PROVING THAT THEY WERE, indeed, on the same wavelength, Seth didn’t hesitate.
He lifted her off her feet, and took her mouth with his as she wrapped her legs around his waist. The kiss, which had begun soft and gentle, grew firmer, more serious. As his early evening beard scraped against her cheek and she breathed in the erotic workingman scents of sweat and musk, she knew that there’d be no turning back this time.
“There are too many stairs,” she said as he carried her into the house. Three flights. All tightly curving. She might not be as heavy as that mattress he and his dad had lugged up to her room, but still...
“Oh, ye of little faith.” She felt him grin against her lips as he kissed her again, causing every bone in her body to melt like butter left out in the sun. Brianna had no choice but to trust him since she wasn’t certain that she’d even be able to stand on her own legs—which had gone as limp as overcooked spaghetti—let alone make it up to the third floor.
Chest to chest as they were, she could feel his heart pounding as hard as her own and hoped that she wasn’t going to cause him to have a heart attack. She unwrapped her arms around his strong, dark neck just long enough to slip her hand between them and press her palm against the front of his shirt. No, the beat, while hard, was steady. There was none of that jumpy fibrillation feel she’d seen on Grey’s Anatomy right before a patient flatlined.
Once they’d made it to the bathroom, apparently deciding they’d wasted enough time, after turning on the shower, he quickly stripped. Like many men, he seemed totally comfortable with being naked and stood there, muscled legs spread apart, as she drank in the sight of him, the breadth of his wide shoulders and strong arms, before staring at those washboard abs Kylee totally needed to immortalize in her calendar. Her gaze followed the happy trail of brown hair down his chest, then further south.
It wasn’t the first time she’d seen him naked. Once, while he and her brothers had gone skinny dipping at Mirror Lake, she and Kylee had sneakily followed them, hiding in the trees rimming the lake, getting their first glimpse of the male anatomy. Brianna had taken definite interest in the part that her Ken doll certainly didn’t possess. But they’d been boys at the time. While Seth was definitely now all male. Every beautiful inch of him.
When she realized she was staring, she pulled her sweat-stained tank over her head and tossed it aside, where it landed on the closed seat of the commode. Then, although her fingers had turned to ten thumbs, she managed to unhook the cotton polka-dot bra, which—wouldn’t you just know it?—didn’t match her underpants. Because how could she have known this morning when she got dressed that unless she was in an accident that would take her to the ER, anyone would see her underwear?
Not that it seemed to matter to Seth. This time his slow, easy smile revealed pleasure at what he was seeing. A pleasure that couldn’t equal the feel of his calloused hands cupping her breasts, roughened thumbs skimming across her ultrasensitive nipples.
She froze, for just an instant, when his hands went to the button of her shorts.
“Do you normally shower with your clothes on?” His eyes, which had turned a deep smoky brown while savoring her breasts, turned teasing.
“No.” Her hands covered his. “It’s just, oh, hell, I didn’t expect to be doing this.”
“We can stop.”
“No.” Oh, please, God, no! “It’s just that, well, you’d probably have to be a woman to understand, but my underwear doesn’t match.” And could the tile floor now open and swallow her up before she could humiliate herself any further?
“Well, damn.” Was he laughing at her? Now? While they were finally about to have sex? “And doesn’t that just throw a bucket of cold water on my libido?” Risking a glance down, she saw it certainly hadn’t seemed to.
He touched a roughened fingertip against her lips. Dipped his sunstreaked head and kissed her again, running the tip of his tongue along the seam of her mouth. Then drew back and smiled down at her. “I want to see you, Bri. Touch you. All of you. Everywhere.”
How could any woman resist a line like that? But she knew he really meant it, because unlike her bad-boy brothers, Burke and Aiden, Seth didn’t resort to lines.
He took hold of her hands and held them away from her body. Then got busy on her shorts, pulling them down her legs. He kissed her thighs, behind her knees, her ankles, before working his way back up again.
“Oh, yeah,” he said as he stood there, checking out her undies. Which, since she’d known she’d be getting hot and sweaty, were comfy cotton. The color was technically labeled blush rather than a nun’s white. But it definitely wasn’t what she’d fantasized about wearing the first time this man undressed her.
He took her hand, circling her fingers around his length. “I just may need myself some Viagra after seeing those panties.” Impossibly, since atoms were exploding inside her as he began to move her hand up and down, Brianna laughed. Which she couldn’t ever remember doing before while having sex.
Steam rose as he drew her into the shower. He poured some tropical-scented body soap into his palms, rubbed his hands together, then moved them over her body, following every curve and hollow. And then, if that wasn’t havoc enough, as the water flowed over them, his mouth followed the trail. His tongue dipped into her navel and made her moan. His teeth nipping against the wet, hot flesh of her inner thigh had her reaching for him, but he’d already moved on.
Clouds of steam surrounded them, filling her lungs. Her mind. Brianna couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.
And then, just when she was sure she was going blind, his mouth found her. Her head fell back against the tile as she gave herself up to the explosive orgasm rocketing through her. To him.
* * *
AND THAT WAS just the beginning. Over the next ten days, it was as if they were both making up for lost time. Brianna was not only experiencing the most mind-blowing sex of her life, she was having a full-blown, no-holds-barred affair. She knew the shape of Seth as her hands explored his body. The weight of him as he lay on top of her. Inside her.
She knew how he tasted, the glorious roughness of his hands as they traced over her curves and hollows, which he declared to be perfection. They’d come to know each other’s bodies as well as they knew each other’s mind. And it should have been wonderful. Glorious. But having never been one to allow herself to live solely in the moment, she could sense problems on the horizon as sure as the clouds on the horizon of the harbor signaled a storm blowing in from the Pacific.
Meanwhile, somehow, by never going out in public, and him moving his truck behind the house when the crew left at the end of the workday, then crawling out of the bed to return to his own home before sunrise, so far they’d managed to keep their affair their secret. As far as she could tell, no one had caught wind of the fact that Seth Harper and Brianna Mannion were having hot sex in every room of Herons Landing.
Oh, Kylee and Mai knew. But her secret was safe with them. And Dottie and Doris at the Dancing Deer undoubtedly suspected because she’d bought out nearly their entire lingerie section in the past week. She could’ve bought online, but 1) she was impatient, and 2) she’d wanted to feel the material herself. To run her fingers over the panties, bras and camisoles and imagine how the lace and silk might feel to Seth’s roughened fingers.
To their credit and her undying gratitude, neither woman said a thing as they ran her credit card. But Brianna did notice a glisten of moisture in Dottie’s eyes as she wrapped the lingerie in pink tissue paper, and wondered if the elderly woman was thinking of her Harold. And remembering when she’d worn bits of lace and satin for him.
* * *
ALTHOUGH BRIANNA WONDERED why Seth hadn’t spent the past two Saturday nights with her, when no crew would be arriving on a Sunday morning, she’d given him enough personal space not to ask. The same way she’d stayed away from the topic of marriage. It might be cowardly, but she didn’t want to risk him backing away again. Better to leave things as they were for now, she told herself. Friends with benefits was, after all, downright amazing.
Like Kylee said, it might take time. And, as much as she was already picturing their children—a boy and a girl would be lovely, but she wasn’t particular—she was willing to wait. After all, part of her journey back to Honeymoon Harbor had been about slowing down her life. They weren’t in any hurry. Neither of them was going anywhere.
Though there were admittedly times when she’d wanted to escape the daylong screech of saws cutting tile and ripping wood and the hammering of nail guns Quinn had warned her about. But since she could see the progress happening before her eyes, she wasn’t about to complain.
Two evenings ago, as they’d sat on the front porch, drinking wine and watching the sunset on the water, she’d indulged in a daydream where they’d be slow dancing at Kylee and Mai’s rescheduled wedding, when having watched the couple exchange their vows, followed by his mother christening pink-cheeked baby Clara, who’d be dressed in the same white dress Kylee herself had worn for her baptism, Seth would realize, like she had that day in the hospital cafeteria, that he wanted to build a new life. To create a family. With her.
* * *
CAROLINE HAD JUST packed her cotton canvas tote with painting supplies for another morning in the park with Mike when there was a knock at her door.
“You’re early,” she said as she opened it. “I’m almost...” Her words dropped off as she saw who was standing there, flowers in hand. Not roses this time. But the tulips were the same tropical sunset coral color.
“Hello, Ben.” She struggled for calm, even as her heart was racing. He wouldn’t bring flowers if he weren’t going to finally cave in, would he? “Those are lovely.”
“I got them at the Blue House Farm booth at the market,” he said.
“Let me put them in water.” When she had to practically pull them from his tightly fisted hand, she realized he was as nervous as she. And wasn’t that a thought?
He followed her into the apartment, glancing at the tote and easel by the door. “Are you going somewhere?”
“I’d planned to go up to the park.” The furnished apartment hadn’t come with any vases, but it did have a white pitcher she filled with water. “I’ve been working on plein air, which is landscape painting in its natural setting. It’s tricky, but I enjoy it.” She arranged the tulips and set them in the middle of the small circular table.
“That’s good. That you enjoy it. I guess Mannion’s teaching you.”
She lifted her chin at the edge she heard in his rough voice. “He is the only art teacher in town,” she said. “Did you come here for a reason? Other than to bring me flowers again? Because as lovely as they are—”
“I came to ask if you wanted to go out.”
“Out?”
“Like...you know...” He sort of waved a broad, work-roughened hand.
“Are you asking me out on a date?”
“Yeah. I am.”
“Oh.” Now she was the one having trouble coming up with what to say.
“There’s this restaurant in Port Townsend. It’s got both meat and vegetarian dishes.” Caroline felt her heart melting as he looked down at the wooden floor he was scuffing his work boot on like a bashful six-year-old. “I thought maybe we could have dinner there tomorrow night.”
It wasn’t a full surrender. But it was encouraging. “I’d love that.”
He lifted his head, allowing her to see the surprise and what appeared to be relief in his eyes. “Really?”
“Really. It’s been a very long time since we’ve been on a date together.”
Before he could say anything else, there was another knock at the door. Terrific. And wasn’t Mike Mannion showing up just what this situation needed? Knowing she couldn’t leave him outside, she drew in a calming breath, then walked across the room and opened the door again.
“Ready for a great day?” Mike greeted her, his smile fading as he glanced over her shoulder and saw Ben standing there, hands now jammed into his jeans pockets. “Harper.”
“Mannion.”
The younger, more romantic girl she’d once been would probably have found the idea of two handsome men vying for her attentions wildly romantic. The woman she’d grown to be did not.
“I can stay if you want to talk,” she suggested to Ben.
“No.” He shook the tension from his shoulders. “You go ahead and paint your landscape,” he said. “How about I pick you up tomorrow at six? I took the chance of booking a table on the patio, so we can watch the sun set on the water.”
Now that was romantic. And definitely encouraging. “I’ll be ready.”
He blew out a breath. “Great.”
“And thank you again for the flowers.”
Proving he was still a man of few words—she’d probably never change that—he merely nodded. Then, mission accomplished, left the apartment. And if his shoulder just happened to bump Mike’s on the way out, well, that could’ve been an accident.
Probably not.
“So, we’re still on for a lesson?” Mike asked.
Sarah felt her lips curving. A day painting in the meadow with a man whose company she enjoyed, and a sunset dinner with her husband tomorrow night. Life was definitely beginning to look up.
“Absolutely.”
* * *
ON THIS SUNDAY MORNING, as usual, Seth had driven Zoe’s Civic up to Hurricane Ridge, was waved through the station gate by the ranger on duty, then spent the next hour watching a pair of ospreys with at least five-foot wingspans sitting, feeding their nestlings with fish they’d fly in from the strait. Usually his trips up here caused an ache in his chest. One that, even though it had lessened over the years, he’d learned to live with. Today, after about twenty minutes, he realized that he wasn’t feeling it. He waited a bit. Thought about his wife. Waited some more as the giant birds dutifully continued their flights back and forth between water and nest.
It wasn’t that he didn’t still miss Zoe. She’d always be a part of him. It was more that somehow, over this spring, it didn’t hurt to think of her. And most of the anger he’d felt about the unfairness of what had happened was gone. People had told him that time cured all wounds. He’d never believed that, and he knew there’d always be a scar in that place in his heart where Zoe had resided for so many years. But it was no longer a gaping wound. Not healed by time.
But by Brianna having come back home and into his life. He wasn’t sure where they were going, but perhaps that wasn’t just a bad thing. Maybe, he considered as he got back into the Civic and began the drive back down the road that wound like a tangled fishing line out of the park, like his mother kept telling him, there was a lot to be said about living in the moment. Especially when a lot of those moments were spent having hot, blow-your-mind sex. And, something he’d really missed, sleeping with a warm, soft woman in his arms afterward.
He was passing the ranger checkpoint when the woman walked out and waved him down. He stopped and she came over to the open driver’s side window.
“Nice day,” she said.
“Can’t argue that,” Seth said.
And it was going to get better once he got over to Herons Landing and spent some lazy Sunday morning time rolling around that wide mattress with Brianna. One cool thing about Sundays was that she’d try out her B and B breakfast menus on him. Last week she’d had him taste test a citrus berry pizza made with a cream cheese base on top of fluffy dough with a berry topping and whipped cream, which he thought was pretty good, for like maybe a breakfast appetizer. He’d admitted that male guests would probably prefer her hash brown/cheddar cheese/bacon casserole topped with eggs fried in fresh butter from a local dairy farm.
“Got a question for you,” the ranger said as his stomach growled at the memory of that meal.
“Okay.” He was expecting her to ask about doing more remodeling on her ’70s rancher when she surprised him. “You ever think about selling this car?”
“Not really.”
“I was just wondering. Now that you and the Mannion girl are an item, I figured you wouldn’t need an extra vehicle in that two-car garage of yours. Course, I guess if you end up moving into Herons Landing, you can build yourself a bigger garage.” She scratched her head like she was thinking on something, while Seth was thinking how the hell she knew about him and Bri. “I’m not sure I’d be that thrilled about having a previous wife’s car parked next to mine if I were her, but hey, we all look at things differently, right?”
“Right. But what makes you think that Brianna Mannion and I are a couple?”
“Oh, honey, don’t be so naive. Everyone in town knows that you and that girl are seeing each other.”
Seriously? “I don’t get into town gossip, but you’re the first person who’s brought it up. And if it is true, which I’m not saying it is, how would anyone know?”
“Maybe because you haven’t been eating dinner at Mannion’s every night?”
“Sometimes a guy just likes to mix things up. I’ve gotten take-out tacos. And pizza. And lasagna.”
“You’ve also bought enough groceries down at the market for two. Unless you’re storing up for some disaster like those survivalist types.”
Seth realized he was busted. “Everyone knows?”
“Just about. But don’t worry. We’re all keeping it off the Facebook page to give you both some privacy.”
“Now there’s a concept.” One that had, as far as he’d seen, never before existed.
“You deserve to have yourself a romance after what all you’ve been through,” she said, her eyes warm with sympathy. “Being widowed myself, though not at a tragically young age like you, I know how it feels as if you’ve lost a major part of yourself. And how small towns can be like living in a fishbowl. When I started going out with my Kenny, who became my girl’s stepdaddy, I felt like we were lit up in a spotlight whenever we went anywhere. Gave me an idea how those celebrities must feel, always being followed around by tabloid photographers looking to make a quick buck.”
“I’m not planning to get remarried,” he felt obliged to point out before everyone in Honeymoon Harbor had Brianna and him engaged, married and filling Herons Landing with a passel of kids. He didn’t mention that more random scenes of imagined children—who’d grow up loving Herons Landing the same as the two of them did—had occasionally flashed through his mind.
“Neither was I when I stopped by Kenny’s garage to have my winter tires put on. But life goes on and love can happen just when you’re not looking for it.”
“Well, I appreciate everyone giving us some space,” he said.
“No worries. And getting back to my original point, if you ever do decide to sell this pretty little red car, I’ve got a granddaughter who just finished culinary training at Clearwater Community College and got herself a job in Olympia at some fancy seafood place on the Sound.”
“Good for her.”
“We’re real proud of her. The thing is, she’s going to be working nights and I’d feel a lot better if she didn’t have to walk over to the bus depot, then walk home after the driver lets her off a couple blocks from her apartment. I’ve been thinking that this baby would be affordable for her to keep up and keep her safer. Plus, red’s her favorite color. So if you change your mind about keeping it, I’d like first shot at buying it for her.”
“You’ve got it,” Seth promised. Not that he intended to sell the Civic, but he did agree that while the state capital might not have a lot of big-city crime, a young woman walking alone on the dark streets at night probably wasn’t the best idea.
“Thanks.” She tipped her fingers to her Smokey Bear ranger hat. “I’d appreciate that. Have yourself a nice rest of your day.”
“Thanks, I intend to. You, too.”
As he drove to Herons Landing, Seth debated whether or not to tell Brianna that they’d landed in the town’s social topic bull’s-eye, apparently reclaiming the spot taken up by his parents’ separation and the birth of Kylee and Mai’s adopted baby.