by Floyd, Jacie
“No.” She squeezed his arm. “I mean, solicit donations for a worthy cause.”
“Semantics.” But she was right. He could call on the two guys she’d named. Dylan and Ryan were guys he could count on to help if he asked. As simple as that.
“Maybe you’ll think of some other way to accomplish it.” She shrugged and turned up the radio. Damn, his thoughtless comment had caused her to withdraw from him again. Even though she hadn’t offered any viable solutions, he liked her enthusiasm and was pleased he had discussed it with her. And the project just might appeal to Dylan and Ryan.
All in all, his dating plan seemed to be working out pretty well. She no longer ducked when he asked her out or flinched away from casual contact. Tonight, they’d talked all the way to her house, just like normal people.
When they had first met, she said their brand of shared intimacy told him things about her that no one else knew. While he hoped that statement was still true, he now understood how important it was to know all the thousands of small details about her as well. He wanted to be included in every part of her life. He wanted to be the first person she thought of in the morning and the last person she saw at night.
He wanted to be the person she called when her car broke down.
He wanted her. All the time.
And he was through with standing on the sidelines of her life, waiting for her to notice him, and let him get in on her game.
As she dug around in her purse for her keys, he pulled up in front of her house. He stopped her by placing his hand on hers. She looked up. “What?”
“I’ll take you to get your car tomorrow.”
“Great. Unless one of the Tagliattis has already shown up, or you’re in class, or I can’t get a hold of you for some reason.”
He shook his head at the maddening smile that accompanied the evasion and seriously considered throttling her. But as he reached out for her, he decided kissing her would be far more effective. And pleasant. “Come here.”
Her lashes swept downward as he drew her near. His mouth grazed across hers before he traced the outline of her lips with his tongue. He tasted her lightly, sweetly, waiting for an invitation to delve deeper. And the invitation came, leading to an exploration of desire. To a powerful prelude to physical union.
Opening his coat, he pulled her against his chest while their hands searched for more intimate contact. Finally, he pulled his mouth away, resting their foreheads and noses together. Their breath mingled with groans of frustration. Wyatt pushed her hair behind her ear. Her skin smelled faintly of raspberries. He teased her earlobe with a nip of his teeth.
“Tell me,” he urged, his voice a husky whisper, “are you ever visited by angels during the night?”
She leaned back to straighten her clothes and erase the evidence of their moments of shared passion. In the flair of the porch light, a shadow of pain flickered across her face. “Demons, ghosts, and past mistakes drop in far more frequently than I’d like. But angels very seldom. Why?”
“I need to be reminded occasionally that Sean wasn’t conceived by immaculate conception.” He helped her with a button. “There was at least one time in your life when you needed me.”
She looked at him askance. “You always said the last thing you wanted was for another woman to need you.”
He kissed her again to keep from admitting that the thought of being needed held a lot more appeal than it used to.
The resounding thud of the brass knocker on Wyatt’s front door echoed in the pit of Kara’s stomach. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t being watched.
She didn’t know why she was here. Or maybe she did if the condom in her back pocket was any indication.
He’d asked her to come over, true, but she couldn’t use that as an excuse. If she came over every time he asked her and Sean to visit, they might as well move in and change their address to his. But this time, he’d asked her. Just her.
And here she was. In the middle of the day. While Sean napped in his bed at home. With a condom in her back pocket. Lord, what had she been thinking?
If Wyatt didn’t answer on the next knock, she’d leave.
With her hand extended toward the door, it swung open. They both stood frozen in place while she took in every detail of his appearance. His eyes swept her just as boldly.
Hair damp from the shower. Jaw freshly shaved. Eyeglasses instead of contacts. A soft sweater the color of copper brought out the highlights in his eyes. An old pair of jeans manufactured a slew of salacious thoughts. With no shoes, socks, or belt, his only accessory was the cell phone he held to his ear.
Seeing him like this, all sexy and casual, made the trip over here worthwhile. Her mouth watered.
He drew Kara inside with his free hand before she could retreat, if that had been her intention. She didn’t think it had been.
“Yes, ma’am, I’ll put it on my calendar.” He leaned in to kiss Kara’s cheek, then helped her remove her coat. “I don’t know about that, but I’ll try.”
Standing so near him, Kara could hear a sugary female voice on the other end of the line. She would have known he was talking to someone from home even if his own heightened drawl hadn’t told her so. To give him some privacy, Kara started toward the closet to hang up her jacket.
“It’s up to Kara, Mother.”
At the mention of her name, Kara turned back and raised her eyebrows.
“I know you’d like for Sean to be at your birthday celebration, but it might not be possible.” He cocked his head and listened again while Kara pressed a hand to her stomach, hoping to squelch the seed of panic. “Maybe if you send Sean and Kara an invitation, we’ll have better luck getting her to agree.”
She shook her head, but he ignored the gesture while he signed off and threw the phone aside, reaching for her. “God, I can’t believe you’re here.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but he covered it with his. As his lips moved over hers, she detected a hint of mint toothpaste. The introduction of tongues lengthened and deepened the kiss.
With her hips pressed against his, she welcomed the evidence of his interest. Her body responded to his like ice to a flame. Within moments, she clung to him.
“Upstairs?” he asked as he moved his mouth from her lips to her neck.
“No, here.” She took the bottom of his sweater in her hands and pulled it over his head.
He held her face in his hands, nodding toward the upper level. “Condoms.”
“Got one.” She fished the packet out of her back pocket.
He gave her a spanking kiss. “That’s my kind of girl.”
Buttons and zippers opened as Kara and Wyatt dropped to their knees on the floor. Their clothing was pushed aside rather than removed.
With his fly undone, Wyatt’s erection sprang to life in Kara’s hands, expanding and throbbing in response to her touch. Her lips carried a seductive smile until the very second they closed around him. His groan of pleasure spurred her on. When he pulled himself out of her mouth, she sensed he was near the limit of his control.
“That’s not how I want to come,” he said, his hands on her shoulders.
“Then how about like this?” She pulled him down to the floor and slipped the condom in place. His eyes had glazed over by the time she swung her leg over his hip and seated herself on him.
“That’ll do.” Using his hands on her hips, he matched her rhythm to his. “Slow down. I want you with me when it happens.”
“I’ll be right with you.” Kara met his pace and watched him, his face and hair highlighted by the sun streaming in through a window over the door. His chest glistened with a sheen of sweat. His eyes gleamed with passionate fire. Never had he looked more perfect and more desirable. Or more attainable.
He was with her, inside her, a part of her, more surely than ever before. As her tension built, he tweaked her nipples.
“Now, Kara mia,” he urged as he drew her into an embrace. Well on her way to climax,
she couldn’t have refused the command if her life depended on it, and she didn’t have the heart to try. She was afraid she’d already lost that part to him.
Collapsed in a heap inside the patch of sunbeams, Wyatt rested his hands on Kara’s bottom and his chin on her head. She snuggled into him and sighed with contentment.
She’d never behaved this way in anyone else’s presence. That alone should have told her she wouldn’t be able to dismiss him as easily as she’d planned to do, before or since Atlanta.
“I guess you don’t want to see what I’ve done with the house,” he said, his mouth near her ear.
“I like what I can see from here.” When she smiled, his chest hair tickled her cheek. “This is a great rug.”
He pressed his hips against her. “This isn’t why I asked you over.”
“Don’t lie.” She flicked one of his nipples.
“This isn’t the only reason I asked you over.”
“But now you’ve got a big problem, don’t you? One of us is going to have to move.”
“That can be me. All you have to do is hang on.” Holding her firmly in place, Wyatt sat up, guided Kara’s legs around his hips, and then stood. “I think I suggested going upstairs earlier.”
“Really? You should have suggested it louder.”
“Increasing the volume wouldn’t have helped. Nothing short of force would have gotten you up the stairs.”
“Like now?” She raised her head from his shoulder. His ear looked particularly delectable, and she nibbled it.
“Not at all. There’s absolutely no question of force.”
Her breasts rubbed against his bare chest as he ascended the steps. The up and down motion also created an interesting sensation, encouraging Kara to initiate some movement of her own. “I’m putty in your hands.”
“Good.” He laid her lengthwise across his bed. “Because there are several places I haven’t had my hands on yet today. Or my mouth.”
Much later, Wyatt left her where she’d ended up—in a tangle of sheets at the foot of his bed—and went to fetch the stuff they’d left in the foyer. Aware this was her first visit to the master suite, Kara stretched her arms and looked around. The enormous bedroom was almost Spartan in its decor.
A bed, dresser, nightstand, and bookcase were grouped at one end of the room near the bath. Instead of Wyatt’s usual assortment of textbooks and literature and fine art, the bookcase was filled with books on childcare, child development, and child psychology.
Only two spots of color drew attention in entire the room. One was a cork-board with photos of her and Sean along with their son’s artistic creations pinned to it. But the focal point belonged to the Helen Thayer painting hanging above the bed.
“I didn’t know you had this with you.” She nodded to the painting when he returned. “Did you bring the rest of your collection from California?”
“No.” He nudged a corner of the frame, although it looked perfectly straight to Kara. “After I moved here, I had Nina send this piece to me.”
Kara thought of all of the magnificent art he owned and glowed at his admission that he treasured her gift to him. “I didn’t know it meant that much to you.”
“My most prized possession.” His light tone didn’t disguise the sincerity in his voice. He studied the painting and seemed to address the canvas rather than Kara. “I was touched to see you have yours in your bedroom, too.”
Having his attention focused elsewhere made it easier for her to admit, “My most prized possession.”
He dropped down beside her on the bed and took her hand. “It wasn’t until I brought you home from the dentist that day that I saw your bedroom, and—” he made a gesture with his hands that indicated voila! “—there it was.”
A cloud of silence hung between them. Kara’s heart urged her to make confessions her mouth refused to speak. She remained silent, letting him assume what he would about the painting’s significance.
“When I came to see you in New York, and you broke it off with me, I put this one in storage for a while. It reminded me too much of you. But being at the cabin reminded me of you, too. And walking on the beach. And going to The Hansett. And driving my car. When I realized I couldn’t stop thinking of you no matter where I was, I resigned myself to the fact that I wanted you in my life, that I would make whatever effort necessary to get you back.”
Kara’s heart almost stopped beating, fearing he was perilously close to making a declaration she was incapable of dealing with. She hurried to forestall him. “You said whenever I wanted it to be over, it would be.”
“I tried to respect your wishes. That’s why I stayed away so long. Before you, it had been an easy rule to keep. I had always been the one to want to stop seeing the other person.”
“Maybe that’s the problem.” Even sitting on the bed, she started to feel like he was backing her into a corner. She looked around for any available escape. “You’re unused to rejection.”
He gave her an incredulous look. “I know I tend to want to have my own way, but I wouldn’t have gone to such great lengths to work myself back into your life if there wasn’t more to it than that.”
Wouldn’t he? She wanted to believe him. But time and again, she’d seen the way he operated. He always appeared to go along with everyone else’s preferences, never seeming to object to their plans or wishes. But in the end, he always managed to get his way. “I thought you’d wormed your way back into my life because of Sean.”
“When I came to New York last fall, it was because I wanted to come face to face with you and see if what I felt for you was real or a fiction invented out of unfulfilled desires. With the revelations about Sean and the adjustments we’ve needed to make since then, my feelings have been subjected to repeated re-evaluations, but they haven’t changed. Except to intensify.”
His words touched her deeply, but terrified her even more. She could only deal with their relationship, motherhood—even life, if it came to that—in small increments and separate chambers. Kara pulled her hand from his and jumped up. Dragging the top sheet with her and wrapping herself in it, she retreated as far from him as possible, hoping distance would allow her to think clearly. She had to stop him before he admitted anything scarier. “I can’t believe out of all the women there are to choose from, all the women you know, all the women you’ve had, I can’t believe I’m the one you think you can’t live without. If that’s what you’re saying.”
“Believe me, Kara, I can’t believe it either.” His shoulders lifted in a self-deprecating shrug. “And God knows, after you left, I tried to convince myself it was the sex that I missed. I’m way past enjoying one-night stands. But I met a woman who was smart, funny, and attractive, but when I was with her, all I could think about was you. We didn’t have the ‘when it’s over’ talk because we didn’t make it to bed. When she left, she told me she was sorry she wasn’t the one I wanted. I was sorry, too.”
He gave a disgusted shake of his head. “That’s when I decided to do whatever I had to do to get you back. I even knew your conditions. You wanted a child. By that time, I decided I wanted one, too.”
Kara halted her pacing between his dresser and closet and whirled to face him. “That’s not true.”
He crossed his heart and raised his right hand. “Haven’t you wondered why I wasn’t dismayed to discover I had a child?”
“I was surprised about that.” She crossed her arms in front of her. “But I thought it was a throwback response to some ingrained Wyatt-Maitland tradition of family and responsibility.”
Rising from the bed, he moved toward her. “I wanted you, I wanted the child, and I wanted a family. I wanted the whole package. I still do, Kara. Do you want that, too?”
She covered her face with her hands, unsure whether she was trying to hide her feelings from herself or from Wyatt. She wanted him. She knew that. She loved him. She was almost certain. But could she trust him not to leave her, not to hurt her, and not to break her heart? “I d
on’t know.”
Gentle fingers circled her wrists and removed her hands from her face. His thumbs rubbed her cheeks where her tears left a trail. “Don’t fret, love. It’s taken me almost four years to get to this point. You don’t have to accept it all in four minutes.”
Kara attempted a smile. He cradled her head against his broad chest. He was giving her time, but he wouldn’t wait indefinitely. She’d have to come to a decision at some point. But for now, she accepted the comfort of his arms with gratitude and closed her eyes against the rush of conflicting emotions.
“I’m not sure what you’re suggesting, but it sounds similar to what I had before.” Her voice came out weak and muffled. “And that started out like heaven and ended up like hell. I don’t know if I can go through that again. Even for you.”
His fingers eased their way beneath the hair at the nape of her neck, moving in a circular pattern that eased and soothed her tension better than a sedative. Pleasure danced down her spine.
“Is trusting me within the realm of possibility?”
With his fingers working their magic, she could almost conjure up the image of trusting him with Sean. Trusting him to stay with them. Trusting him enough to love him and let him love them in return. “Maybe.”
Hooking his thumbs beneath her chin, he lifted her face. “Sean and I have gotten to know one another, and you and I are getting along better. Why don’t we try some family outings?”
His words acted like a whip, cracking the tension back into her neck with a snap. She remembered the conversation she’d overheard earlier. “Like Atlanta?”
“Eventually, yes. That would be the ultimate family field trip. First, let’s try someplace closer to home.”
Kara stopped to worry her bottom lip between her teeth. “What do you have in mind?”
“What’s something Sean might enjoy?” He seemed to pull an idea out of the air. “The circus? One of my earliest memories is of Jonah and Izzy taking Allie and me to the circus with their own children. We had a great time. I bet Sean would love it.”
“You want to take him to the circus?” He rarely went any farther than the back yard. He went all the places he needed to go, like to the doctor and the dentist. But she didn’t have family in the area, and his babysitters came to him. What other engagements did a two-year-old have on his calendar? Who knew what could happen to him away from the safe environment she’d created for him?