FOR A BEWILDERED MOMENT, Melissa didn’t know where she was. Soft light filtered through strange curtains, displaying unfamiliar furniture and a room that wasn’t her own. As she reoriented herself in the hotel room, and consciousness returned fully, so did her memory of last night.
Last night…
A smug little smile pulled at her lips while she thought about last night. She snuggled backward a little closer into the warm weight of Seth sleeping beside her in the bed. She heard a rustling movement and then felt his lips on the nape of her neck in a sleepy caress. “How are you feeling this morning?” he whispered.
“If I were a cat, I’d be purring,” she admitted. She turned her head to gaze at Seth, almost unable to believe she could experience so much uncomplicated pleasure in one night. She caught the tail end of a very self-satisfied grin as he tried to swallow it.
“Bet I could make you purr louder,” he challenged, trailing a hand to her breast.
“Ow,” she said, as she felt his stubbled cheek rub against her tender skin. “You need a shave.”
He kissed the place he’d scraped, making her sigh, then he said, “Don’t move,” and bounded out of bed and headed for the bathroom.
Without knowing she was doing it, she snuggled over onto his side of the bed, where it was still warm from his body and smelled faintly of him. Through the open bathroom door came the sounds of water swishing, then Seth’s voice, distorted as though he were talking while shaving. “What do you want to do today?”
She wanted to stay in that bed and make love. She was all keyed up and waiting for him to finish shaving. Had he lost interest so quickly? In a voice that sounded like one of the twins after she’d been told “no” to the Bravo Boys concert for the fiftieth time, she answered, “I don’t know.”
“I thought maybe we’d drive to La Conner for breakfast. A very late breakfast,” he said, striding out of the bathroom and toward the bed with an expression on his face that told her he hadn’t lost interest at all.
“Oh, after.” She flipped up the covers to let him back in the bed. “That would be good.”
Then he kissed her and she forgot all about La Conner. All about everything but the sensations bubbling through her body. The soapy clean scent of shaving cream and the taste of toothpaste on his lips. With a sigh of utter pleasure, she closed her eyes and began drifting toward the stars.
Some time later, she awoke for the second time.
“They’ll be serving dinner, not breakfast, if we don’t get going soon,” she mumbled against Seth’s ear.
“Room service,” he huffed into the pillow.
“Not again,” she giggled. “Anyhow, I need a break,” she groaned, struggling to a stand. “I’ve found muscles I didn’t know I had.”
The bathroom seemed to have moved four miles farther from when Seth had made the trip earlier. She felt his eyes on her naked back and wanted to cover her drooping posterior and bolt. But pride, and something else—a new-found sense of herself—held her to a slower pace. More a speed walk than a fifty-yard dash.
“Did anybody ever tell you you have a great ass?” His voice stopped her at the bathroom doorway.
“Not in about a hundred years.”
He chuckled. “Bet they were thinking it. I know I was.”
Since she couldn’t think of a thing to say, she shut the door. Had nine days of video workouts done that much for her figure? She twisted around to get a better look at her backside in the mirror. It looked about the same as it had a week ago. But if he didn’t care, why should she?
She made a face at herself in the mirror. Then did a double take. Was that really her? That woman with the tousled hair, swollen lips and bright, sparkling eyes? That was the face of a woman who’d spent the greatest night of her life making love to a considerate, inventive and humorous lover.
She stepped into the shower and let the hot water pummel her naked body. She experienced a new awareness of the way the water felt against her skin, the way the soap slid across the slope of her breasts, the way her flesh glowed pink and healthy as she toweled herself after.
She emerged with the slightest twinge of shyness. It was, after all, full daylight now. No more darkness and closed-eyed caresses. They’d be looking each other in the eye all day. Talking. And all the time, this new sex thing would be between them.
But she hardly had time to be shy. Seth handed her a cup of coffee, kissed her shoulder and took her place in the bathroom. Soon she heard the shower, and took the opportunity to swiftly dress in a pair of khaki pants and a sweater. The intimacy of dressing in front of him seemed too much like marriage, somehow.
Taking her coffee out to the balcony, she stared out at the view over the golf course to the wilder forested areas. Pretending to be totally absorbed in the lofty soaring of a couple of bald eagles high above the trees, she managed to ignore Seth dressing until the rattling of keys and change told her he was pretty much done.
“Hungry?”
“Starving.”
“There used to be a great little seafood restaurant. I wonder if it’s still there. Claire and I went once and I had the best crab chowder.” He pulled the door open and smiled at her. “Do you need a coat or anything?”
She shook her head and forced herself to smile back. “I’ve got one in the car.” Claire. He’d mentioned her name. He was taking her to a restaurant he and his dead wife had been to together.
While they walked through the plush corridor and waited for the elevator, he talked on about La Conner and what she’d see there, but she couldn’t take any of it in. He’d mentioned Claire’s name. Just like you would an old and dear friend. Not with anger or pain. The memory hadn’t spoiled his day at all.
Maybe he’d been telling her the truth. Maybe he had moved on.
“Pretty slow elevator for a brand new hotel,” he grumbled. He had his car keys in his right hand. When he extended his left to jab at the elevator call button, she was shocked by what she saw.
“Your ring. Your wedding ring. It’s—”
“Gone.” He regarded the naked ring finger self-consciously. “I didn’t think it would be right to wear it. With you, I mean. I wanted us to have a fresh start.”
“Oh, Seth.” At that moment, the delinquent elevator chose to arrive, and a noisy family carrying tennis equipment witnessed a teary-eyed Melissa throwing herself into Seth’s arms and heard the words she’d once sworn she’d never utter to another man. “I love you.”
His sad, sexy eyes glowed. “I love you, too.” And then he kissed her.
“Should I hold the elevator?” a teenaged male voice croaked.
“Get over here, Marvin,” his mother scolded. And in a marginally quieter tone, “They’re making up from a fight. Like your father and I do sometimes.”
“Dad never kisses you like that.”
I LOVE YOU. Such easy words to say. They might have been oiled, they’d slid so easily out of her lips before she could stop them. She could have kicked herself. Now the casual, weekend was spoiled.
For once in her life she’d thrown caution to the wind and dashed off for a wild weekend—and what happened? She awoke to find herself in love. A scary kind of love that felt as deep as her bone marrow. And as permanent.
As they strolled down the narrow main road, hand in hand, she could picture them five or ten or twenty years from now. Like one of those retirement ads on TV, she imagined her and Seth, gray-haired and lined, in a tasteful, air-brushed way, heading off into their golden years.
She wanted to scream.
This was supposed to be a wild, glorious, sinful, no-holds barred, maybe-I’ll-call-you-again-sometime-and-then-again-maybe-I-won’t kind of weekend. If she could take back those three little words, she’d grab them and stuff them carefully away. And the most humiliating part was that she’d said them first. Oh, he’d parroted them readily enough. What was the poor guy supposed to do with a doubles tennis team witnessing their little clinch outside the elevator?
“Penny for them,” Seth spoke at her side.
“Hmm?”
“That’s what my English grandmother used to say. ‘A penny for your thoughts.’”
“They’re not worth a penny.” She sighed. “You know, if your grandmother had put her penny in the stock market when it first opened, it’d be worth millions of dollars today. Millions. I read that in a budgeting book I borrowed from the library.” A bitter laugh shook her. “I couldn’t afford to buy the book.”
He released her hand and his arm came round her shoulders in a squeezing hug. “It hasn’t been easy for you and the kids. I know that. But it will all change when we get married.”
She nearly stumbled. “I thought we weren’t getting married.”
He looked at her, puzzled, and she heard her own stupid words echo around them both. “I thought I’d changed your mind.”
“I wish I could go back in time and deposit that penny. That would change everything.”
“It wouldn’t change this,” and turning her to him, he kissed her. A real honest-to-goodness, toe-tingling kiss, right in the middle of the busy, tourist-crowded street.
She tried to separate her head from her heart, but the damn thing was banging away inside her rib cage, making her light-headed. How could she possibly think straight? “I mean, there wouldn’t be any hidden agendas between us.”
“You mean you’re marrying me for my money? I should warn you, my grandmother spent that penny.” He was teasing, but only half. She saw the serious expression in his eyes. “There’s no inherited fortune. I’m in pretty good financial shape—” he made a comical expression “—as you’d expect from your banker. But all I have is what I’ve saved and invested from my earnings over the years. We’ll be comfortable, but not jet-setters.”
“I don’t care about that. All I want is a good life for my kids. But money always comes between us. What happens if we get married and we fight? Will you think, she only married me to get out of debt?”
“Of course not. That’s like you thinking I only married you to make our babysitting arrangement permanent.”
“Bingo.”
A growl of frustration came from her right. “Sometimes I wish I could meet that ex of yours to pound his head in.”
The idea made her so gleeful she knew she should be ashamed of herself. “You do?”
“You picked the wrong guy first time out. It happens. He was a pig. What can I say? Some men are pigs. But not all of us. Don’t let him spoil what we have.”
“I don’t want us to marry out of desperation. Either of us.”
“I know desperation. I’ve been there. I could draw you a road map of the place.” His fingers traced up and down her neck under her hair, his eyes gentle and understanding. “I know this scares the hell out of you, but you must know you helped pull me out. I’d been there so long I’d forgotten I could leave.”
“Oh, Seth—”
“But, I don’t love you because of that…well, maybe I do in part. But only a part. I don’t love you because you’re great with my girls, but that’s part of it, too. I love you because you’re a terrific woman. Gorgeous and sexy and brave. I love you because I’m better with you than I can ever be without you.”
“I feel that, too. But Seth, I’m scared.”
“Trust me. Trust us. We can do this—but not on an empty stomach. Here’s the restaurant I was telling you about.”
How like a man, she thought to herself with a smile. He could only take so much intimate talk, then he needed a breather. Truth was, she kind of needed one herself. They were starting to unpack their emotional baggage, one bag at a time.
And before she knew it, he’d used his breather to settle them into the restaurant and they were sitting at a table drinking coffee and eating fresh salmon omelets.
And discussing the future. From the way Seth was talking, it seemed they were engaged.
Every time the little quavery voice in her head sounded its fearful alarm, she’d put a determined smile on her face and remind herself of Seth’s words. She did trust him. And she did love him.
And of course, he must love her. He’d told her so, hadn’t he? Not only with words, but with little thoughtful gestures and the expression in his eyes when he glanced her way. He’d loved her with his body deep into the night. So, she quelled the voice that said it was too soon. He wasn’t ready.
Seth was the answer to all her hopes and prayers. She was delighted. Really, she was.
Maybe she was having so much fun being single and enjoying an attractive man simply for sex that she wasn’t quite ready to be a wife again.
“Eat up. You’ll need your strength for tonight,” he taunted as she pushed the last bit of food around her plate.
She felt absurdly shy at his words and the images they immediately conjured in her mind. She might have blushed, except that the blood all seemed to have rushed to the intimate parts of her body. “Didn’t you get your fill last night?”
“Sweetheart, with you I don’t think I could ever get my fill. Just to help you get in the mood, I’ve booked you a full massage and I don’t know what else. Some kind of spa package.”
“You did? For when?”
“This afternoon. I promised you a decadent weekend, didn’t I?”
She gave a soft chuckle. “I’m really starting to like being your weekend mistress.”
“Well, it’s a short-term assignment.”
She blinked.
“Until we get married.”
Abandoning the last of her breakfast, she sipped the fresh coffee their waitress had poured. “I don’t know. We shouldn’t rush into anything. This is a big step for both of us. We’re not impulsive people.” She glanced up with a wry grin. “Look how long it was before we made love.”
He reached for her free hand and ran a thumb over her knuckles. It was his left hand. The mark where his wedding ring had rested for so long was a shade paler. He’d only taken off one woman’s ring a day ago. Was he really ready to replace it? “How do you see this playing out, then?”
When she raised her eyebrows, he continued. “Do I kiss you in front of the kids? Do we have complicated sleepover arrangements every time we want sex? Are you going to be okay with Matthew and Alice seeing me come out of your bedroom some mornings but not others?”
Slowly, as the impact of his words sank in, she shook her head.
“I know it’s a little soon for us. I get that, but I can’t see another way for us to be together other than to get married. And I don’t think either of us is going to be comfortable carrying on in front of the kids unless we’re married.”
She did want to marry him, and she knew she’d be good for him. Instead of arguing, as part of her knew she should, she gave in.
“I may become your wife, but promise me you’ll always treat me like your mistress when we’re alone.”
He chuckled, deep and sexy. “I don’t have a lot of personal experience with mistresses—”
She cocked a severe eyebrow at him.
“Okay. I don’t have any. But I think a man’s mistress is supposed to do anything he tells her to—of a sexual nature, I mean.”
“Really?” Little shivers of excitement raced up and down her spine. “Like what?”
He gave her a few ideas, and suddenly she couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel and follow his instructions explicitly.