The Seduction of His Wife

by Janet Chapman

  He hated to wake her; she needed the sleep to heal. He’d put her salve on at the sporting camps. He made yet another trip out to the warmed-up truck with Sarah’s coat and medicine, then came back in, took the blanket off the back of the couch to cover her, and carried her out to the truck. She didn’t even wake up but immediately snuggled into her jacket lying on the seat and started snoring again.

  Alex finally climbed into the truck himself, blew out a tired sigh, and headed out the driveway. Seducing one’s wife took a lot of leg work and planning—but sometimes a man just had to do a bit of huffing and puffing to impress a woman.

  Chapter Nineteen

  S arah woke up to the soft, rhythmic voice of someone reading out loud. But even as she tried to surface through the ethereal fog of confusion, she became lost in the scene painted by words. She was sitting in a pub in Puffin Harbor, trying to explain to Rachel Foster that the sexual drought she was experiencing was making her desperate enough to start soliciting dates on the steps of the state capitol.

  But she didn’t have a sister named Rachel. And her name wasn’t Willow Foster, and she couldn’t remember ever waking up in Duncan Ross’s bed.

  Sarah snapped open her eyes to solid blackness, gasping at the pain ripping through her right hand when she tried to use it to sit up. The reading stopped.

  “Easy, Sarah. You’re okay,” Alex said, his voice moving closer. “You’re on the floor of your sporting lodge, on a mattress in front of the fireplace. Don’t make any more sudden moves,” he continued gently, his strong hands on her shoulders laying her back down. “You’ve been sleeping for hours, and you’re disoriented.”

  “Hours?” she said, her good hand going to the buttons on her blouse.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked, his voice deadpan. “You worried I might have undressed you while you were passed out and had my wicked way with you?”

  “I…I…”

  Warm, soft lips touched hers. “I didn’t even peek—though don’t think I wasn’t tempted.” He feathered his mouth over hers. “You’ll always tempt me, Sunshine,” he whispered against her lips before pulling away and running his hands down her arms. “I’d better give you only half a pill from now on. You were passed out like a hibernating bear.”

  “I really slept through your bringing me here?” she asked, turning her head as if to look around, hating the fact that she couldn’t see. She was never, ever taking her eyesight for granted again.

  “You even slept through my plowing the road, and for at least two hours right here in front of the fire.”

  “But why did you bring me to the main lodge?” she asked. “I have Cabin One all cleaned up and ready to stay in.”

  She felt more than heard his sigh. “How in hell would I know that? I’ve spent the last two hours trying to get this tomb of a room warmed up.”

  Sarah relaxed into the mattress with a smile. “But it’s such a beautiful room, don’t you think? I can already picture my guests gathering here in the evening, talking about their day’s adventures.”

  She felt the mattress dip beside her, and when Alex spoke, she could tell he was facing the fire instead of her. “You really want to open these camps, don’t you?”

  “Oh, yes. I love having guests from all over the world, from all walks of life. It makes…it makes me feel part of something big.”

  “They brought the world to your isolated little island, didn’t they?” he said, and she could tell he was looking at her. “You’ve been living vicariously through your guests.” She felt him resettle on the mattress. “Have you ever wanted to travel to their world, Sarah? To participate instead of just hearing about it? Experience the world instead of just reading about it in books and seeing it on television?”

  “Someday. But for now, I’m content just knowing it’s out there, waiting for when I’m ready to go see it.”

  “And just when will that defining moment come, Sarah?”

  She softly chuckled. “Probably about the time hell gets a three-foot snowstorm,” she said. “Have you had a chance to look around yet? Do the cabins need many repairs?”

  “I haven’t left this room for more than two minutes. I didn’t want you waking up alone, not knowing where you were.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered, feeling the blankets until she found his arm. She patted his sleeve. “I appreciate that you’re being open-minded about the sporting camps. And when you check out Cabin One, you’ll see how I intend to decorate them.”

  “It would be a daunting task for a small army of people, Sarah. How can you hope to pull it off with a baby demanding your attention?”

  “I’ll get one of those baby backpacks, and I’ll hire a couple of high school girls in the summer to help me. I ran the inn on Crag Island while tending both my mother and father. I can do this, Alex. I can make it work.”

  He covered her hand on his arm. “I don’t doubt you can,” he said. “How about we put some salve on your eyes? Then I’ll take a look around upstairs, feed us lunch, and head out to check the cabins while you have another nap. Sleeping is good for both your injuries and our baby.”

  Sarah shivered all the way down to her toes. Our baby. “Okay,” she said, her hand going to the gauze over her eyes.

  He lifted her into a sitting position and brushed her hand aside. “Let me,” he said, gently working the tape free.

  “Alex, did Charlotte take Delaney and Tucker with her when she left you?”

  His hands stilled, then started gently tugging again. “No,” he said. “She walked away from them, too. She was worried they’d hinder her search for a new deep pocket to pick.”

  “How old was Delaney?”

  “Five. And Tucker was just a few months shy of two.”

  “Would you have fought for custody?”

  His hands stilled again. “It wouldn’t have reached court. I could have bought Charlotte off, and probably would have had to eventually, if she hadn’t died.” His hands cupped the sides of her face. “I would never take your child from you, Sarah.”

  She lowered her head. “I wasn’t worried about that.”

  “Yes, you were,” he said, lifting her face and kissing her forehead. “Because the first thought that crossed my mind when I heard you were pregnant was that you might run back to Crag Island and take my child with you.”

  “I wouldn’t.”

  “I know. I dismissed my worry because I just as quickly realized that I trust you,” he finished softly, his hands going back to her bandages. “If you need to use the bathroom, I melted some snow and filled the tank of the downstairs toilet.” He lightly tapped her nose, then slowly pulled off both patches of gauze. “So that means we have indoor plumbing.”

  “I wondered about water if I moved here in the middle of the winter,” she said, thankful they were on a safer subject.

  She immediately started blinking, able to see a very fuzzy face squinting back at her. She rubbed around her eyes, but Alex grabbed her hand and pulled it down to her lap.

  “I have some water heating on the stove across the room,” he said as he got up. “I want to wash around your eyes before I cover them again.”

  Sarah looked around the room, her blurred vision taking in the vaulted pine ceiling supported by thick, hand-hewn logs. Then her blinking gaze traveled down the pine walls to the floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace large enough for half a dozen people to fit inside. She looked at the fireplace for several seconds and then down at the blanket-covered mattress she was sitting on.

  Alex had built her a cozy little nest in front of a crackling fire, started up the woodstove across the room, and got the toilet working, and he was tending her as if she were a princess. If he had been even half this thoughtful to his first wife, Charlotte had been an idiot for running away.

  “Where did you find the firewood?” she asked, closing her eyes when she saw him walking back with a washcloth in his hand. “The few pieces I found in the woodshed didn’t put out much heat when I came here before. A
nd it felt spongy.”

  “It’s at least five years old,” he said, and Sarah sensed him kneeling in front of her. “So it’s dry-rotted, which turns it into a sponge that soaks up moisture. I brought wood from home.”

  “Oh. Oh!” she said again when the warm cloth touched her face. “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting that.”

  He cupped the back of her head to keep her still, and Sarah felt a lot like Tucker must have felt when she’d had to get the giant bubble of gum he’d blown—and burst—out of his hair. Alex carefully washed around her eyes, then her cheeks, her nose, her chin, finally ending up softly brushing the damp cloth over her lips.

  “I—I washed up this morning,” she said with a nervous laugh, pulling away. “How often did Dr. Betters say I needed to put on the salve?”

  “Twice a day. I’ll do it again before we go to bed tonight.”

  There was something about the way he said “we go to bed” that made Sarah shiver again. It had sounded so…married. “How long do I have to keep my eyes covered?” she asked, trying to ignore the thumping ache in her chest.

  “At least today and tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, you can try leaving them uncovered, but you have to keep them moist with the salve.” He splayed his hands across the sides of her face, and Sarah opened her blurry eyes enough to see a tube in his right hand. “I’ve had welder’s flash twice,” he continued as he carefully oozed the thick gel into her right eye. “Don’t blink,” he instructed, using his thumb to hold her eye open. “I know it’s uncomfortable, but it doesn’t sting, does it?”

  “No. Did you really duct-tape socks on Delaney’s and Tucker’s hands?”

  She could just barely make out his grin. “It was the only way to keep them from making their rashes worse.” He shook his head. “I hadn’t realized we had a large patch of poison ivy so close to the house. They both waded through it when they went searching for the baseball Paul had hit to them. They were miserable for nearly two weeks, and Paul felt guilty as hell.” He grinned again. “Actually, I had to double up the socks, so they could rub without digging.”

  Sarah grinned back, picturing Tucker and Delaney walking around scratching themselves with socked hands. “That was devious of you.”

  She could just make out Alex’s bobbing eyebrows. “I’m a very devious guy,” he said, letting her eyelid drop and lifting the other one.

  Sarah took a deep breath in an attempt to relax, but she only managed to make her breasts rise and fall against Alex’s arm. His hands stilled. “We’re going to have to play doctor more often,” he whispered.

  If her cheeks got any hotter, she would have to run outside and jump into the snow to cool off. Sarah cleared her throat. “Is it still snowing outside?”

  “I hope so. I’d hate for it to be snowing inside. Don’t laugh,” he said when she did, causing him to squirt salve on her nose. “Now see what you made me do.”

  “Sorry,” she said contritely, sitting up straighter and inadvertently shoving her breasts into his arm again.

  Alex leaned away, dropping his hands. “Tucker’s a better patient than you are.”

  Sarah blinked, spreading the salve through her eyes as she reached up to rub it off her nose with her gauze-covered hand. But she only ended up smacking Alex in the chin just as he leaned forward with the cloth. “Sorry,” she said again, trying not to laugh.

  Alex sighed, took her injured hand in his, kissed her broken fingers, then pushed it back down to her lap. “You move again, and the next time you wake up from a drugged sleep, you will be naked. Got that?”

  She actually felt a bit drugged right now. Sarah brought her good hand up to her forehead and saluted. “Aye-aye, captain.”

  He was just reaching up with a gauze patch this time, when he sighed yet again and pushed her hand down to her lap. “We’re playing doctor, not captain of the high seas. Keep with the program, will you? And I’m charging you double for being an unruly patient.”

  “Double?” she asked, leaning away just as he came at her with the patch again. She narrowed her blurry eyes.

  “How much is double?”

  “Two kisses instead of one.”

  Either she was getting brave, or she was starting to get used to his kisses, because Sarah found herself not only willing to pay his fee but boldly upping the ante. “I’ll give you three kisses if you leave the bandage off one eye,” she said, trying to bat her eyelashes at him, but they kept getting stuck to her bottom lashes.

  He had once again started forward with the bandage, but he stopped and sat up straight. “Three?” His own eyes narrowed. “How long does the bandage have to stay off?”

  “Just long enough for me to see what I’m eating for lunch.”

  “Deal,” he said, starting to cover her right eye but stopping yet again. “I want a down payment. One kiss now, then the other two when I’m done.”

  Sarah licked her suddenly dry lips, and that throbbing in her chest suddenly kicked up three notches.

  Sarah saw Alex drop his gaze to her lips. Her tongue got stuck to the roof of her mouth, but she nevertheless reached up, cupped his face with her good hand, and leaned toward him. He obligingly met her halfway, and Sarah closed both eyes, tilted her head, and kissed him.

  It wasn’t a tentative kiss she gave him, either. No, it was a bold, Rachel Foster kind of kiss, involving full contact, a little bit of tongue, and just a hint of passion boldly thrown in for good measure.

  Only Alex didn’t kiss her back. He stayed leaning into her, his own eyes closed, his lips slightly parted to allow her access. She pulled away just far enough to say, “Kiss me back.”

  “Uh-uh,” he murmured just as she made contact again. He pulled back this time. “It’s your debt, you do the kissing.”

  “But kissing requires two people, to work properly.”

  He said nothing, leaning forward until their lips touched again, and her mind’s eye immediately shot back to five weeks ago. Sarah might be a bit blind, but she could quite plainly see the image of Alex braced above her, his heated body pressing her into her bed, the memory so vivid of him moving so deeply inside her.

  She darted her tongue into his mouth as she held his face, tilting her head and snuggling her body against his. She could actually taste his male heat, feel it surrounding her as her head swam with sensations so exciting that being drunk on whiskey didn’t even come close to the intoxicating power of anticipation. Her own confidence grew when he wrapped his arms around her, and she moved her tongue against his, boldly wrapping her arms around his neck.

  She felt his chest rumble against her breasts, just before his groan erupted into her mouth. He lifted his head, and Sarah opened her eyes to find him staring at her, looking…looking…he looked a bit angry, actually. Sarah snapped her eyes shut.

  “Have you decided yet?” he asked, his voice thick.

  “Decided what?”

  “How you feel about being pregnant.”

  She looked up. “Why do I have to decide that now?”

  “Because happily pregnant women make happy babies,” he said a bit more evenly as he looked around the mattress. He found the new gauze patches and held them up. “You need to keep both eyes covered until your lunch break.”

  Sarah wanted badly to take a deep breath but didn’t dare for fear her still tingling breasts would touch him again. “All right,” she whispered, closing her eyes.

  He set the gauze over her face, gently pressed the tape around her eyes with trembling fingers, then was gone.

  “I need to go out and do some plowing,” he said, and she felt a draft of cold air enter the room. “I’ll feed you lunch in twenty minutes. Just lie down and keep your eyes closed. And don’t move from that mattress.”

  “Aye-aye, doctor!” She gave him another salute.

  Sarah dropped back onto the pillow as the door closed, and she smiled. Imagine that. She had the power to make Alex Knight run from her kisses. Well, spit, this heroine business really was powerful stuff.

>   Chapter Twenty

  “W ho the hell is seducing whom?” Alex muttered as he stomped through the snow to his truck. Sarah had actually kissed him. And it hadn’t been one of those shy, tentative kisses, either, but a full-blown kiss that women gave men when they wanted to make love. He’d very nearly obliged her, too, but that would have ruined his carefully orchestrated plans.

  Or else he was dumber than dirt for not accepting her unwitting invitation.

  Alex jerked open the truck door, slid into the seat, and stared at the solid wall of snow covering the windshield. Unwitting was the key word here. Sarah couldn’t possibly have realized the signals she’d been sending him; she was too damn naive. She might know what her smile did to a guy, but she sure as hell didn’t realize the power of her kisses.

  And it hadn’t been all that experienced a kiss, either. But when a woman spent most of her time fighting off men’s kisses, she probably didn’t have much of a chance to practice giving them. He suddenly grinned. She’d be a quick learner, he bet, if she had a really dedicated teacher.

  Alex reached out and turned the key in the ignition to heat the glow plugs, then turned it further. He heard the starter crank over with a loud, protesting whine, but the engine didn’t start. He released the key, then turned it again, and again all he got was a screeching whine. What the hell?

  He tripped the hood release and got out, lifting the hood to stare at the engine. Why hadn’t it turned over? He wiggled several cables, then suddenly realized he could smell something he shouldn’t be smelling anywhere near a truck. It was sweet, like their kitchen used to smell whenever his mother had scorched a pot of fudge. He climbed back into the truck, turned the key to open the electric system, and grabbed the radio mike.

  “NorthWoods Two calling NorthWoods One,” he said. “Dad, Ethan, Paul, any of you out there?”

  He released the mike and waited. “I’m here,” Grady said after a few moments. “And so are Ethan and Paul.”