She had enough self-awareness to know she was projecting the slights she’d felt in her childhood onto Lily, but she also felt that Michael really should have included the girl.
Boys should be taught domestic skills and girls should be taught anything mechanical they could get their hands on.
She bent down and whispered into Lily’s ear, detailing precise instructions on what she was supposed to do.
Lily grinned, nodded and slipped down from the sofa like a miniature wraith, sneaking behind the males huddled around the coffee table with exaggerated footsteps.
Lily couldn’t have been more obvious if she tried. Samantha struggled to hold in her laughter.
Fortunately, the males were so engrossed with their tools they didn’t notice, not until the moment Lily jumped onto her father’s back.
“Wha—?”
Lily giggled.
“Sammy said you should show me, too, not just the boys.”
His deep brown gaze shot to Sammy. She raised one eyebrow, daring him to object.
With a wry twist of his lips, he acknowledged the rightness of it. “Touché.”
To his daughter, he said, “Sorry, honey. Sammy’s right. I should have included you. Come stand here beside me.”
She wrapped her arms across the front of his throat and rested her cheek against his.
“I stay here, Daddy.”
Across the coffee table, Samantha heard his breathing hitch.
“That’s a good spot for you, Lily,” Michael murmured while a soft smile tinged his lips. “The best.”
Over the next twenty minutes, he exhibited an extreme level of patience. The children had a lot of questions and all wanted to try their hands at planing wood.
All except Lily. She seemed to value the physical closeness to her father more than the lesson.
When the lesson and the children’s interest had run its course, Michael stood, carrying his daughter on his back, fists on his hips just below Lily’s legs.
With his solid stance and muscled legs, his thighs filling his jeans, he looked indomitable.
Strong. Utterly trustworthy. Dependable.
Safe.
Michael had good thighs. Samantha liked thighs, loved to curl with a man after making love, with one of his thighs snuggled between hers.
With one hand, Michael scratched his head. “Has anyone seen Lily? I swear she was here a minute ago.”
Her head ducked down behind his shoulder and she giggled against his back.
He spun around. “I can hear her, but I can’t see her.”
Lily burst into full-blown laughter and a light came into Michael’s eyes that Sammy hadn’t seen before.
He wrapped one strong arm around his back and hauled his daughter forward and across his chest. He blew loud, messy raspberries into the crook of her neck. Lily squealed.
Lifting her high and tossing her into the air, he laughed like an oversize, oh-so-manly boy.
Michael turned to Samantha and grinned.
Her heart stopped running blood into her veins. Her whole body seemed to pause.
Michael Moreno’s smile made him downright beautiful. A dazzling light shone from him, at once deepening his dark eyes and lighting them with a powerful energy. White teeth flashed against tanned skin. His jaw and cheekbones seemed to soften and become accessible and touchable.
Her fingers itched. Oh, how they itched. Her skin tightened.
It had been too long. Kevin had checked out early in their marriage, his travels and his search for self more important than anything else.
Colt had been a last-ditch effort to save the marriage. It hadn’t worked, but she thanked her lucky stars he’d been born.
Her boys were her saving grace.
Her husband hadn’t touched her after Colt’s birth, had simply told her that carnal pursuits messed with his spiritual journey. His body was a holy temple.
Maybe, but so was hers, and her temple needed sexual gratification now and again.
More than that, her body needed physical affection. She craved a good cuddle as much as she wanted sex.
Greg had never understood that. He’d been a main-event kind of guy. She regretted becoming involved with him. Thank God it had only been one night before she realized how shallow he was. She deserved better. She knew that now.
Mick grasped his father’s arm. “Me, too, Dad.”
Sammy saw a longing in Mick that broke her heart. There was too much sadness in this house.
Michael’s smile froze, as though he’d come to the same conclusion. He put down his daughter and picked up his son.
It took more effort to toss the larger child into the air and catch him, but Michael did.
His biceps strained against his long-sleeved shirt. He’d rolled them to his elbows, and sinews popped beneath his skin, emphasizing his power.
Michael kissed his son loudly on the cheek and set him onto his feet.
When he picked up Colt, he compounded her distress, her attraction to him. Colt had been clinging to his pant legs. Michael played with him as easily as he had with his own kids.
Jason hovered nearby watching the antics, too big to toss into the air, but still young enough to want to have fun.
As well, Sammy knew how much he missed his father’s presence in his life. More than Colt did. For Colt, his father’s disappearing act had been part of his life, but Jason could remember a time when his dad had made an effort to be a father. A small one, but enough to leave Jason always wanting more.
While Samantha craved physical affection, a soft touch, a gentle caress, a hug now and then, so did Jason crave a father’s hand on his shoulder. A father’s hug.
Michael set Colt down, steadying him with a broad hand on the back of his head. He glanced at Jason, seemingly gauging his height.
“Sorry, kid,” he said, “but you’d hit the ceiling if I tossed you. You’re too big.”
Jason put on a game face and shrugged, but Sammy knew what it cost him.
“But,” Michael said, raising one finger, “you’re not too big for this!”
Michael tossed Jason into an armchair and tickled him until the boy begged for him to stop. Halfheartedly. Jason came up grinning and happy.
Samantha hadn’t seen that in a long, long time. Her eyes watered. It set her soul on fire. Her boys deserved more. They deserved a loving, present father and a safe home and security from a crook like Manny d’Onofrio.
His crimes, and the subsequent trial, had set her life behind. She had a plan, to make a real home for herself and her boys. To put down roots and surround them with love and stability for the rest of their childhoods.
She would take Travis’s help for a little while longer and then she would blaze her own independent trail.
Today’s respite from those two years of worry was good, except for the hero worship she saw on her son’s face when he looked at Michael.
Michael might be severe and opinionated, but he showed sensitivity, too. Why couldn’t he be a bad guy through and through and save her from this terrible ache?
She didn’t want to admire him or want him.
Worse, she didn’t want her son worshipping him or seeing him as a stand-in father. They would be here for another couple of days at the most and then they would leave to live with Travis...and his new family.
She knew her son well. Jason would miss Michael, even though he’d known him for only three days. How much deeper would their bond become over the next few days until they could leave? How much more difficult would it be for Jason when they did?
His life had been either about leaving people or about being left behind. This could only hurt him.
He would grieve yet again.
Michael smiled down at the children and Samantha’s pulse beat harder.
Be careful, Sam
antha. Be so, so careful.
She could see herself falling into a trap with this man. That trap looked suspiciously like the answer to her prayers for a solid, dependable husband, a good home for her boys and a lifelong love that couldn’t be shattered by egos.
The trap was her own desires, and her yearning for security.
Would she trade her happiness for her children’s security? She already had. She’d stayed with her husband too long. But would she take on another man for that same security? No. She would provide for her children on her own. She would keep them safe.
Her loneliness could go take a hike. She would survive.
When she loved again, it would be for love itself and not for all of the accoutrements that might come with it.
If Sammy ever married again, it would be for good.
She wouldn’t put her children through another divorce. She wouldn’t let them be hurt again.
She would never, ever let herself fall into another relationship.
Clapping his hands, Michael said, “Who’s hungry?”
The children screamed, “Me!”
“Me, too!”
“Me, three!”
Michael led them to the kitchen while Samantha stayed behind and, one by one, killed every good feeling and thought she had toward Michael Moreno.
* * *
AFTER LUNCH THEY got the kids outside again.
They had another snowball fight at the front of the house, but no one was ready to go back inside. Not quite yet.
Samantha stared into the brilliance of another flawless sunny day. Mick and Cody ran down the shoveled path. Jason followed, giving Lily a piggyback ride.
Soon, she thought, this crazy, stressful, amazing idyll will come to an end, but not today.
She saw Michael lean into his snow fort trough and crouch there. He’s making more snowballs.
No way was she letting him get the upper hand on her and her team.
She sneaked up behind him with a handful of snow to shove down his neck, but somehow he heard her and spun around.
She laughed and tried to smash the snow onto his face, but he grasped her wrist.
Together, they rolled in the snow.
They wrestled until they were breathless. Samantha kept in shape and was strong, but Michael was a force of nature.
It didn’t help that she couldn’t stop laughing.
Michael ended up on top of her, blocking out the endless sky and holding her wrists.
Her laughter stilled. So did his. He stared, eyes dark and unreadable. A small frown furrowed his brow, as though he, too, didn’t know what this was about.
His heavy body pressed down on hers. His solidity felt like heaven.
A blob of snow dropped from his hat onto her cheek. He leaned in slowly, giving her time to object. She held her breath and closed her eyes, the precious discipline she’d fought so hard for earlier gone on a puff of wind as though it had never existed.
Sammy, you are in so much trouble.
A moment later, his warm mouth kissed the snow from her cheek.
She recognized it for what it was. A halting uncertain beginning, an exploration and a question.
Is this okay?
Yes.
Enchanted, she opened her eyes and found his chocolate gaze studying her, confusion clear in his face. She understood. She felt the same way.
She hadn’t come here looking for love or romance. She had come to ensure the safety of her boys. Instead, she’d discovered this sad man tucked away with his sad children.
As aloof as he’d been this morning, she expected more of the same treatment, but some of his reserve had broken when he’d played with the children.
When he started to move away from her, Samantha stopped him.
“Wait!” He still held her wrists. “Let go.”
He did. With one hand she held on to the lapel of his jacket. She needed to explore this. Maybe there was something here. This man wasn’t her ex. Michael seemed honest and reliable, and her body couldn’t deny his physical appeal.
With her other hand, she dipped her mitten into the snow and swiped it across her cheek, leaving it cold and wet.
“Again,” she whispered.
A slow, sweet-but-knowing smile tipped up the corners of his mouth.
He leaned close again, his breath warm on her skin. He licked her cheek, his tongue warm against the frosty chill of the air. She closed her eyes and sighed. It had been so long since a man had touched her with tenderness.
She knew plenty about men and lust, but tenderness? Not so much.
Ever since she’d developed this body that was both a blessing and a curse, she’d grown used to men wanting her, but she liked a side of affection with her sex. If not love, then at the very least warmth.
She’d been starving.
Tenderness emanated from Michael in waves. He not only desired her. He also liked her. That made all the difference in the world.
His lips trailed down her cheek to her mouth. She parted her lips to invite him in.
The shouts of the children brought her back to reality.
“Oh!” She’d forgotten about them. She never forgot about her sons. With a surge of panic, she pushed hard against Michael’s chest. He fell over into the snow. It billowed up around him, coating him.
He looked so bewildered, one minute holding a warm and willing woman and the next flat on his back in the snow. A laugh huffed out of Samantha.
The kids laughed, too, breaking the moment. Michael helped her out of the snow and they all went inside for lunch, but Sammy’s lips still tingled with anticipation of a kiss, and her cheek held the memory of his exploration. Her breath still felt the mingling of his, the intertwining of the softest of intimacies.
Michael Moreno packed a powerful punch when he allowed his soft, tender side to show. What on earth would he be like in bed?
* * *
AFTER LUNCH, TWO THINGS happened at once.
The first thing they all heard at the same time. A rumbling from down the road.
“What is it?” Samantha asked.
Michael had been strange since that almost-kiss, one minute staring at her with wonder and the next surly.
At the moment, he looked unhappy. “It’s the plow.”
She ran to the window. “Children, look!”
A plow made its way down the road, sending huge plumes of snow into the air to pile high onto the edges of fields.
“Pretty,” Lily squealed.
It was quite a spectacle. The kids rejoiced.
Then the phone rang.
“I guess we have power,” Michael said. He answered the phone. “Yes, Karen, we’re fine. No, we don’t need you to come out. Really, no, don’t come. We’ve been good.”
After some more mumbling, he hung up and flicked on a lamp.
Staring at Samantha, he said, “It’s over.”
She understood. Everything was over. Not just the aftermath of the snowstorm and the power outage, but also whatever that almost-something was that had happened outside in the snow.
Saved by the plow.
Reality had returned and Samantha welcomed it. Truly she did.
Honest.
Whatever had nearly started between them had been nothing more than the product of too-intense forced intimacy. This house had been a crucible and they’d crept too close to the flame.
They’d been thrown into an unusual situation and they’d been tempted, that was all.
Real life beckoned. Whatever they’d had here could never survive in the real world. They were too different. Opposites, really.
“Guess I’d better call the garage about towing your car,” Michael mumbled.
She nodded, unsure what to say. She’d never experienced anything like this before in her lif
e.
A little under four days ago, they’d been strangers. Imagine that.
“I guess I should call Travis about coming to get us.”
Michael nodded.
Lily stood between them, looking first at one and then the other of them, picking up on the tremors of change.
Her lower lip trembled. “Daddy?”
Michael picked her up. “It’s time for Samantha and the boys to go to their own home.”
“No,” she said, voice small, but forceful. “Don’t want them to go.”
“We have to let them go. They don’t belong here. They belong with Travis.”
They don’t belong here.
He’d made that clear from the start, hadn’t he? But for a few precious hours, things had felt different.
“No. Not yet, Daddy. Amorrow.”
“I’m afraid not, sweetheart.”
Samantha glanced at the boys. Mick and Colt looked bewildered and sad. Jason looked crushed.
She made a snap decision. Meddling one last time in this family’s life, she was doing it for her boys, too. And for herself.
“I have an idea.”
“You always do.” Again, Michael was back to the grim smiles, but maybe his eyes shone a bit. “What is it?”
“How about one last supper together? One more night. This is a shock. Let’s say goodbye gradually, tomorrow morning.”
Michael nodded slowly. “We could do that.”
“We need groceries. We’ve been scraping the bottom of the barrel on fresh items. We need milk, apples, cheese.”
“Write up a list and I’ll drive into town.”
He should have been happy. He hadn’t wanted them here, but he looked as torn as she felt.
This should be reason to celebrate. Then let’s celebrate, she thought.
“We have three apples left. I’ll make us a cake and we’ll celebrate meeting each other and having this amazing adventure together, okay?”
The boys nodded. Lily hid her face against her father’s shoulder.
The appeal in Jason’s eyes when he asked Michael if he could go into town with him tore at Samantha.
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