CHAPTER 9
“Wow, they are out for the count,” Austin observed quietly as he glanced in the rearview mirror.
Sara looked over her shoulder and saw one of the sweetest sights a mother could see, both of her munchkins fast asleep. Her voice was barely above a whisper as she observed, “Yeah, it’s been a pretty eventful couple of days for them.”
They’d stayed at the BBQ a lot later than Sara had planned. After the bouncy house, Austin and his friends and a group of teens that belonged to Brynn, Ali, and Chrissy all rode dirt bikes on a small track on the property beside Foster Pond. Trev rode with Austin while Charlotte and Sally played with Ali’s dog, Dumbass. Sara couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her kids as full of joy as they’d been today.
Charlotte and Trevor had both always wanted a dog, but Sara had never gotten around to getting one. After seeing the pure delight Dumbass brought her daughter tonight, she figured that would be first up on the to-do list once they settled in Hope Falls.
She still couldn’t quite process all the changes she’d put into motion in the past week. But, if today was any indication of what those changes would lead to, then she was on the right track. Her choices had led to connecting with amazing women that she honestly believed she’d be friends with for years to come. They led to her munchkins getting to meet amazing people and animals and have more fun than they’d had in a long time. And her rash decisions had led her to the man beside her, and he made her feel more alive, safe, terrified, and secure than she’d ever felt before.
Sara stared out the windshield, butterflies fluttering deep in her belly. Every fiber in her being was acutely aware of how close in proximity she was to Austin, and that they were, for all intents and purposes…alone.
Even though they’d spent the last five hours or so together, it wasn’t like they’d had any alone time. They’d been surrounded by people. Still, they had shared at least a hundred eye-locks that had made her feel like they were the only two people on the planet. Not to mention a few innocent brushes of hands, arms, and legs that had made her feel starbursts of bliss in other not-so-innocent body parts.
A shiver ran through her at the memory of those brief touches, and Sara couldn’t stop from stealing a glance at Austin, who was behind the wheel of her SUV.
Damn. Even his profile was sexy. Her gaze trailed across his strong jaw that was covered in just the right amount of stubble to make her fingers itch to touch it. Her visual explorations continued down his masculine neck, over the rounded muscle of his shoulder, along the chiseled lines of his biceps and forearm all the way to his large, powerful hands gripping the wheel.
The sight of a man she barely knew sitting in the driver’s seat of her SUV should’ve made her feel panicked. She knew that, logically. But instead, all Sara felt was peace. Well, that’s not all she felt. There was definitely a large dose of arousal mixed in there.
As they were leaving the park earlier Austin had offered to drive them back, even though Sara now knew the way, and Sara had automatically agreed. That behavior was extremely out of character for her. When Jack came home, Sara never wanted him to drive when they were dropping off the kids, going to dinner, the doctors, the grocery store. She had her routine. She knew which street’s had traffic at which times and she knew all the parking places that were shaded by trees, which in Arizona was a must. Sara’s personality scale had always tipped toward control-freak, no matter how much she wished that go-with-the-flow would outweigh it.
It wasn’t lost on Sara that her marriage not working out had in part been because she could never relinquish the reins of her or her kids’ lives. It wasn’t just the physical driving she’d had issues with when Jack had come home. She’d been overwhelmed with responsibility but had still had to be in charge. That fun contradiction had led to more than one fight because Sara wanted her husband to take the lead and instead, he followed in a very detached manner. When she’d confronted him about it, he’d said he didn’t see the point in trying to step in and take over because there was no way in hell she’d let that happen.
The truth was they’d both been right and wrong.
She didn’t trust anyone else to do something right, because experience had taught her if she wanted, or needed, something done right, she should do it herself.
Her track record in the trust department made her inexplicable reaction to the man sitting next to her that much more unnerving. From the moment they’d met, Sara’d had an intrinsic faith in him, despite the fact she didn’t know him from Adam. The evidence was indisputable. From watching him fill her tires without intervening, to allowing Trev to ride a dirt bike with him, to handing over her keys when he’d asked for them. All of which would normally make her double down her efforts to be independent and retain complete authority. Instead, she’d willingly relinquished control.
The passenger tire dipped, and Sara turned her head to find they’d already arrived back at the B&B. She’d been so lost in thought she’d completely zoned out. Which was yet another totally out-of-character moment.
Maybe she was having a mid-life crisis.
As Austin pulled into the back parking lot, Sara tried to snap back into her normal, take-charge self.
She shifted in her seat. “You can leave the engine on. I’m going to drive them around for a little bit, that way there’s a better chance they’ll stay asleep when I take them in,” she said quietly.
“I’ll drive,” Austin’s low voice rasped the same two words in the same authoritative tone he’d used in the park earlier.
“Okay,” she breathed, agreeing as easily as she had the first time she’d heard him utter that response.
Ummm…maybe taking charge was overrated.
They pulled back out of the parking lot, and Sara had no idea where the man she’d only met this morning was taking her and her children. She should’ve had all kinds of red flags going up and alarms going off. Or at the very least, she should’ve been texting her brother or sister with her location so that someone knew where she was. Instead, she was calmer and more at peace than she could remember being…ever.
And that was terrifying. It was freaking her out that it wasn’t freaking her out.
Her phone buzzed, and when she looked down at the screen, she knew she had no choice but to answer.
“I have to take this,” she whispered as she lifted the device to her ear and answered softly, “Hey, Jack.”
“Hey,” her ex-husband’s voice boomed, and Sara was fairly certain Austin could hear his end of the conversation loud and clear. “I just got your messages. You sold the house and now you’re in Illinois?”
She’d retained the house in the divorce since she’d owned it for two years before they’d gotten married. She’d been trying to get a hold of her ex to let him know since she put it on the market. Jack was no longer active military, but he still worked for the government as a specialist. When jobs came up, it was not uncommon for him to be unreachable for weeks at a time. Which had never been a problem in the past. She was used to not being able to get a hold of him and, since she and the kids’ lives were fairly uneventful, it had never been an issue. Other than a lost tooth or a case of the chicken pox, there hadn’t been much to report. This time, it was a different story.
“Yeah, I did. I am.” Her eyes cut to Austin, who was staring straight ahead.
Yep. Still just as sexy as the last time she’d checked.
“What are you guys doing in Illinois?” Jack didn’t sound mad, per se, but he also didn’t sound happy.
“There was a town I wanted to visit.” Even to her own ears, it sounded like she deserved a one-way ticket to the loony bin.
Jack was silent for a beat before responding with a sigh. “Okay. And then what? You’re going to stay with your brother in California?”
“That’s the plan.” Sara knew she probably owed him more of an explanation, but this was not the time or place. “Can I call you later? The kids are asleep, and I don’t want to wake them.”
“Yeah. I was planning on coming out to Arizona to see them this week, to introduce them to Valentina. Would it be all right if I picked them up from where you are and kept them for a couple of days? I was thinking I could take them to Chicago to visit my brother.”
“Sure. Just let me know when you’ll be here.”
As Sara hung up the phone, she was already thinking about what she’d need to do to get the kids ready for their time with their dad and his fiancée. She was making a list of clothes and instructions she’d need to send with them when the low rumble of Austin’s baritone voice cut through her inner thoughts like a hot knife through butter.
“So, is Valentina the stair mom?”
She smiled at her son’s creative spin on stepmom. “Uh huh.”
“Do you like her?”
“I haven’t met her, but I’m sure she’s great.” She had no doubt that if Jack was willing to take the dreaded plunge again, the woman he’d met was worth it.
“Wow, that’s…impressive.”
“What is?”
Austin lifted one shoulder as they both continued to speak in whispered voices. “Just that you’re so cool about the fact your ex is getting remarried. I’ve seen things get really ugly in divorces.”
“Oh, it’s not like that. Jack is a good guy. A great guy, actually. We just…we weren’t right together.” Sara knew that as an outsider looking in, their situation might seem odd. “I really do want him to be happy, and she seems to make him happy.”
“Damn,” Austin said under his breath. He pulled up to a spot up on a bluff that looked out over the little town of Whisper Lake but kept the car running.
Sara felt his stare on her and she turned to find his gorgeous green eyes searching her face. “What?” she breathed.
“I just can’t figure out if you’re really that perfect.”
Letting out a forced puff-of-air laugh Sara shot back, “Trust me, I am not perfect.”
He looked unconvinced. “I don’t know. From what I see, all evidence points pretty damn close to perfection.”
“You just don’t know me,” she assured him and stared into his tempting emerald-green eyes.
But for some reason, she really wished that he did. And that even then, he’d still look at her with the same awe that he was now. Like she was perfect.
* * *
Austin tightened his fingers around the steering wheel. He was doing everything he could not to lean over the center console and kiss Sara until she knew exactly how perfect he thought she was. It was actually surprising him how difficult it was to resist doing just that with her baby blues staring up at him like he was the answer to all of her prayers. Her gaze was filled with an intriguing, captivating, and logic-defying mixture of innocence, trust, strength, vulnerability, and need.
His mind was racing as he tried to make sense of it all. This woman was an enigma of epic proportions. She was full of contradictions he could not reconcile.
The two little people asleep in the back were evidence this wasn’t her first trip to the rodeo, yet she exuded a naiveté he just couldn’t quite place the origin of.
She radiated an independent, self-contained, and take-charge demeanor, yet she’d let him take the lead more than once.
The intelligence evident in the gleam of her eye questioned everything around her, yet somehow, when she looked at him, it was with a total faith and complete trust he knew there was no way he could’ve earned in the twelve hours they’d known each other.
The need…well, that was the only one he could actually wrap his brain around. If she felt even a tenth of what he did, that would explain the spark of desire he detected in her beautiful eyes.
But what was really throwing him off was not her, it was more his reaction to her. He’d never had a problem with impulse control. His entire life, Austin had made decisions based on logic. Emotion, want, and desire were never qualifying factors in his actions. Everything he did was measured and thought out. He attributed his excellent, and highly decorated, marksmanship as a scout sniper to those very personality traits. He didn’t react based on feelings. He saw things clearly, no matter what was happening around him. He never took his eye off the target and he instinctively knew when to pull the trigger.
Those instincts were always something he trusted. But now they were telling him to press his lips to Sara’s, and he knew there was no way in hell he should act on them.
Austin watched the blush on her cheeks and the rise and fall of her chest as her breathing grew more and more labored. He found himself in very unfamiliar waters, and he was afraid he might be drowning in them. To complicate things even further, the thing that was pulling him under was the very thing he sensed would be his lifeline…Sara.
She broke their stare and looked out the front window. “Where are we?”
Austin paused, not sure it was a great idea to tell her what the kids had called the area they were parked at. That was a can of worms that was better left unopened. But she asked, so he did. “It’s called True Love’s Kiss.”
“Oh.” Her eyes widened and he watched as her chest began moving up and down in shallow breaths. She licked her lips, which only served to stoke the flame of his fiery need to kiss her.
Trying to get his mind off of what he wanted to do, he somehow managed to speak, although his voice was husky with need, “Have you heard about Stone Castle?”
“I heard that it’s haunted,” Sara said breathlessly.
“The story is that an English Duke, William Stone, no relation to me, built the castle when he was banished to America in the late 1800s for refusing to marry the woman that his family had chosen for him because he’d been in love with a chambermaid.
“He smuggled Emilia, the young girl he’d fallen in love with in a crate on the cargo ship he’d sailed over in. Once they got to America, they traveled for months until finding a suitable area to settle in. It’s said that this exact spot was where William asked Emilia to marry him and the two shared their first kiss.”
“Their first kiss?” That was a lot to go through before there’d even been a kiss.
Austin grinned at her reaction. “It was a different time.”
“I guess.” She still wasn’t sure she was buying it. It made for a nice story, but no way had they not kissed.
“Anyway, she said yes. They got married and he had the castle built where they lived happily for over a decade. Until one day, a day like any other, he was out hunting and returned home to find the gruesome discovery that his wife, Emilia, his one true love, had been brutally murdered.
“Legend has it that William Stone, mad with grief, searched the woods, the town, and the lake surrounding the castle day and night, looking for her killer, until he finally dropped dead from malnutrition and exposure.
“When news made it back across the pond to his mother, she felt guilty for having sent William into exile. So she bought the land and the castle in order to keep the last piece of her only son. And no one had lived in it since, except the ghosts of William and Emilia, who roamed the halls searching for each other in the afterlife.”
“Wow.” Sara breathed, then looked out over the lake that was shimmering as moonlight danced over its surface. “It’s so beautiful.”
Unable to stop himself, he rasped, “You’re so beautiful.”
“You don’t have to say that.” She immediately dismissed his compliment, her gaze still focused out over the town.
“I know I don’t.” Austin had no idea how this woman had gone through life not knowing how extraordinary she was when he saw it clear as day after knowing her for just a few hours. He wondered if Jack had been the one who’d put the blinders on her, or if she’d never seen it. “Didn’t your ex tell you how beautiful you are?”
A small sigh fell from her lips. “We didn’t really have that kind of a relationship.”
“What kind of relationship did you have?” It had been hard for Austin to imagine any man walking away from Sara and the kids, but the thought someone could be married to Sara and not tell her how fucking gorgeous she was blew his mind.
She glanced over her shoulder in the back seat, and Austin checked the rearview mirror. Trevor’s head was tilted back, his breathing was even, and his mouth was open with a tiny bit of drool in the corner. Charlotte was snuggled up with a stuffed animal, snoring softly.
After seeing they were both sound asleep, Sara twisted slightly in the seat so she was facing Austin. “Our marriage was less about romance and more about practicality. We were never in love. When I found out I was pregnant with Trevor, Jack said we should get married. I agreed. We went to the courthouse, on a Tuesday, before he deployed on Wednesday for a nine-month tour. When he came home, Trevor was four months old, and he left again when Trevor was nine months. That time he was gone eighteen months.”
Turning her head, she stared out the windshield. “When Jack got out, we tried to make it work. Really tried. It just didn’t…we just didn’t…
“When he got a job offer across the country, I was relieved. It never even crossed my mind that the kids and I should go with him. He left and things felt normal again.
“A few months ago, he called and told me he’d met someone. Nothing had happened between the two of them, but he knew he cared about her. That he was falling for her.
“He asked if I wanted him to move back or if I wanted to go there, to try to work it out. Maybe go to counseling again. I said no. When he brought up getting a divorce, I thought it made sense.
“Jack’s a good guy. He didn’t cheat. He was willing to try, but I knew the truth—there wasn’t anything to try to fight for.”
Austin sat silently, trying to process the information that Sara had just shared with him. It was all perfectly logical. Reasonable. But everything she’d told him had just brought up more questions. He still didn’t know how a man could walk away from his family. She’d mentioned they’d never been in love. Had she ever been in love? Had there ever been any passion in her life?
“Wow.” Sara shook her head slightly and her lips turned up in a grin. “Talk about TMI. That’ll teach you not to ask me questions. That was way more information than I’m sure you were planning on getting. I never do that… I never just go on and on like that. I’m sorry, I don’t know wha—”
“Don’t apologize,” Austin interrupted, almost adding that he could listen to her talk forever. That he wanted to know everything about her. But that would definitely be TMI.
“What about you?” Her voice trembled a little as she asked. “What’s your story?”
“My story?” he grinned.
“Yeah. Are you…” There was a moment of hesitation before her shoulders dropped and she looked out the window. “Never mind.”
“No, what were you going to ask me? Am I what?”
She closed her eyes for a second and then turned toward him. “I was going to ask you if you were single or had ever been married. But, the truth is, I think I already know the answer because the girls were talking about it.” Her head fell back against the headrest. “I’m so bad at this.”
Austin appreciated the fact that she’d come right out and said that she’d heard something about his past. He loved when people were direct and hated when they tried to fish for information. For the first time ever, he actually wanted to talk about what had happened. He wanted to tell her everything, but he didn’t think this was the time.
So instead, he asked, “You’re so bad at what?”
“At having adult conversations.” Her eyes were still closed.
“You’re adorable.”
Her eyes popped open and she started to say something but he beat her to it.
“I know that I don’t have to say that. But you are.”
She licked her lips once more and either he was seeing things through a funhouse mirror lens or she began leaning toward him. When he smelled a faint scent of mint and felt the warm puff of air on his face, he knew that his vision was perfectly intact.
He braced himself for the impact that he’d take when their mouths met. He feared that even the slightest brush of her lips against his might throw him into cardiac arrest.
Unfortunately, he didn’t get to test his theory because a few inches from his face she stilled, then glanced over her shoulder. “We should get back. I’m pretty sure they’ll sleep through a parade at this point.” Then she sat back against her seat.
Austin knew she was right, but damn he’d wanted to taste her ruby lips so bad his entire body ached from the loss of the chance to.
Inhaling slowly, he tried to get himself under control as he lifted his arm and put his hand on the passenger seat as he checked behind him to back up. When he did, the pad of his thumb grazed the bare skin of Sara’s upper arm. It was the slightest touch, but it sent a jolt of lust shooting through him. He knew he wasn’t alone in his reaction when he heard Sara’s sharp intake of breath.
His thumb was still resting against her arm, and he fought his instinct to run it along the graceful line of her shoulder and continue up the sexy slope of her neck.
Necks had never really been on Austin’s radar. He was more of a legs, eyes, smile, and ass man. Even when he was a teenager, he’d never given a girl a hickey…at least not on that particular area. Other than the occasional massage, he’d never really even thought about the neck as a particularly sexual part of the anatomy.
Tonight, that had all changed. When they’d gone back to the B&B so the kids could change and freshen up before heading over to the BBQ, Sara had also changed into a sundress and put her hair up in a ponytail. When she’d emerged from the King’s suite, Austin’s gaze had locked on the smooth skin above her collarbone. All night, he’d been fighting the impulse to devour Sara’s neck. He wanted to lick, kiss, and suck on every inch of it.
Austin finally understood the appeal of movies like Twilight and shows like True Blood, which was a little disconcerting, because he was fairly sure he was not their demographic.
“What’s wrong?” Sara asked, snapping him out of the lust trance.
He moved his hand and looked behind him. As he backed up, he said simply, “You are very distracting.”
She may not believe him when he told her that she was perfect. Or beautiful. Or adorable. But there was no way she could make him believe she wasn’t. To him, those were immutable facts.
They rode in silence the rest of the way back to the B&B, the only sound in the small space was the sound of their heavy breaths.
When they arrived and he cut the engine, she was back in all-business mode. “I’m going to grab her first and I’ll be right back to get him.” Her tone was no-nonsense as she explained.
“I can take him,” Austin offered. There was no reason for her to make two trips.
For the second time that day, her face scrunched up in that cute, sexy way he found even more endearing the second time he saw it.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I don’t mind.”
They worked together like a well-oiled, silent machine and were able to get both of the kids out of the car and tucked in bed without either of them waking up. There had been one tense moment when Sara had stepped on a squeaky board on the steps and Charlotte had stirred, but with some shushing and pats on the back from her mom, she’d drifted back off.
Austin had been on more missions than he could count. Dangerous missions. Missions where lives had been at stake. Missions he’d been awarded medals for. But this one affected him like no other. He felt a stronger sense of accomplishment—undeserved, of course—and comradery—most likely imagined—at not waking up a three and seven-year-old than he’d ever experienced.
Once the kids were tucked in, as he stood in the hallway saying goodnight to Sara, he was torn between wanting to high-five her for their accomplishment and kiss her. Well, not really torn. If given the chance, he’d definitely kiss her. In fact, he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her ruby-red lips that were glossy from the extremely hot, nervous habit she had of licking them.
“Thank you,” Sara whispered as her gaze dipped down to the ground. “For everything.”
“Anytime.” Austin knew people said that, but he really meant it. He’d do anything for this woman, at any time. And that was scarier than any vampire-like fantasy ever could be.
Knowing one more nervous swipe of her pink tongue between those full lips would snap the tenuous hold he had on his self-control, Austin wished Sara goodnight and forced himself to step across the hall and shut his door to begin what he was sure would be a night of tossing and turning, with visions of the blue-eyed, brunette beauty with candy lips racing through his brain. In the span of twelve short hours, she’d infiltrated his mind, body, and he feared…his heart.