pure and uncomplicated. He’d been friendly but hadn’t tried to charm her. It wasn’t until after these days together that his charm grew. She’d experienced charm before. In the past, some men started out charming, and then all the magic fizzled out once they’d figured she was a sure thing. Holden hadn’t been trying to snag her and reel her in. He genuinely wanted her, and nothing else mattered.

  Moments later, Holden had Katie fitted with some women’s boxing gloves that fit her and showed her how to punch the bag.

  He planted his feet and held his hands up. “Keep your knees bent, always guard your face, and when you throw a punch, don’t bend your wrist. You’ll get injured, and I need your wrists to be healthy.”

  She caught the naughty grin and knew what he was implying. “I do have talented hands,” she said.

  He laughed. “Okay. Back to work. Now watch me. I’m going to show you a punch, cross, hook, uppercut sequence. Real slow.”

  For his size, he was surprisingly light on his feet as he moved around the bag. Even slowing down the moves for her benefit, the expertise was beautiful to watch.

  When she tried the moves herself, everything felt awkward. “The bag isn’t cooperating. It keeps moving. I suck at this.”

  “None of that. Now here.” He stood behind her and held her forearms, correcting her form as she moved through the punches.

  “Not bad,” he said.

  She’d gotten the hang of it and was ready to speed up and really go nuts on the bag when Holden’s entire demeanor changed.

  “Babe? Are you okay?”

  He looked ashen. Terrorized. He did not answer, only hurriedly helped her off with the gloves and on with her coat.

  “Holden, what is going on?”

  He didn’t speak until the car was around the corner, speeding away from the gym. “I’m technically not supposed to be there. I was told last night that I’m only supposed to train with this new guy. I didn’t think I’d see the Miami guys hanging around there on a Saturday morning, but I was wrong.”

  She questioned him as he drove around corners, down alleyways, as if he were trying to lose someone tailing him.

  “Holden are you in some kind of trouble? You can tell me.”

  He shook his head. “No. Not yet, anyway.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Hre had parked the Camaro in front of a cute bungalow several blocks away from the gym.

  “Here we are. I want you to meet somebody.”

  “I wish you would tell me what’s going on. Mike can handle it for you if you’re in some kind of trouble.”

  Holden reached over and cupped her face. “I need you to let me handle this. Trust me. Do you trust me?”

  He looked so avid about needing to take care of his own problems. It would be so easy to help. But she could see at that moment that, as a man, he needed to shield her from something. She wanted to tell him that was ridiculous, that she had been running with the wolves since she’d worked in a dingy mailroom as a teenager. She had seen more shit than he realized. But still, she respected his wishes.

  “I trust you,” she rasped.

  “Great,” he said. “Now let’s go have lunch.”

  She glanced over at the house. “Here? Unannounced?”

  Holden laughed. “I thought you said you trusted me.”

  For an unannounced visit, this Mrs. Fitzgerald produced an enormous amount of food.

  Holden downed three bowls of the woman’s homemade tomato soup, two grilled cheese sandwiches, a side of chips and French onion dip, two pudding cups, and a soda.

  Katie was clearly not one of those who ate like a bird, but she was stuffed after one bowl and one sandwich, having had such a heavy breakfast just a couple of hours earlier.

  “Honestly, I couldn’t eat another bite,” she protested as Mrs. Fitzgerald proceeded to warm up a berry pie that she just happened to have in the fridge.

  “I’ll have some pie,” Holden said, eagerly, rubbing his belly.

  “I wonder what it was like to keep Holden fed as a teenager,” Katie remarked.

  Mrs. Fitzgerald wasted no time in making sure they both knew she approved of their match. “Just wait until you two have teenagers, and you’ll have your answer.”

  Mortified, Katie looked from Mrs. Fitzgerald to Holden, who seemed unfazed. “She always talks like that,” he said, through a mouthful of pie with vanilla ice cream.

  The older woman squeezed his shoulders. “My food is his food. My house is his house. That gives me the prerogative to tease him about settling down.”

  Katie’s cheeks felt positively sunburned. She and Holden had joked about maternal instincts and that sort of thing. But it had all been in fun. This felt different.

  “I have to admit I’m a little sad to be letting him go to live with you — and Fr. O’Brien has been counseling me through this — but I can see the way he looks at you.”

  Then, it was Holden’s turn to blush. “How’s that, Mrs. Fitz?”

  She sighed and stared out the lace-curtained window over her kitchen sink. “The same way Al used to look at me when we were dating.”

  “Used to?” Katie asked.

  Mrs. Fitzgerald turned back to Katie and replied, “We lost him. And the real bitch of it is, Holden’s mom, Diane, had even sobered up. She was trying real hard, but we lost her, too. It’s been a rough few years. But, our friends rallied around us, and we took care of each other. I don’t have to worry about a thing. That’s what we do here in Dockside. It’s got lots of bad elements, but I’ve seen a lot of wonderful things happen, too. I have hope.”

  Tears stung Katie’s eyes. So many people had lost so much.

  The older woman came around the table and put her arm around Katie. “Now, no sense in crying about it. But here’s what I do want you to do.”

  Holden commented, “Here it comes.”

  “Quiet, you,” Mrs. Fitzgerald squawked with a laugh that could not have been more fitting for her mother hen treatment of Holden.

  “I want you kids to not waste a single minute of your life trying to figure out if this is right. When you know, you know. When Al and I met way back in high school, we knew right away. We got married the day after graduation, and the next week he was off to boot camp. I would have married him sooner if our parents had allowed it.”

  Katie smiled up at her. “That’s beautiful.”

  “I’m serious, young man,” Mrs. Fitzgerald said. “Don’t you dare waste a single day mulling it over.”

  The affection from across the table was palpable. Holden’s eyes anchored her when she felt adrift in this wildly forward conversation.

  He sat forward and flashed a grin so adorable, she could see the sweet little boy he once was. “When you know, you know.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Holden

  He and Katie lie naked and breathless on the sheets they’d just laundered that morning.

  “Oops,” he laughed.

  “We should consider messing up the sheets in all of the bedrooms. You know, just to wear all the sheets out evenly,” Katie offered.

  Holden hummed in agreement, having turned his attention to her breasts once again. He loved every inch of her soft, yielding body, but he really enjoyed paying extra special attention to those magnificent pillows. He could not get enough. As long as she could put up with him manhandling her, he would keep it up every day. Hopefully, for the rest of his life.

  Before they’d returned home after lunch, they’d strolled on the boardwalk to burn off some of the food Mrs. Fitzgerald had stuffed them with. The cold wind off the ocean stung their faces, but they’d kept each other warm by sharing a mitten and eventually opening their coats to share body heat. That had worked until the sharing of heat turned into something else, and they’d had to rush home or risk scandalizing the dog walkers with a view of a hot and heavy make-out session.

  When Katie began to fall asleep, he began to loathe the idea of working his shift at Crow Bar that night.

  “Maybe I should call in sick. Or call the new guy.”

  Katie perked up, then. “No. You need to go. Because I have a surprise for you when you come home.”

  Holden placed his hand over his heart. “You called this home. You mean our home.”

  Katie laughed. “I’m delirious from lack of sleep.”

  “I’m serious. Fuck that penthouse. You’re staying here with me forever and ever.”

  The rising giddiness in her chest could not be denied.

  That bubbly feeling soon gave way to a more severe mood when Holden playfully added, “We’ll raise our kids here, have a shit ton of cats, you can retire early. It’ll be great.”

  Katie sat up, eyes wide.

  “Holden.”

  He stroked her hair and feared the worried look in her eyes. “What’s wrong? I know I jumped ahead a few steps, but ... this is it for me, Cupcake. I don’t want or need anyone or anything else but you.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Katie

  This was going to hurt. She shook her head and willed the tears in her ducts to wait until the inevitable break up, which could happen any minute now.”

  “I am so crazy for you, babe. But the kid thing...you know how old I am. I’ve never tried. I never had my eggs frozen because I never thought it would happen. I might not be able to have kids at this point. It could take several rounds of IVF that might not work. Are you going to be all right with that?”

  She readied herself for the worst news of her life.

  Holden looked back at her, his face the picture of pure concentration. Then he scrubbed his face with the palm of his hand.

  Well, that was that. She’d dropped a bombshell he hadn’t expected. Of course, he wouldn’t want to spend the rest of his life doting on a much older wife and no kids. Look at him! He had it all: kindness, generosity, a huge heart, the face of a supermodel, and the body to rival a mythical hero. If anyone should reproduce, it should be him. It would destroy her to watch him move on with someone younger, but it made the most sense.

  Finally, he spoke. “Am I gonna be all right with not knowing if we can make babies together? Listen to my words. I would wait to say this to you at just the right moment, but I think now is the right time. You need to remove any doubts you might have or that you might think I have about you. I love you.”

  Katie’s pulse throbbed in her throat. “Oh...I—”

  “You don’t have to say it back. I just need you to know. I’m not going anywhere. Kids or no kids. IVF or no IVF. All I want is you. All I want is us. I told you on Wednesday that the age thing doesn’t matter, and I meant it. I still mean it. I love you. Now, get some sleep.”

  She had no words, but neither could she sleep because of the massive lump of emotion in her throat.

  An incredible man just said he loved her, and she believed him. She had never said those words to anyone, but she knew that she would be saying those words to Holden Murphy when she did.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Holden

  He arrived home from his Crow Bar shift at 3 a.m. to find Katie had waited up for him.

  Holden cursed in surprise when he saw what was on the wall above his bed. Their bed.

  “Is that a cat condo?”

  “Yes it is,” she replied, delighted but looking twice as tired as when he’d left her hours earlier.

  “Did you build this yourself?”

  She nodded. “Well, from a kit. But I did it! I’ve never done anything like this for myself, but I did it. I pounded nails, I measured. Do you love it?”

  Her hair was a mess. She wore an old tee shirt with holes, and drywall dust smudged her cheeks. But she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever laid eyes on.