Claiming Kara:Fate Harbor 3(25)

Chapter 8




Eighteen Months Ago  –  Sitka, Alaska



It was the biggest arrangement the florist could make out of sweet peas  and honeysuckle. As she walked up the path to Ben and Quinn's front  door, the upper half of her body was totally covered when she knocked on  the door. They were two of Kara's favorite flowers, but beyond that,  when she had looked up the meanings, she knew they were the right  flowers to send. Honeysuckle represented the color of fate, a Spirit  vision, the bond of love, devoted love, and generous and devoted  affection. Sweet pea was suggestive of a meeting, delicate and blissful  pleasures, thank-you for a lovely time, and even good-bye. Everything  but that one last word seemed right. The definitions for honeysuckle had  even said fate, like the town where she lived. What more needed to be  said? These were the perfect flowers to capture her men's attention, and  hopefully their hearts. That's why she had sent them for months, and  why she was holding such a large arrangement on their porch at this very  moment.

The door opened, and the first thing she heard was Quinn's raspy voice.  "I told you, we're not accepting any more deliveries. Take it back!" The  door closed with a resounding thud. Kara smiled. Apparently, her  flowers had made an impression. Granted, they'd apparently made an  irritating impression, but an impression nevertheless. She knocked on  the door again. No answer. She rang the doorbell. No answer. The flowers  were getting quite heavy, so she just leaned against the doorbell.

This time Ben answered the door.

"Hey, look, man, I'm sorry. But we did say no more deliveries. Here's a  ten for your trouble." He reached out to her fingers encompassing the  arrangement and pried a couple of them loose so he could put the money  into her hand. Then, as always happened, a definite spark clicked  between them.

"Kara," Ben breathed out as he peered around the bouquet with a dazed  expression on his face. "Oh, my God, Kara." He immediately pulled the  arrangement out of her hands, setting it down on the porch, then pulled  her into his arms.

It had been three years since she had been where she needed to be, and  finally she was home. He just stood there, rocking her back and forth.  "You came, you're really here. You came back to us. I only hoped, I  never thought you actually would," he whispered into her ear.

"You won't send me away?" Kara asked, her voice trembling.

"God, no!" he exclaimed. "I've dreamed about having you in my arms again. How could I ever send you away again?"

"Oh, Ben," she said, her voice clogged with tears as she held him  tighter. Then she pulled back because she had to look at him, drink him  in. He chuckled, understanding her artist's eye. He was broader. He  still wasn't as big as Quinn, but he was definitely bigger through the  chest and arms. He'd aged. She'd seen that start to happen when she  spent the three months here after Timothy's wreck, but there were more  pronounced signs now. The frown lines between his eyes that had  previously only shown when he frowned were now a permanent part of his  face, and she could see that his eyes were a little more hollowed. But  he was still the beautiful man she had fallen in love with three years  ago.         

     



 

"Kara, you're even more stunning than I remembered," he said in a low  voice. Kara felt a blush rush up her neck and suffuse her face, making  Ben chuckle. "Thank you for coming, but please know we have a plan to  come to you." Kara immediately placed her fingers on his lips.

"No. Don't say it, Ben. I don't want to talk about three years ago. I  don't want to talk about what you might have had planned for the future.  I just want to talk about us being here, together, now. Today." He  kissed the tips of her fingers, his warm brown eyes smiling down at her.

"Whatever you want, Kara. I'm just so happy you're here."

Kara gave a wet laugh. "Me too," she admitted. "I couldn't stand it  anymore. But this is it, Ben. If we can't make it work this time, I'm  never looking back."

"Ben, haven't you gotten rid of that delivery guy yet?" Quinn bellowed from inside the house, making Kara jump.

"No, I haven't," Ben yelled back, pulling Kara into the house. He bent  down and picked up the flower arrangement, winking at her, then giving  his head a quick sideways nod to get her to duck behind him. She quietly  followed him into the living room.

"Goddammit, Ben, not more flowers! I just can't handle it. I thought we  agreed to make them take them back. What are you doing, bringing them  into the house?" Kara could hear the anger in Quinn's voice, but behind  it, she could hear the anguish.

"Sorry, brother, I just didn't have the heart to tell the delivery person to take them back," Ben explained.

"Fine, just put them in your room, okay?" Quinn said in a defeated  voice. Kara couldn't stand it anymore. She hated hearing the man she  loved sounding so hurt. She moved from behind Ben and stood motionless,  just drinking in Quinn as he sat on the couch. He was sitting there,  slumped over, his forearms resting on his knees, as he stared at the  floor like it might have the answers to all of life's questions.

She walked over to him and put a hand on his head, noting that his hair  was longer and she could see strands of gray in it. He still didn't look  up. She tunneled her fingers through the silky strands, and he slowly  raised his head.

"You're not really here, are you? I'm just dreaming you again." He shook  his head sadly, shaking her fingers out of his hair. He looked up at  her with such hunger, but tears shimmered in his caramel-colored eyes,  and she felt answering tears well up in her own eyes.

She squatted down in front of his knees and cupped both of his cheeks.  She looked him dead in the eye. "I'm here, baby. I'm finally where I  belong," Kara assured him. She felt him tremble as he moved forward and  pressed his lips against hers in the softest kiss she had ever received.  The tears that had been threatening now overflowed, wetting their lips.  He released her lips and started upward, licking up each one of her  tears. Not a word was spoken. There was no need.

He easily picked Kara up and cradled her in his arms. She pressed her  face into the crook of his neck and breathed in the scent that was  Quinn, finding half of her home. Then she felt the sofa dip, and another  hand ever so gently cupped her head. She knew Ben didn't want to  disturb the moment between her and Quinn, but he wanted to be part of  it, and she so needed him to be part of it, too.

She reached up, grasped Ben's hand, and turned her head so that she  could breathe a kiss into his palm, and soak in this other man whom she  had needed for three empty years.

Quinn's right hand cupped her ass, nestling her across his lap, and the  other around her back so that her chest was close to his heart. She  released Ben's hand, then cupped his face and traced his dimples before  closing in for a kiss. She kept her eyes open, not wanting to miss  anything, not his expression or Quinn's visage that she could see out of  the corner of her eye. His gaze was rapt as he watched. It was what  they all needed. Finally, as if their bodies had caught up with their  hearts, Kara felt her nipples begin to pebble in response, and she felt  the unmistakable burgeoning of Quinn's arousal under her ass, which had  her gasping into Ben's kiss. Ben's tongue swept along the seam of her  lips, demanding entrance, and her neck fell back onto Quinn's shoulder  as her mouth opened, reveling in Ben's taste and textures, her head  swimming.

Quinn's big hands began to softly move, no longer just pressing her  close but now stroking the lines of her body, down her legs, skimming  down her side to follow the dip of her waist to the rise of her hip, and  then rounding to the curve of her butt. She pressed outward, into his  big warm hand, her chinos hardly a barrier against the heat emanating  from the powerful man holding her. As she pressed out toward Quinn's  palm, she melted deeper into the passion of Ben's kiss, not knowing who  was causing her breasts to ache, her pussy to grow damp.         

     



 

Kara realized her legs were moving restlessly against the sofa and that  Quinn was trying to hold them, but he couldn't. She couldn't contain  herself. She broke away from Ben, gasping for breath, and shoved her  face into Quinn's shoulder, her body vibrating. She wasn't just feeling  needy. She felt like she would fly apart. She felt like she would laugh  and cry at the same time. Both men must have realized it, because Quinn  lifted the silky strands of hair off her neck, and Ben started to  soothingly stroke the rock-hard muscles underneath. As he loosened one  kink, he worked upward to another until he was rubbing deeply into her  scalp. Eventually, when the tightness was released, her vocal chords  began to work again, and small whimpers leaked out against the blue  chambray of Quinn's shirt.