“Good night, Sebastian.” She leaned down to give their dog a final ear ruffle—and provide him with a too clear and tormenting view down the front of her blouse before she straightened. Waving as she turned away, she picked along the shore those last few yards toward the house.
Watching the sweet sway of her h*ps proved a double-edged sword. The sight completely rocked his socks, but he would have to run at least a couple of miles if he planned to sleep at all tonight.
He snagged another piece of driftwood and turned to Holly. “Hey, girl, are you ready to race?”
The mutt leapt higher, trying to snag the wood from his hand. He arced his hand back, ready for a long pitch—
A scream cut the air and clean through him. That wasn’t just any scream.
It was Marianna.
Marianna barely had time to hop on one foot out of the surf before Sebastian sprinted up beside her. He scooped her into his arms, not even panting, yet sweat dotted his brow. “What’s wrong? Is it the baby?”No wonder he’d broken into a cold sweat. She squeezed his shoulder reassuringly and tried to resist the temptation of sinking deeper into his hot, muscled arms. “I’m all right. I just got stung by a jellyfish.”
It hurt like a son-of-a-gun, but the hard play of Sebastian’s flexing biceps under her hand offered a welcome distraction. The tense furrows on his face eased somewhat but not completely as he carried her up the incline and past the white-iron fence into the patio area. He lowered her to sit on the edge of the pool, submerging her calf in the cool water for a few soothing seconds before pulling it back out to examine.
Sebastian cradled her foot in his hand, turning it from side to side and studying the slight pink color of her skin around her ankle. “Let’s go inside, and I’ll get something to take the fire out.”
She wasn’t heading back into the warm and wonderfully welcoming Landis home. Especially not on an evening when she was already too weakened by memories of the good times they’d shared, recollections she’d somehow forgotten over the past couple of years as the chill had settled deeper and deeper into her marriage.
“It’s not that bad. The sting is already fading, and the water really helps.” She lowered her foot into the pool again. “I bet if I sit here for a couple of minutes I’ll be fine to drive home.”
He eyed the house, then her, the wheels of his logical brain almost visibly turning. The remaining tension finally eased from him, and he took off his shoes as well.
Now that was a shocker.
Then he lowered his feet into the pool. Who was this man, and what had he done with her brooding ex-husband?
His leg brushed against hers and all distracting thoughts took flight on the next gust of wind, leaving her free to focus only on the sensation of his skin against hers. His thigh teased her with each tantalizingly brief swish. An ache settled low inside her that had nothing to with the jellyfish burn and everything to do with the man beside her.
Damn him for reminding her of things she’d enjoyed about him before, of happier times. And she couldn’t even blame him because still she sat here beside him, swaying closer. Her body had been weak willed around this man since she was eighteen years old.
His shoulders seemed even larger, if possible, shaded by the darkness of the seashore behind him. She waited, transfixed by a desire greater than she wanted or needed with him again.
Sebastian’s hands slid from the edge of the pool onto her head, his fingers trailing along her hair. Her eyes drifted closed as his touch brushed down. He clasped her shoulders, pulling her against his broad chest, anchoring her with the caressing pressure of one palm.
Grasping her hair in his other hand, he wrapped its length around his wrist and tipped her head back with a gentle tug. The light sting echoed the tingle in her br**sts pressed against him. She gasped in surprise when his lips skimmed her exposed neck, nipped her earlobe and grazed her cheekbone before hovering over her mouth. He gave her hair a more forceful tug until her lids flickered open.
“What the—” Sebastian jolted as Holly nudged between them. He gripped the mutt by the collar.
She slumped against him, gasping in hot humid gulps of sea air, relief and regret jockeying for control inside her. “Holly just saved us both from making a big mistake.”
Sebastian didn’t confirm or deny her statement, just stared back at her, his eyes flecked with the flinty blue she only saw during sex. Regardless of any regrets, she knew what she had to do.
Marianna angled away from him, snagging her shoes. If they’d kissed much longer, she would have been following him…anywhere. In fact, with the flush of desire still hot on her skin, she couldn’t race back to her car fast enough.
Gasping, Sebastian bolted upright on the leather sofa in his office. He swiped an arm over his sweat-drenched face and swung his feet to the carpeted floor. At least he didn’t have to worry about Marianna chewing him out for working too late—again.Reaching down, he rubbed his mutt behind the ears. He wasn’t sure why he’d brought Holly with him when he’d come into work after his walk with Marianna. He’d never done it before. For some reason it just seemed the thing to do when Holly had barked at the door as he headed for his car at ten in the evening.
“Hey, girl.” Rough as freshly laid gravel, his voice scratched the air.
He eyed the grandfather clock in the corner—three o’clock in the morning. He’d only been asleep for an hour—long enough to sink into the nightmarish night nine years ago when he’d driven Marianna down the mountain pass to the hospital, scared as hell she would die before he could get her help. And during the whole seemingly endless drive, kicking himself for choosing such a remote locale for a getaway with his pregnant new wife.
The scent of mountain air and her perfume still clung to his senses. How many times would he have to relive it in his sleep? Maybe Marianna was right, and they really were flat-out wrong for each other.
Sebastian rose, working the kink from his neck that had been there long before he slept on the sofa, and lumbered through down the dim hall and into the small kitchenette without pausing to flip a switch. Why bother? There wasn’t much risk of bumping into anybody at the firm at this time of night.
And he spent enough time here that he had the layout memorized.
He opened the refrigerator door, the slim light knifing through the darkness. He plucked out a leftover foam container from his favorite rib restaurant—a place that knew him well after he and Marianna split. They even regularly delivered him meals after closing. One hip resting against the sink, Sebastian lifted the lid and pulled out a dry cold rib, picked it clean, tossed the bone to Holly, then started the unsatisfying process over again. More from habit than hunger, Sebastian ate, all the while thinking about the ultrasound photo in his wallet.
Sebastian threw Holly another bone. “Little different than how things used to be, huh, girl?”
There had been good times, damn it.
Sifting through the leftover dinner, he scavenged up a memory to replace the nightmare. Nearly two years ago, Marianna had surprised him at Christmas with the pair of puppies. How could he forget the power of her infectious smile as she set loose both boisterous animals with red bows around their necks, complete with adoption papers from the local animal shelter?
Sebastian looked down at the now full-grown mutt with her pug face and terrier body. Holly growled as she gnawed a bone, and he could almost hear Marianna giving him hell for feeding the dog table scraps.
She’d been right tonight about the divorce not playing out the way either of them could have predicted. Their whole marriage hadn’t played out the way they expected, first with the miscarriage and then with losing Sophie.
Damn. He cut that pathway to more of the doubts that had led him to divorce court in the first place. He had to stay focused. Life had changed directions, and that was a fact—accept it and deal with it. He had a baby on the way now, and he wasn’t going to be a long-distance dad.
And he sure as hell wasn’t going to turn over his child to be raised by some guy like Ross Ward.
Wooing Marianna was a solid place to start. But if that didn’t work, he would resort to any means necessary. Nightmares be damned, the stakes were just too high to waste time on anything less than a full press ahead.
Six
T ossing and turning all night from dreams of making love with Sebastian on the beach had left Marianna tired, cranky. And late for work. Her bout of morning sickness hadn’t helped her stay on schedule either. Juggling her portfolio and sacked breakfast she hoped to be able to eat now that her stomach had settled, Marianna opened her office door only to stop short.
Sebastian was sprawled on her Queen Anne, Jacobin print sofa—asleep.She started across the room to boot him off her couch and out of her office. What if her boss walked in? Or the receptionist?
Why couldn’t Sebastian understand they weren’t married anymore? He didn’t have the right to waltz in and out of her life at his leisure. He needed to call in advance, make an appointment.
Dropping her portfolio and insulated food bag onto a wingback chair, she stopped inches away from his propped leather loafers. Had they really come to a place in their lives where they needed to schedule a time to talk? How damn sad.
Marianna snagged a tissue from the silver box on the end table and polished a scuff off the tip of his shoe, her eyes traveling up his toned long legs in a slightly rumpled suit. It wasn’t fair that her body should be raging with hormones that left her achy and wanting at a time when Sebastian was officially forbidden territory.
Her eyes scanned along the taut muscles of his chest, suit coat parted as his hand lay on the floor. Then her gaze reached his face. Taut lines along the corners of his eyes and his jaw showed his exhaustion. From too much work? Would he continue this pace after their baby was born?
Old instincts stirred inside her, concern for how hard he pushed himself mixed with frustration at his uncompromising ways. She tried to tell herself she only cared because he was the father of her child, but couldn’t ignore the extra twinge to her heart. Her feelings for him weren’t as easily cast aside as she had thought while pursuing the divorce in her numbed state of grief.
She thought about waking him—but reconsidered. Let him sleep. She had plenty of work to keep her busy. And, yes, maybe she was trying to prove something to herself by staying in the room with him and successfully stifling the urge to stroke the stress lines from his forehead.
Marianna settled into the wingback, her feet on the ottoman. She spread an antique auction catalog open on her lap while she peeled back the foil top from her yogurt.
Fifteen minutes and a carton of boring dairy goop later, the grandfather clock in the corner chimed eleven o’clock. Sebastian startled awake, gripping the side of the sofa to keep from pitching off.
“Hi there, gorgeous.” He scrubbed a hand over his face, his gravelly voice sounding too temptingly like numerous shared mornings over the years. “How are you feeling?”
“We’re doing fine.” She smiled, placing the catalog on the ground beside her. “Just putting my feet up for breakfast and a little professional reading.”