Seaside Whispers: Matt Lacroux (Love in Bloom: Seaside Summers) Read online

“Yeah, buddy?”

  “Do you think I’m a nerd?”

  Mira stepped into the room with her heart in her throat. Hagen had been teased in the past about being a nerd, but she hadn’t heard anything like that since he started attending camp.

  Matt eyed Mira, who shrugged one shoulder and narrowed her eyes, indicating she didn’t know where this was heading, but please tread carefully.

  “Why do you ask?”

  “No reason.” Hagen grabbed his teddy bear from the side of the bed and hugged it.

  “Hagen, honey, is someone at camp teasing you?” Mira asked.

  “No,” he said on the tail of a yawn.

  “Do you think you’re a nerd?” Matt asked.

  Hagen shrugged and turned on his side, obviously done with this conversation. Matt leaned down and whispered something in Hagen’s ear, and Hagen hugged him again.

  Matt squeezed her hand on the way out of the bedroom. Mira said good night to Hagen, hoping and praying he wasn’t being teased again and wondering what Matt had said to earn that extra hug.

  “I love you, sweet boy.” She pulled the door partially closed on her way out of his bedroom and struggled to retract her mommy claws.

  MATT PACED THE deck thinking about Hagen and rubbing the tension from the back of his neck. Mira joined him a few minutes later with worry swimming in her eyes. He gathered her in his arms and swallowed his frustration, knowing it would only further upset her.

  “Are you okay?” He brushed her hair from her shoulder and kissed her softly.

  “I wish I could say yes, but he’s been teased before, and I thought we’d moved past it. I’ll talk to the camp counselor tomorrow and see if she’s noticed anything.”

  “I’ll go with you.”

  She drew back, surprise replacing her worry. “You don’t have to do that, Matt. It’s kid stuff.”

  “It’s Hagen stuff, and I don’t mind. I want to be there.”

  He lowered himself down to the lounge chair, stretching out his long legs, and pulled her down beside him. She snuggled in, her fingers playing lightly over his chest. They lay like that for a long while, listening to the waves lapping at the shore and feeling the breeze wash over their skin.

  Sometime later, after the initial shock of worry over Hagen’s question subsided and Matt felt Mira’s body relax against him, he gently rolled her onto her back and gazed down at her beautiful, troubled face.

  “Am I coming on too strong?”

  “I don’t know. I’m used to taking care of Hagen myself, and suddenly you’re ready to step up and protect him.”

  “And you,” slipped out before he could school his thoughts, but now that it was out there, he wasn’t about to deny it. “I care about you both, Mira. All these months I’ve liked you from afar. You’re the only woman I’ve thought about since last summer. The only woman I’ve wanted, and now I can finally show you and Hagen how much I care.”

  The truth only made her expression more troubled.

  “Talk to me, sunshine. What’s wrong?”

  “You talk like you’re here forever, and we both know you’re not. You’re only here for a few months, and every day that time gets shorter. I have to protect Hagen’s feelings. He’s already getting all wrapped up in you. I can’t prepare him for how he’ll feel when you leave. He’ll be devastated.”

  The truth was a bitter pill to swallow. “And you? How will you feel if I go back?”

  “I’m an adult. I don’t matter,” she said without an ounce of regret, and that made him ache, because she mattered a hell of a lot.

  “Your feelings do matter, just like mine do, and Hagen’s. We’re all important, even though Hagen takes precedence, as he should. I don’t know what will happen in three months. It’s only been a few days, but I’m learning as much about myself as I am about what it’s like to live outside of the academic world. I’d forgotten so many simple things, like how great it is to spend time with you and Hagen without worrying about leaving in the morning and not seeing you for weeks on end. And how it feels to take the time to not just eat a real breakfast, but to sit down at a table with my brother and my niece and our friends and visit. Things I let go for too long.”

  “And…?”

  “And I don’t know,” he said honestly. It was all happening so fast. “I can’t make any promises, but I have wanted to spend time with you and Hagen—real time, not just an hour here or there—for almost a year, and we finally have a chance to do it. I don’t want to blow off what we feel when we’re together. It’s too good. It feels too right. I want to explore it, to see what happens and how it naturally progresses.”

  He forced himself to say what he knew he had to, even though he didn’t want to risk hearing an answer he wasn’t ready to accept. “If that’s too big of a risk for you, or for Hagen, I’ll understand, but it won’t stop me from trying. I’m done pretending I’m not dying to spend hours, days, weeks with you and to hold you naked in my arms.” He brushed his lips over hers and she arched beneath him with a look of longing and a hint of worry. “You tell me, sunshine. What do you want?”

  Her hand circled his neck and her head rose off the chair. “You, Matt. I want you.”

  Mira’s admission unearthed an avalanche of emotions, made worse by the eagerness of her kisses. Her soft, warm hands moved beneath his shirt, up and over his back. He struggled to keep himself in check as he delved into the recesses of her mouth, telling himself that kisses were all he could take tonight. With Hagen sleeping just inside the house, he didn’t want to test their control, because he knew it was a losing battle. But she was writhing against him, making sweet, wanton noises, and before he knew what was happening, he was cupping her breast, and the feel of her taut nipple slashed through his control. He sucked her lower lip into his mouth and gave it a gentle tug, earning a moan so inviting he moved his hands south, holding her hips as he ground against her center. Her head tipped back, eyes closed. She was a vision of beauty, flushed with need.

  He lowered his mouth to her neck, kissing and sucking as they fell into sync, creating a scintillating rhythm with their hips. Her legs wrapped around his waist, squeezing him, making him ache for more. Not since he was a teenager had he dry humped with such passion, but when he gripped her ass, holding her at a better angle, she felt incredible.

  Her fingers curled into his flesh, and he claimed her mouth once again, taking her in a wild, rough kiss that had them both moaning, clawing, begging for more. Her thighs tightened around him and her breathing became ragged. He pushed his hands beneath her panties, seeking her damp heat. She lifted her hips, guiding his fingers exactly where she wanted them.

  “Don’t stop,” she panted out.

  He rocked his hard length against her swollen, sensitive nerves and pushed his fingers inside her. Her head tipped back with a long, greedy moan. She was so into this, so into him, he never wanted to stop. She was so hot, so eager and willing, making all his senses rise to the surface.

  She clung to his arms, panting out his name. “Matt. Matt. Matt.”

  He wanted to slide down her body and feast on her, but there would be no easy way to cover that if Hagen woke up. His desires would have to wait, but her fluttering eyelids and erratic breathing told him she was on the cusp of release.

  “Look at me, baby.”

  Her eyes bored into him, begging him to take her over the edge. The prolonged anticipation of having her was almost unbearable. A few strokes of her hand on his cock and he’d lose it. Gritting his teeth against the image of her delicate hands wrapped around his cock, he thrust his hips harder, creating intense friction that brought him right up to the brink as he teased the secret spot inside her and took her in a torturously slow kiss that he knew would wreak havoc with her senses. She moaned and mewed, moving with him so perfectly his thoughts careened away. He deepened the kiss, feeling her sex swell around his fingers, and just as he’d hoped, her hips bucked, her thighs tensed, and she cried out into their kiss. Her body pulsed, his h
eart soared, and their mouths made sweet, frantic love through the very last of her climax.

  “Ohmygod.” Her head fell back as she gulped in air.

  He kissed her cheeks, her chin, her forehead, and finally, her lips. Her body trembled as he rolled to her side and gathered her close.

  “You’re really good at that and I’m utterly embarrassed.”

  “Embarrassed?” He kissed her again. “Nonsense.”

  “Oh please. How many girlfriends sent you home…unfinished?”

  She pressed her lips to his and palmed him through his shorts. He stifled a groan and closed his eyes for a beat. When she pushed her fingers into his shorts and teased over the head of his cock, he gently took hold of her wrist and moved it away.

  “I won’t be unfinished if you continue doing that.” He kissed the rosy flush on each cheek and couldn’t resist also kissing the spray of freckles on the bridge of her nose. “We’ll have time alone this weekend. I’m not in a rush, and pleasuring you is enough for me for now.”

  A sleepy smile crawled across her face. “Most guys take. You give.”

  “Don’t count on that, baby. When I get you alone, there’ll be taking going on for sure.” He lay with her in his arms until her eyelids grew heavy. “Come on, let’s get you inside. I need to wash up. Then I’ll get out of here so you can get some rest.” He helped her up, and they headed back into the house. After washing up, Matt checked the lock on the back door and found Mira peeking into Hagen’s bedroom.

  “Do you want me to come with you tomorrow when you take Hagen to camp?” he whispered.

  “You have your own work to do.”

  “I can work around it.” He followed her to the front door and drew her against him. “I know you’re fully capable of handling this, but you don’t have to handle it alone, and I promised Hagen that if someone was bothering him, I’d make sure it stopped.”

  “Is that what you whispered to him?”

  “Yes. I wanted him to get a good night’s sleep, and knowing he’s got both of us looking after him should help.”

  “Matt, you can’t make promises like that. You can’t guarantee that you’ll stop someone else from doing something.”

  “The hell I can’t,” he said more calmly than he felt. “No one is going to get away with making Hagen feel bad. Not while I’m around.”

  “Wow. You don’t have to go all badass on me.” She ran her fingers over the patch of skin revealed by his open collar. “But seriously, you can say you’ll try to stop it, but you can’t promise. He’ll take it literally.”

  “I want him to take it literally. When I make a promise, I keep it. If he can’t count on the adults who care about him to protect him, who can he count on?”

  She seemed to mull that over, and he realized if he hadn’t been coming on too strong before, he was now.

  “I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful with what I say from now on. If you’d rather I didn’t go, I won’t. I just hate the idea of anyone making him feel bad.”

  “Selfishly,” she said quietly, “it would be nice to have you with me because I would get more time with you, but at the same time, it feels silly to have you go. It’s a conversation with a counselor, not a deposition, and you have enough on your plate alrea—”

  Her words were smothered by his kiss. She was so cute and so willing to put herself last in every situation—when all he wanted was to put her first. Where she belonged.

  “What time do we take him to camp?”

  Chapter Twelve

  “THIS IS ALL too fast, right?” Mira said quietly into the phone Thursday morning. Serena didn’t answer, and Mira feared she’d lost the call. “Serena?”

  “I’m here. I’m just cutting off my left arm to see if it leads to being you.”

  Mira heard the smile in her friend’s voice.

  “What is wrong with you? You practically named your vibrator after this guy, and now that he’s basically being handed to you on a silver platter with a note that says ‘Prince Charming is here,’ you’re worried about going too fast?”

  Mira sighed heavily. “But I have Hagen to think about.”

  “Exactly, and Rick asked him what he thought of Matt yesterday morning and he said he wished he lived here all the time. Wake up, sunshine. Stop borrowing trouble.”

  “I’m not borrowing trouble. I’ve been a single mom for a long time. It’s weird to suddenly have someone other than you or my brothers want to step in and help.”

  “I know,” Serena said thoughtfully. “You’re like those do-it-yourself guys who insist on fixing everything themselves, only they’re plugging holes with toilet paper while you use concrete. Let him in, Mira. What’s the worst that can happen? Hagen will stop being teased by some punk kid, you’ll have a few weeks of great sex—by the way, we are going to talk about the sex—and then you’ll go back to your battery-operated friend with new memories. You’ll see each other every few weeks, and maybe one day it’ll lead to more. I don’t see how you or Hagen are losing out on anything.”

  “But Hagen?” She was concerned about her son, but she was beginning to wonder if she was using him as an excuse to keep a little space between her and Matt so she didn’t get too attached.

  “I just answered that. This is about you. You don’t want a knight in shining armor anymore. It scares the shit out of you, and don’t even try to deny it. You’re afraid that after you spent all these years building a solid life for you and Hagen, someone—or more specifically, super-sexy, super-smart, secret savior Matt—will upend it.”

  Mira rolled her eyes. “I hate that you know me so well. I shouldn’t have told you what I heard about all that secret savior stuff. It’s not as worrisome as I thought. He helped a woman having a seizure when we went to lunch, and he was amazing. Like a true EMT.”

  “Even more of a reason to let him in. He’ll always keep you and Hagen safe, and even though you don’t realize it, you could use that comfort in your life.”

  Everything Serena said made sense, but Mira was still nervous. She wished there was a guidebook to help her know how not to mess up her son’s life.

  “Now, tell me, worried mommy, have you played naughty coed yet?”

  MATT AND MIRA spoke with the head counselor of Hagen’s summer camp. Nora was a friendly blonde with an I’ve got everything under control vibe, an athletic figure, and serious green eyes, all of which Mira assumed she needed to manage a children’s day camp.

  “And Hagen hasn’t given you any indication of who might be teasing him?” Nora asked.

  “No,” Mira answered. “He hasn’t specifically said that anyone was teasing him. He asked if we thought he was a nerd, and the question came out of the blue, which to me is a red flag.”

  Matt squeezed her shoulder supportively. He’d agreed to let her do the talking, and she could see by the tightness of his jaw that he was struggling to hold back his thoughts.

  “Then it could be that he’s just worried about it,” Nora suggested. “When you enrolled Hagen, you mentioned that he was teased during the school year, and we’re all keeping our eyes open for any hints of that type of behavior. When he brought his robot in the other day all the kids seemed intrigued, so I’d be surprised if someone was teasing him. But they are children, and you never know what goes through their heads. We’ll keep a closer eye on him.”

  “Okay. Thank you. Please let us know if you notice anything.” Mira turned to leave, and Matt’s hand slid down her arm to her hand, keeping her there.

  “One more thing,” he said to Nora. “Is there any time when the kids pair up away from the group? When they use the restroom or take walks?”

  Mira hadn’t even thought to ask. She was glad he did. She had to admit that it was nice to have his support. Otherwise she’d just silently agonize over it. At least now she had someone to talk to. She’d tried to talk to her brothers and Serena about it before, but all of them—even Serena—had reacted so strongly it had scared her into silence. She didn’t want an
yone going into the school—or camp—ready for a fight. Their intentions were good, but Hagen would pay the price of such actions in a hundred little ways that Mira didn’t want to think about.

  “Well, sure,” Nora answered. “We use the buddy system, so they have someone with them at all times. As you said, if we’re doing an activity across the field, we’ll send them in pairs to the bathroom. But they don’t always have the same partner.”

  Matt shifted serious eyes over Nora’s shoulder at the children playing in the distance. His dark eyes then swept over the grounds and landed softly on Nora once again. “Thank you for your help, and please keep us in the loop if you notice anything.”

  “I hate this,” Mira confided on the way back to the car. “When they haven’t seen anything and Hagen isn’t clear about why he asked the question in the first place, I’m left wondering what I’m missing.”

  Matt put an arm around her waist as they crossed the parking lot and pulled her against his side. The possessive touch sparked a hum of desire low in her belly.

  “But you’re not left to wonder on your own,” he said in a low voice. “Together we’ll get to the bottom of this.”

  How did he know exactly what to say to make the woman in her and the mommy in her want to kneel at his feet? He kissed her neck, sending shivers down her spine. His hand moved along her hip as his talented mouth distracted her from her thoughts, placing kiss after wonderful kiss along her neck. Thank goodness they’d parked at the far end of the lot. They were almost to the car and out of sight from the camp. But then again, she knew Matt was fully aware of their surroundings. He was always careful.

  She felt sneaky and naughty and it was such a rush, she wanted more of it. More of him. She’d never been like that, not even when she was first dating and everything was new.

  He guided her around the car, blocking them from the rest of the lot, and trapped her between the cold metal and his hard body. She felt every hard inch of his arousal and loved knowing she had that effect on him. He lowered his mouth to her neck again, and good Lord, he knew exactly where to kiss her to make her knees weaken. When he drew back, his riveting stare turned her to liquid fire. She pushed her fingers into the waist of his jeans and held on for dear life to keep from puddling at his feet. His lips curved up in a toe-curling grin.