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“If it is, it’ll be the last mistake we ever have to worry about,” Laura said and Mark threw back his head and laughed. The ominous skies above them began to leak rain.
Mark checked the sky through the windshield of his truck. “We’d better get moving,” he said. “Storm’s coming fast.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
THE RAIN PELTED Mark’s shoulders as he hammered in the last piece of plywood across his patio doors. Now all of his windows were covered and secured as best he could make them. The winds were already starting to pick up.
He didn’t like the idea of potentially risking Laura’s safety, but then they didn’t have a choice. He’d waited out other hurricanes before, and he hoped this one would be like the others—all bluster, no real damage. The admission that he loved her came as easily as breathing at this point. It was just such a simple and uncompromised truth. They belonged together, hurricane or no.
He dropped the hammer back into his toolbox and then walked back around to the front door of his condo. As he walked through the door, shaking raindrops off his blue slicker, he found her humming in the kitchen, making sandwiches.
“I thought you might like a snack,” she said. She deftly sliced a turkey sandwich in half.
“We just ate!” he cried, surprised, since they’d only had lunch an hour ago.
Laura shrugged one shoulder. “I guess I’m just extra hungry today,” she said.
He took the sandwich anyway and managed a bite. “At this rate,” he mumbled through chomping, “we might run through our supplies before the hurricane even hits.”
Laura laughed and playfully slapped his arm. “We have enough food here to last a week,” she reminded him. “Besides, seeing you work so hard was enough to make me hungry.”
They’d hit the grocery store, which already had pretty thin pickings as everyone on the island had the same idea. But combining what they grabbed there and the food they already had meant they were more than set for a long haul if the hurricane knocked out power or flooded the island.
Flooding, Mark knew, was the real danger. The high winds could certainly take off a roof or two, but the island had already suffered its fair share of rain. The extra deluge from the hurricane could wash out roads or cause landslides, making getting around the small island more than difficult.
Laura dug into her sandwich with gusto, making Mark laugh.
“You’re acting like you haven’t eaten in days,” he said and moved closer to her, putting his hand on the small of her back. He loved touching her. How soft and small she was, how delicate. She leaned into his touch, even as she mumbled something that sounded like delight as she ate three more bites in succession. The moans of satisfaction made Mark think of other sounds she made—in bed, and he suddenly wished snack time was over.
“You want to put that down for one minute?” he asked her, tugging her by the waist to him. “I don’t mind kissing turkey sandwich, but…” He grinned.
She finished her last bite and tilted her head up, and he kissed her, gently at first, but then she deepened the kiss, drawing him closer.
Dramatic music from the TV broke them from their kiss as news of the storm scrolled across the screen.
“This just in. Hurricane Jimmy has been downgraded from a Category Four to a Category Three storm,” the newscaster said. “Residents are still advised to take cover, but for now, it looks like the island will be spared the big storm predicted.”
“That’s good news,” Laura said, glancing at Mark.
“The best,” he agreed and pulled Laura closer once more. They kissed again, their passion turning hotter. “I think we should take this to the bedroom,” he murmured in her ear, and she nodded enthusiastically. He led her by the hand into the darkened room.
The wind howled outside, but he suddenly didn’t care. All he wanted to do was trace the lines of her body with his fingers and be inside her once more. The need to feel her, to take her, was suddenly so urgent he began tugging off her clothes, impatient to feel her skin on his.
Outside, the tropical storm closed in on the island, whipping palm leaves, but here, inside, the noise only felt like a proper soundtrack for their lips meeting in a roar of need.
God, he wanted her. He wanted her now. He wanted her forever. Had it ever been like this with anyone else? He couldn’t remember a time when he felt so desperate for someone, so blindly needing their touch.
Laura met his lips and his tongue with a ferocity that continued to surprise him as he pushed her gently down on the bed. She wiggled away from him, climbing on top, as she straddled him in a way that made all his senses come alive. Soon, she’d undone his damp shorts and shoved them down past his ankles. Then, she gently took off her own T-shirt, revealing full breasts in a lacey bra.
