She held his gaze. The inside of the car was silent. She wanted nothing more than to climb inside of him and lose herself.

“I don’t want to go back to the office,” she heard herself whisper.

He held her gaze a second longer. “My place?” he asked quietly.

“Yes.” She needed him to hold her.

He shifted the car back into drive.

Fifteen minutes later, they’d parked in the city center, catching a lucky spot on the street.

He reached out and took her hand as they walked down the wet sidewalk. Victoria tensed, unused to the sensation of hand-holding in public. She cast a few nervous glances at passersby, who ignored them. She slowly relaxed. His hand was warm and strong. Something about having a man reach out and claim her in such a casual yet powerful way gave her goose bumps. It hadn’t been like this when they were younger. Perhaps she’d taken too much for granted. They’d almost been kids. Romance at her age was a whole new experience.

“I had some news I wanted to share with you earlier, but since that letter showed up, I’d put it out of my mind.”

“What happened?

“I mailed off the signed divorce documents to my lawyer today.”

“You didn’t tell me you had them.” She glanced at him, scanning for any sorrow in his face. Shouldn’t a divorce be a sad time? Hers had been depressing. Even though she’d known it was the absolute right thing to do, it’d seemed like a big symbol of failure. Seth didn’t look the slightest bit sad. In fact, he looked very relaxed. “How do you feel about that?”

Seth smiled. “Jennifer and I have been working toward this for a long time. Everything has been pretty amicable, but the legal part took forever. In my head, we’ve been divorced for a long time. This made it real.” He abruptly stopped in front of the Italian restaurant where she’d eaten with Lacey and Dr. Campbell. “I’m staying here.” The restaurant occupied the bottom level of one of Portland’s finer boutique hotels.

“Great hotel.”

“It’s old. But they’ve got fantastic rooms. The windows in mine are incredible. They look like they belong in a large sun room.”

He’d understood when she’d said she didn’t want to go back to work. He’d driven straight to downtown Portland, neither of them speaking, but knowing exactly what they both needed.

He gripped her hand. He hadn’t let go. The space in the elevator seemed to shrink as they silently waited for the upward trek to finish. She studied Seth out of the corner of her eye, her heart expanding sight of the rugged profile. Right now, she felt like she’d spent the last ten years with him at her side.

He made her relax. It’d been a roller-coaster of twenty-four hours. Her house was fire, smoke, and water damaged. She’d met a horrible woman who was possibly her birth mother. But being next to Seth made it all bearable.

They stepped off the elevator and moved down the hall to his room.

“Don’t let me forget to grab my cell phone,” Seth said.

“How on earth did you forget one of your phones? I’d feel like I left my right arm behind.”

“That’s exactly what it’s felt like all morning. It’s driving me crazy. I should know better. I’ve been carrying a work phone and personal phone for about five years, but somehow I will leave one behind sometimes.” He held his key card to the lock and pushed the door open, holding it for her to walk through.

Light beckoned to her and she moved forward, dropping his hand, her eyes wide at the sight of the windows that wrapped up and over a portion of the ceiling. “It’s like staying in an atrium.”

Seth laughed. “I feel like the whole city can see me in here. But I really don’t care. Who’s going to recognize me?”

“It is really exposed.” Victoria studied the buildings across the street. “Their windows look straight in here. At least there’s a good distance. They’d need a telescope for details.”

“I’ve given them a few shows.”

She whirled around to face him, an exclamation on her lips, until she saw he was teasing. An image of him parading naked for the viewers crossed her mind. A laugh bubbled out of her chest. How long had it been since she laughed like that?

He watched her carefully, a big grin on his face, but his eyes reflected a soul-deep level of adoration. “God, I’ve missed you, Tori.”

She held his gaze, her stomach warming and trembling in a good way. He moved closer, taking both of her hands and squeezing tightly. His heart was clear in his gaze. He meant every word. Abruptly he pulled her to him, wrapping his arms firmly about her, burying his face in her hair, and she felt a shudder go through him. “It’s been too long.”

Her insides dissolved and absorbed into his heat. She moved her lips against his neck and nestled her face against the roughness of his skin. His stubble stimulating the most sensitive skin on her body. She inhaled his scent, and a calm flowed through her. It was a masculine scent, one she wanted to breathe forever.

She didn’t notice her tears until she tasted them.

Seth noticed. He pulled back and lifted her chin, his gaze considering her face. “Aw, Tori. Why do you cry? Was it that awful woman? Don’t think about her.” His voice was a low rumble, a sound she knew meant his emotions were very, very close to the surface.

“I didn’t know I was.”

He wiped at her tear tracks. “Don’t cry. Nothing makes me cry except the sight of your tears. Should we not be up here?”