She hitched her purse a little higher on one bare shoulder and tightened her grip on the strap when she stopped directly in front of him. Whipping her hair back out of her eyes, she looked up at him and said, “I wondered where you disappeared to.”“I had some things to take care of,” Dave told her and it was partially true. He’d already fired the band that had refused to clean up their act, hired another one and was expected at a meeting with the harbormaster in a half hour.But he’d still been avoiding her.“Look, Dave”“Lucia—” he said at the same time, wanting to cut off any attempt by her to romanticize the night before. Bad enough he’d done too much thinking about it already.“Me first, okay?” she spoke up quickly, before he had a chance to continue. She gave him a half smile, and Dave braced himself for the whole what-do-I-mean-to-you, question-and-answer session. This was why he normally went only for the women who, like him, were looking for nothing more complex than one night
“Is that wrong?” she asked, still grinning.He scowled at her, then shook his head and wrinkled his nose. “Fine, fine. Big joke. But you have to admit, I’m not doing badly.”“I suppose,” she conceded with a nod. “But smells to me as if you’ve got a little problem facing you at the moment.”“And I’ll handle it,” he said firmly, as though he was trying to convince himself, as well as her.“Okay then, get to it.”He scrubbed one hand across his face, looked down into the crib and murmured, “How can someone so cute smell so bad?”“Yet another universal mystery,” she told him.“Another?”“Never mind,” Lucia said, thinking back to her conversation with Maxie when Lucia was still on the ship. Before the redhead. Before she’d left in such a hurry. Oh God. Lucia straightened up and closed her eyes. Maxie. Wait until she found out that Dave was here.“You okay?” he asked.Opening her eyes again, she looked at him, so out of place there in her sons’ nursery, and told herself that this was just w
“Then why’d you leave the ship so fast?” Dave asked quietly.“You know why.” Just the memory of the na**d redhead was enough to put a little steel back into her spine.“I didn’t even know her,” he reminded her with just a touch of defensiveness in his voice.“Doesn’t matter,” she said, lowering her voice quickly when Alan began to stir. She hadn’t meant to wake him up. Hadn’t wanted to get into any of this right now. But since it had happened anyway, there was no point in trying to avoid it. “Dave, don’t you see? The redhead was just a shining example of how different we are. She brought home to me how much out of my element I was on that ship. With you.”He reached out, skimmed his fingertips along her cheek and pushed her hair back behind her right ear. Jenna shivered at the contact, but took a breath and steadied herself. Want wasn’t enough. A one-sided love wasn’t enough. She needed more. Deserved more.“I don’t belong in the kind of life you lead, Dave. And neither do the boys.”
Maxie took the hint and lowered her voice. “Sorry, sorry. But I can’t believe Dave’s been here for two nights and you didn’t tell me.”Lucia smirked at her. “Gee, me, neither. Of course, I only kept it a secret because I thought you might not understand, but clearly I was wrong.”“Funny.”Lucia blew out a breath and hooked her arm through her sister’s. No matter what else was going on in her life, Maxie and she were a team. They’d had only each other for the last five years, after her parents died, she stood by her like an older sister. And she wasn’t going to lose her only sister in an argument over a man who didn’t even want her.“Max,” she said, trying to keep her voice even and calm, despite the whirlwind of emotions she felt churning inside, “he’s here to get to know the boys. His sons, remember? We’re not together that way, and believe me when I say I’m being careful.”Maxie didn’t look convinced, but then she wasn’t exactly a trusting soul when it came to men. Not that Jenna co
Soft sunlight came through the louvered blinds on the window and lay across the shining wood floor like gold bars. Outside somewhere on this cozy little street, a lawnmower fired up and Ethan jumped as though he’d been shot.Instantly Dave moved to the crib, leaned over and laid one hand on his son’s narrow chest. He felt the rapid-fire thud of a tiny heart beneath his palm, and a love so deep, so pure, so all encompassing, filled him to the point that he couldn’t draw a breath.He hadn’t expected this. Hadn’t thought to fall so helplessly in love with children he hadn’t known existed two weeks ago. Hadn’t thought that he’d enjoy getting up at the crack of dawn just so he could look down into wide eyes, eager to explore the morning. Hadn’t thought that being here, with the boys, with their mother, could feel so…right.Now that he knew the truth, though, the question was, what was he going to do about it?Moving across the room to Ethan, he bent down, scooped his son up into his arms a
Holding on to him, Lucia smoothed her hands over his skin, his broad back, his sculpted chest, and when he sucked in a gulp of air, she smiled in the dark, pleased to know she affected him as deeply as he did her.In moments she was on her bed, staring up at him as he tore his jeans off and came to her. In the next instant he’d pulled her nightshirt up and off, and slid her white lace panties down the length of her legs and tossed them onto the floor.Since the second he’d walked, unannounced, into her home, Lucia had wanted this. She’d lain awake at night hungering for him, and now that he was here, she had no intention of denying either of them. Though, for all she knew, this was his way of saying goodbye. He might be getting ready to leave, to go back to his world.And if that was the case, then she wanted this one last night with him. Wanted to feel him over and around her. Wanted to look up into those pale eyes and know that at least for this moment, she was the most important th
“I’ll be waiting.”He hung up before she could ask any more questions, and Lucia scowled at her cell phone before she set it down on the seat beside her. “Well, guys, we’re off to meet your father.” Ethan cooed. “No, I don’t know what this is about, either,” she told her son. “But knowing your daddy, it could be anything.”It turned out to be a house.Cape Cod style, it looked distinctly out of place in Southern California, but it was the most beautiful house Jenna had ever seen. It was huge, and she was willing to bet that five of her cottages would have fit comfortably inside. But for all its size, it looked like a family home. There was a wide front lawn, and when she stepped out of the car in the driveway, she heard the sound of the ocean and knew the big house must be right on the sea.“What’s going on here?” she wondered aloud. But then Alan’s short, sharp cry caught her attention and she turned to get her sons out of their seats.“Lucia!”She looked up and watched as Dave ran d
“Yes, Lucia. Us.” He reached out, cupped her cheek in his palm and was only mildly disappointed when she stepped back and away from him. He would convince her. He had to convince her. “I found a solution to our situation,” he said, locking his gaze with hers, wanting her to see everything he was thinking, feeling, written in his eyes.“Our situation?” She blinked, shook her head as if to clear away cobwebs and then stared at him again.The wind was cold, but the sun was warm. Shade from the trees didn’t reach the patio, and the sunlight dancing in her hair made him want to grab her and hold her close. But first they had to settle this. Once and for all.“The boys,” he said, starting out slowly, as he’d planned. “We both love them. We both want them. So it occurred to me that the solution was for us to get married. Then we both have them.”She took another step back, and, irritated that she hadn’t jumped on his plan wholeheartedly, Dave talked faster. “It’s not like we don’t get along.