Abby could barely breathe, much less speak. She’d never been kissed like that before. Her lips tingled from the force of their passion, her skin burned from his whiskers, and his taste lingered in her mouth like her new favorite addiction. He ran his fingers through her hair and pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth, to her cheek, and to her lips again, alighting sparks beneath her skin, and he put just enough space between them so they could see each other’s faces.
He looked as blown away as she was as he said, “You okay, sweetheart?”
“Mm-hm. Better than okay. Can we put that on your list? Daily, please. This is going to be the best three weeks ever.”
He kissed her smiling lips again, and when her phone dinged with a text, a groan escaped before she could stop it.
“It’s okay,” he said with a chuckle. “We’ll have plenty more of those. I promise. You should check your text in case it’s important.”
“Sorry.” She pulled the phone from her pocket, saw Deirdra’s name on the message, and checked the time before reading it. She’d been gone for more than two hours? She quickly read her sister’s text. Where are you? We’re starved. Is he holding you captive with his BIG DEAL? She’d added an eggplant emoji. Do I need to kick some hot-guy ass or are you enjoying it?
Aiden lifted his chin. “Everything okay?”
She angled the phone so he wouldn’t see the message and said, “Yes. It’s Deirdra. I didn’t realize I’d been gone for so long. I’m really sorry, but I have to get back.” She thumbed out a response. Sorry! Lost track of time. Be home soon. Start dinner without me, and no kicking ass. He’s amazing!
“Do you want to take the sundae with you? Eat it on the way?”
She put her hand on her stomach and said, “No, thanks. I’m stuffed.”
“We’d better get a picture for Remi, or you might have to do this all over again.”
That didn’t sound bad to her!
He pulled out his phone and put his arm around her. “You know the drill, beautiful.”
She loved it when he called her beautiful and Abs. Heck, she loved everything he said and did.
He took the picture, careful to include the remnants of their sundae, and Abby realized her cheeks were still flushed and there was no hiding the desire in either of their eyes. She liked that, too.
“What’s your number, Abs? I’ll send you the pictures I took,” he offered.
She gave him her number and checked out the pictures as he forwarded them. Her eyes shone, and her smile overtook the pictures. She looked truly happy in every one of them. She’d almost forgotten what that looked like on her and, she realized, what it felt like, too. She sent him the pictures she’d taken as he threw out their sundae.
“You sure do make us look good.” He pocketed his phone, taking her hand as they headed down the sidewalk, and pressed a kiss to her temple.
How could something as little as holding hands and a temple kiss feel as big as that toe-curling kiss?
When they got back to her bike at the Bistro, he drew her into his arms without hesitation, and she loved that, too.
“This has been the best day I’ve had in so long, I’ll never forget a second of it,” he said, his eyes searching hers. Could he see that she felt the same? “Are we still on for breakfast tomorrow?”
“Definitely.”
His lips curved up, and he lowered them to hers, but while she readied for another earth-shattering devouring, he brushed his lips over hers, light as a feather. She closed her eyes as he held her tighter, and his tongue slid slowly, erotically, along her lower lip. “So sweet,” he whispered, making her knees go weak. He touched his lips to hers again, taking her in a slow, intoxicating kiss that went on so deliciously long, a needy noise escaped her lungs. She felt him smiling, but he didn’t break their kiss, and boy, she really loved that, too.
When their lips finally parted, she was clinging to him, and he embraced her, like he didn’t want to let her go, either. His head dipped beside hers, and he whispered, “Abigail de Messiéres, you might be my undoing.”
CHAPTER FIVE
ABBY COULD STILL hear Aiden’s voice whispering in her ear as she walked into her mother’s house. The living room and kitchen were empty. She called upstairs, “Dee?”
“We’re in Mom’s room,” Deirdra called out to her.
Abby went upstairs to their mother’s bedroom and found Cait and Deirdra sitting on the floor by the hope chest. “Hey. Sorry I’m so late.”
Deirdra smirked. “That smile is even goofier than when you came home after kissing Wells for the first time.”
“Wells was a boy, and I never did much of anything with him. Aiden is a big, delicious, tantalizing man. Of course I look ridiculously goofy.”
Cait was looking at her like she’d lost her mind as Deirdra said, “Don’t tell me little Miss No Time for Orgasms got down and dirty already.”
“No, I did not. But I’m not saying I wouldn’t have. He’s . . .” She sighed, trying to come up with the right words, but she’d never met anyone like him before. She hadn’t even told her last boyfriend of almost a year half of what she’d shared with Aiden in a day. He listened so intently. There was no way to fake that or the way he looked at her like she was special. “I don’t know,” she finally said. “He’s pretty darn wonderful. We flew the kite and went for ice cream.”
“I bet.” Deirdra smirked. “You look like you enjoyed licking his cone.”
“Deirdra!” Abby should be used to her sister’s openness about sex, but every now and then she was still shocked by her.
“Sit with us. You can share all your mushy details later, when I have a glass of wine in my hand,” Deirdra said. “Did you know Mom sketched?”
“Mom didn’t sketch; only Dad did.”
Cait handed Abby a sketchbook with a beautiful color sketch of a child’s face. There was no mistaking the similarity to Cait’s big green eyes, but the fluff of light-brown hair didn’t match. She flipped through several pages of sketches of the same little girl. The sketches looked nothing like Deirdra’s or Abby’s baby pictures. “You think Mom drew these?”
“And these.” Deirdra pointed to several other sketchbooks between her and Cait.
Cait went up on her knees and pointed to the child’s hair. “See the AM? There.”
“Each of the sketches has them,” Deirdra said. “Ava Michaels, Mom’s maiden name.”
As Abby lowered herself to the floor and looked at the other sketches, she found their mother’s initials hidden in every one of them. “I don’t understand. I thought Mom gave you up for adoption when you were born.”
“She did, but we found these letters from Cait’s adoptive mother.” Deirdra pointed to a pile of envelopes. “It looks like once Mom and Dad tracked down Cait’s adoptive mother, she kept in touch with Mom and sent a letter giving her an update on how Cait was doing along with a picture every month like clockwork. The first letter had a bunch of pictures from the months she’d missed.”
Cait handed Abby a stack of photographs and said, “The letters stopped when I was four, which is when my mother passed away.”