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.