a-soft-place-to-fall - Rakhibul hasan (story books to read .TXT) 📗

held hands like that back in high school, enraptured by

the way their fingers meshed so perfectly. Everything had seemed miraculous back then, as if a benevolent God watched over them, making sure no harm could ever come their way.

They watched as the sun began to disappear behind the trees, blushing the sky with the pink and orange flames of evening.

But it was always you, Robby. From the very beginning, it was you and you alone, she thought.

I loved Christine, but no woman ever touched my soul the way you did, he thought in return.

The night breeze off the river grew chilly.

Still holding hands, they rose and went back inside. The house seemed to reach out and embrace Robert. To Sunny it felt like a home for the very first time.

He built a fire in the hearth while she prepared a simple dinner. The domestic intimacy between them felt simultaneously familiar and terrifying--a wild combination of emotions that charged the cottage with electricity. There was a sense of destiny about them, as if the fates had conspired to bring them together once again, to give them one last chance at happiness.

Robert pulled a folding table close to the fireplace in the living room, and Sunny set the table with cherry red water glasses shaped like tulips and plates she had painted to resemble giant cabbage leaves.

"Chopsticks?" he asked as she laid the ivory utensils across the lime green linen napkins.

"Live dangerously." She took her seat opposite him. "Chopsticks improve the taste of everything."

"Of potato salad?" "You'd be surprised."

"You haven't changed," he said, refilling their wineglasses from the half-empty bottle of Chardonnay on the red lacquer butler's table. "Still taking the road less-travelled."

She took a sip of wine. "That's where you find the best scenery."

He started to say something flip about the scenery being just fine from where he sat, but the words stayed locked inside his throat. This was the real thing. Not dinner with some friend-of-a-friend-who's-dying-to-meet-you. Not just a way to pass a lonely spring evening while the kids were out of town.

This was Sunny.

"It looks great," he said, gesturing toward the food on his plate, "but I'm not hungry." She pushed her own plate away. "Neither am I."

The look in his eyes was as hot and dangerous as the fire burning in the hearth. "Do you still believe in love at first sight?"

Her eyes fluttered closed for an instant as the impact of his words ignited an answering flame deep inside. "Robert, I--"

Her words ended abruptly as he pushed back his chair and stood up. He reached for her and, as if in a dream, she placed her hand in his and rose from her chair. She felt his touch in every part of her body and she wondered how it was she had managed to live without the other half of her heart. The feeling was dangerous and mad and totally irresistible.

Slowly, deliberately, he drew her into his arms, pulling her so close that her body seemed to melt against his.

"Put your arms around me, Sunny."

Lifting her chin, she met his eyes. The look in them was smoky. Unmistakable. The boy she had married years ago was gone. He was a man now in every way. Taller. Broader. More self-confident. She shivered with pleasure as he threaded his fingers through her hair. More demanding. She placed her hands on his shoulders.

"You've been lifting weights," she murmured. He ran his thumb over the swell of her lower lip. "I always imagined you'd play squash or something. Don't all successful lawyers play squash?"

He placed his hand beneath her chin and tilted her face up toward him. "I don't want to talk about sports, Sunny."

"You don't?"

"And I don't want to talk about the law firm."

Her laughter was low, her excitement deeply female. "What do you want to talk about?" "Nothing," he said, dipping his head toward hers. "Not one damn thing."

And then he drew her closer still until the last of the emotional barriers between them incinerated before the primal rush of passion their first kiss brought to life. His mouth was hard and demanding; her lips, soft and yielding. She answered his need with a fierce need of her own and he didn't leave her wanting.

All that they had shared was in that kiss and in the dozen kisses that followed. "Robby...oh God...." Her voice drifted away on a wave of pleasure. "This is crazy." "Yes," he said, his lips hot against the curve of her breast. "Crazy."

"The sofa," she said as her knees grew weak. That soft and welcoming sofa before the fireplace where she'd watched Top Model reruns alone.

Moments later they lay together, greedy for the feel of skin against skin. He cupped her breasts beneath her t-shirt, letting his palms tease her nipples until they grew taut and hard. She felt that touch in the deepest, most secret part of her body. She fumbled with the buttons of his shirt. Robert moved her hands away then ripped it open, scattering buttons across the floor. In the space of a heartbeat he stripped her of her t-shirt, then eased her jeans and panties over her hips and legs. The night breeze rippled over her heated skin. He devoured her with his eyes, as if he owned her, body and soul.

She reached for his belt buckle and he laughed deep in his throat. Moments later they were both naked, so ravenous for the sight and sound and smell of each other that they had no time for preliminaries.

Only a raw and primitive mating could satisfy their need.

Their lovemaking was sweet and savage, as swift as the river flowing beyond the open window and when it was over and she lay in his arms with her cheek resting against his chest, Robert knew without a doubt that he'd never let her go.

"Sunny."

She burrowed closer to him. "Hmm?" "We're getting married."

At Last

(Book #1 - The Idle Point Series)

Prologue

The last person to actually see Graciela Taylor on the day she left Idle Point, Maine forever was old Eb at the Stop & Pump. Maybe if she’d planned her getaway a little better – or had any idea at all that she was going to leave her fiance standing at the altar – she would have seen to it that her gas tank was full. As it happened, the needle on her fuel gauge hovered over the E and she was forced to make a right into Stop & Pump and pray Old Eb wasn’t in a talkative mood. She might have taken her chances that she’d make it to Portland before the engine sputtered then shut down, but that was too risky. The last thing she wanted was to run out of gas on Main Street and bump into Noah on his way home from the wedding that wasn’t.

Old Eb peered out from his office, then did a double-take which didn’t bode well for her speedy getaway. He’d been around since long before Gracie was born and he’d seen everything there was worth seeing around Idle Point and a few things he’d rather forget. He was the one who’d found Gracie’s mother dead at the bottom of the ravine, trapped in that old Chevy with the horn blaring . He was the one who’d found Gracie, thrown clear from the wreck and crying to beat the band. He was the one who wrapped her in blankets and held her close while they waited for her father to identify his wife’s body. She and Eb had a history. If he had any idea what she was up to, it would be all over.

“You forgetting where you’re supposed to be?” he asked as he ambled over to where she stood next to the old Mustang she’d bought four years ago with the money she’d saved working in the kennels for Doctor Jim. “They’re down at the cove waitin’ for you, Gracie. I’d be there myself if I didn’t have to earn a living.”

She smiled, wishing she’d taken time to exchange her short lacy white dress for the pair of jeans and a sweater. She looked like exactly what she was: a runaway bride. “I’m on my way,” she said, carefully not specifying her destination. She was too fond of Eb to lie to him.

Eb checked his pocket watch. “Thought the clambake began at two o’clock,” he said. There was a sharp note of curiosity in his voice as his faded blue eyes took in her outfit. “It’s near to half-past. You can’t be late for your own goodbye party.”

Eb knew that she was due to leave for Philadelphia the next morning to begin her first year of veterinary school at the University, the goal she'd been striving for since she was barely old enough to walk.

“I know,” she said, “but I’m running on fumes and . . . “ She shrugged. “You know how it is. There was so much to do.” He was a native New Englander, same as she. Didn’t he know New Englanders were famous for minding their own business?

Eb checked her oil and cleaned her windshield while the tank guzzled down the gallons. If he wondered why Sam the Cat was grooming herself on the passenger's seat, he never said. Gracie peered nervously over her shoulder every time she heard a car approach. A clean getaway, that was all she wanted. When the dust cleared and the hurt feelings mended, maybe then they could talk. She’d left a note for Noah on the kitchen table. She told him that she was sorry, that she hadn’t planned on any of this, but wasn’t it better to put an end to it now before it was too late?

Besides, how did you explain to the boy you’d loved since kindergarten that leaving him was the best thing you could ever do for him.

Eb screwed the gas cap back on good and tight.

"What do I owe you?" she asked as she reached for her purse through the open car window.

Eb plunged his gnarled hands deep into the pockets of his overalls. “Just get yourself a good education, girlie, then come back home to us where you belong. I've waited a long time to dance at your wedding. I want to see you all set up with a job and a husband and a few babies.”

He didn't have any idea what he was saying.

You don’t understand, Eb. There was supposed to be a wedding today but I backed out. We were going to throw aside all of our plans and run away to Paris together. Can you imagine, Eb? I love him and he loves me but we don’t have a chance in the world of being happy together. His father has seen to that. That’s why I’m going to get behind the wheel of my car and get away from here before I start believing in fairy tales.

Noah had been part of her life for as long as she could remember and he had owned her heart almost as long. Even during those years when he was away at boarding school, he was never far from her mind. Not that he’d known she existed until he came back to Idle Point after his father’s first heart attack and everything fell into place. Loving him seemed as right and natural as breathing; marrying him was simply the next step.

Noah and Gracie had been together since senior year of high school and they had stayed together despite the best efforts of their families to break them up. You wouldn’t think their fathers’ paths would have crossed very often, not even in a small town like Idle Point, but the hatred between the two men was legendary and the poison spilled over onto their children. They had learned through experience to keep their love hidden away from their families. When they went off