Author: Bella Andre

Desire that she was afraid was going to make her come completely unglued before long.

“Thank you for a lovely evening,” she said in a slightly husky voice.

She reached for the doorknob, but before she could open the door, Summer said, “Aren’t you guys going to kiss good night?”

A strangled laugh came from Megan’s lips and when she looked over at Gabe, his eyes were dark with the same barely restrained desire she was grappling with.

“Of course we are,” he said.

A moment later, his lips were against hers, warm and delicious. It was just enough of a kiss to whet her appetite for more and when he pulled back, she felt dazed.

Summer smiled at the two of them, clearly pleased to see that her matchmaking had worked out so well. “See you Sunday, Gabe. That was fun.”

* * *

On Sunday night, the three of them were sitting on the living room carpet, trying to extract a thigh bone in a tightly contested game of Operation.

Well, a tightly contested game between Summer and Gabe, anyway. Sitting this close to Gabe had Megan’s hands so shaky she could hardly play. Again and again, she set off the red buzzer by bonking the tweezers into the sides of the small holes on the game board.

Summer and Gabe were neck and neck with their piles of little bones and organs when Summer pouted. “This isn’t fair. You do this kind of stuff for your job. I’m just a kid.”

Megan waited to see if he was going to be fooled, but he merely raised an eyebrow. “I’m trained as a paramedic, not a surgeon.”

Summer made a face. “It’s practically the same thing.”

Gabe smiled at her daughter. “Not even close, but nice try, kid.”

When Summer cheerfully said, “Your turn,” Megan knew she wasn’t done rummaging through her bag of tricks to try to make sure she won the game.

Gabe picked up the tweezers and was just about to go for the brain when Summer let out a shriek. “Oh my gosh, what a huge bug!”

Megan winced as her daughter’s piercingly high voice penetrated her skull. “What bug, Summer?”

But her daughter was busy staring at Gabe’s hand where it had stilled right over the playing board, rather than bonking into it and giving her the potential win.

Megan couldn’t help but laugh. “He’s one of eight, sweetie. I think you’re going to have to try harder than that to distract him.”

A second later, Gabe reached in, grabbed the brain and almost had it all the way out when the tip of the tweezers slid against the board. The red buzzer sounded and Summer grabbed the tweezers from his hand, expertly pulling out the brain.

“I win!”

“Nice work, Summer.”

Megan couldn’t imagine a single one of the guys she’d dated playing this game with Summer, let alone enjoying it. Not to mention dealing with her antics so well.

“You have school tomorrow. Time for bed,” Megan said. “Go brush your teeth and get your jammies on and I’ll read you a story.”

“Can you read it to me tonight, Gabe?”

Perhaps Megan shouldn’t have been shocked by Summer’s request, but she was. No one else had ever read her daughter a story, not even her father, who’d always preferred to be outside on the grass playing with her when she was a baby than indoors with her teething and chewing on a book on his lap.

“Megan?”

Rather than answering Summer’s question, Gabe’s eyes were on hers, and she could read the question on his face: Is this okay with you?

Every minute the three of them spent together, she watched Gabe and Summer draw closer. They were two people who genuinely enjoyed each other’s company.

Her daughter had fantastic taste in men.

And yet, for some reason this felt like another big step, after so many other big steps. First, spending a Friday night together at Fisherman’s Wharf, acting like a family. Then, kissing Gabe in front of Summer. And now, Gabe telling her a bedtime story.

What if something happened to him? What if Summer got used to Gabe playing games with her and reading bedtime stories and then—

She caught herself a split second before her brain reeled off into panic land.

I need to try. Just keep trying.

“Sounds great to me.”

Gabe scanned her face, the smile she’d pasted on it. “Maybe,” he said softly, “we could all read it together.”

Relief swept through her, love fierce on its heels. She’d never thought to meet a man who understood her this well, who could read her secret thoughts without her saying a word.

Thirty minutes later, Summer was tucked into bed and they were headed out to the living room.

“I loved listening to you read The Magic Tree House to Summer, the way you did all the characters.”

He shrugged as if it were no big deal. “Sophie’s pretty good at putting on the pressure to get us in there to read to the kids during story time at the library.”

Megan loved the thought of Gabe sitting on a little plastic chair reading to a bunch of kids...and their drooling mothers. She could only imagine the kind of fantasies he must inspire in those women during what had to be the best thirty minutes of their month.

The very same fantasies he inspired in her.

“Ready for your bedtime story?” He pulled her onto his lap on the couch.

“But I’m not tired yet,” she said softly.

His beautiful mouth moved up at the corners and she thought he was going to kiss her. Instead, he nuzzled into the curve of her neck, making her shiver with his tongue.

“Once upon a time there was a man.”

“Not a prince?”

“No,” he said with a soft nip at her chin. “He was a perfectly average, ordinary man. But one day he got lucky and met the prettiest woman in the entire world.”

“Are you sure she wasn’t average and ordinary, too?”

His teeth found her earlobe, sending thrill bumps over the surface of her skin. “I promise you, she was extraordinary. She was so pretty he couldn’t believe she was talking to him.”

“Did they kiss?”

His mouth moved closer to hers as he said, “Oh yes...and those kisses rocked his world.”

Finally—finally!—he was kissing her mouth and her toes were curling from the passion erupting all through her. But despite how frantic she was to make love with him, she somehow managed to remember that her daughter was sleeping down the hall.

Megan had decided it was okay for Summer to spend time with Gabe, for outings and game nights, even for bedtime stories. But there was no way she would ever be okay with her daughter seeing a man come out of her mother’s bedroom in the morning. Not until things were far more serious, not unless there was going to be a wedding soon.

Considering she couldn’t even bring herself to say I love you, she knew better than to keep kissing him like this with her daughter only a couple of walls away.

She shifted on his lap. “Thank you for coming over tonight.”

“Thank you for inviting me.”

Judging by the thick bulge in his pants and the hunger in his eyes, she knew he was just as ready for wall-banging, crazy-monkey sex as she was.

Feeling like the worst kind of tease, she said, “I want you to stay, but—”

One finger covered her lips. “I understand, Megan. I would never want to do anything to hurt Summer, either.”

She very reluctantly climbed off his lap and they walked, hand in hand, over to the door. After another long kiss good night, and another sweet I love you, he was halfway down the hall when she called out.

“You never told me how the story ends, Gabe.” She held her breath, waiting for his response.

His expression held all the love and desire she knew he felt for her.

“It doesn’t.”

* * *

Megan was blurry from lack of sleep when she walked Summer to school on Monday morning. Her body had been buzzing from Gabe’s kisses, but she hadn’t bothered trying to take care of it herself. Not when it wasn’t the orgasm she needed.

It was the man, himself.

She’d never been a woman who chased after men, partly because she’d married so young, but mostly because it just wasn’t her personality. But it was pure female instinct that had her heading away from Summer’s school in the opposite direction of her house.

Ten minutes later, she rang Gabe’s doorbell, her heart pounding from how quickly she’d covered the pavement to get to him. But as she waited, she suddenly realized she had no idea whether he’d be there or not, whether he was out for a run or picking up bagels for breakfast. And when he didn’t immediately open the door, she could practically taste her disappointment.

She was just turning to head back home when the door opened.

“Megan?”

Clearly, the universe was doing her a favor, because not only was Gabe home, but he was wearing a towel wrapped low around his hips. She was still busy gaping at his sculpted muscles when he said, “Come in, sweetheart.”

His hand was warm on the small of her back. “Is everything okay?”

She finally noticed his concerned look at the way she’d shown up like this, out of breath and likely wild-eyed in her desperation to see him. To be with him.

“No,” she said with complete honesty.

“Is it Summer?”

His instant panic radiated out to her and she quickly put her hand over his racing heart to calm him. “Summer’s perfect. I just dropped her off at school.”

“Then what?” His hands were in her hair as he pulled her closer to search her face for clues.

“I missed you,” she whispered, shyly dropping her eyes at her stark admission. “Friday night. Sunday night.” She lifted her eyes to his. “I felt like I was going to go crazy if I didn’t see you again.” She put her arms around him and reveled in the strength beneath her fingertips.

“I ran zigzags back and forth around this city all morning,” he told her in a raw voice as his gaze dropped to her lips and then moved back up to her eyes. “It was either that or use my tools to break into your apartment and climb into your bed with you.”

A moment later, he’d picked her up and was carrying her into his bedroom. Megan was thrilled that he was as desperate as she was to pick up where they’d started—and never had a chance to finish—that weekend.

“How long do you have?” he murmured against her earlobe, his tongue flicking against the sensitive flesh just behind it.

“As long as you need,” she told him as she pressed her own kisses against the curve of his neck, one side of his broad shoulders.

His eyes lifted to hers, dark not only with passion, but also with something so much bigger, so much richer that just physical desire. “Forever, Megan.” The two words rumbled from his chest, catching her straight in the middle of hers. “That’s how long I’m going to need with you.”

Megan gasped at his response to her offhand reply. She’d just been talking about making love this morning, about a few stolen hours in his bed away from the work she needed to do for her clients. But he’d answered her as if she’d meant something entirely different.

Which, if she were being completely honest with herself, she had.

She tried to catch her breath as he lowered her to the bed. She knew he loved her, but for all the times he’d said those three sweet words to her in the past week, he’d never pressured her to return them. He knew she was trying, knew being with him was the biggest risk she’d taken in years. But now, as she lay beneath him on his big bed and he looked at her as no man ever had—as though she were the sun, the stars and everything in between—she wanted so badly to give him back what he so effortlessly had been giving her.

“I—” The words got caught in her throat, jammed by the resurgence of the fears she’d been pushing away, one by one, every time Gabe was with her. No, not just then. Every time she thought about him. Every time Summer said his name and smiled.