“Mmm.”
Laying on the sofa, with Mack still cuddled around him made him feel like the luckiest man alive. He should be running away, but instead, he wanted to stay right where he was.
Over the past week, he’d started to fall in love with her. The thought of her with anyone else made him see red. Hell! He was in love with her. He just hoped she was in the same place that he was, because he did not intend to let her go.
Mack slept blissfully in his arms.
Thomas climbed into bed and couldn’t help but feel unsettled. Discussing Rose after all these years was rather upsetting, and to discover she had left him a photograph with a note on the back . . . Ah well.
He picked the comic up from his night table and slowly started to turn the pages, holding his breath each time a new page opened. When he turned to the middle of the comic, he found what he was supposed to find sixty-eight years ago, which brought tears to his eyes.
A Polaroid photograph of his sister Rose, wrapped in the arms of—who he presumed was—Jacob Evans. They both looked so much in love.
Mack had said there was a message on the back for him. He just hoped the ink hadn’t faded with age. He took a deep breath and turned the picture over to look at the handwriting he never thought he would ever see again.
Dear Thomas,
I want you to know that you are the only one I will miss. I love you so much, brother, please forgive me.
If you ever need anything, go to the address at the bottom and ask for Eleanor, she will know how to find me.
When we have our own place and are settled in Boston, I will be back to see you. It may take a few years, but know that I will always be thinking about you.
All my love, Thomas, my JT,
Rose
He used his fingers to wipe his eyes and, with shaking hands, he placed the comic and photograph back on the table to the side of his bed. He needed to tell Mack what actually happened that night, and maybe then, he would feel better. After all, he had carried around so much guilt for all these years.
First, though, he would show her the photograph and then think about what to say.
At eighty, it was time to be free and have peace of mind at last.
Chapter 25
Mack woke with a smile and snuggled against a hard, male chest. Dean was spooned behind her, his arm around her waist with his hand cupping her breast. She was overwhelmed with contentment. He felt totally amazing, and she didn’t want to move.
She couldn’t believe she’d fallen asleep on him last night after the best sex of her life. She hadn’t even woken up when he’d carried her upstairs.
“Morning, babe,” Dean whispered into her ear, sending shivers down her spine. He smoothed his hand down the curve of her waist and hip, then over the top of her thighs. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, ever known; inside and out.
“Morning . . . you feel so good.” She turned her head for his kiss. Moving closer, she rubbed against Dean’s erection; his hands shook.
“I want you inside me,” Mack moaned, reaching behind her, she smoothed her hand along Dean’s shaft, rubbing her thumb over the leaking tip.
“Mack . . .” Dean lost his voice to a groan. He couldn’t think of anything else but Mack with her sliding her hand back and forth along his quivering body part.
He was breathing heavily as he moved her hand away, slid his hand over Mack’s thigh and brought it up and over his. He took hold of his dick and rubbed the flared head between her thighs, which dragged a long moan out of her before he entered her in one thrust.
She gasped for breath with the pleasure he elicited out of her. Mack reached behind her again and dug her fingers into Dean’s hip while she ground herself against him.
“You feel so good inside me.” She contracted around him.
He growled in her ear in response, and wrapped his arms around her. With one hand going to her breast, he massaged her nipple, and with the other, he massaged her clit.
Dean started to move his hips real slow, sliding in and out, creating a delicious friction inside of Mack.
She turned her head and looked into Dean’s eyes. “Faster.”