Chapter 23
At ten o’clock, Owen took the stairs to the third floor two at a time.
Sure enough, the sounds of violent retching greeted him.
Right on schedule, he thought grimly, hating that she had to go through this every day.
Wondering how much longer the morning sickness would continue as a daily event, he stepped into Laura’s suite and went to the kitchen to fill the kettle.
Leaving the tea to steep, he waited until the vomiting finally stopped before he went into the bathroom to collect her off the floor. After he helped her to rinse out her mouth and brush her teeth, he scooped her up.
“We’ve really got to stop meeting like this,” she murmured as she looped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his chest.
Amazed that she could be so droll when she was clearly miserable, Owen chuckled.
Her good humor in the face of so many daunting challenges was just one of the many things he was coming to love about her.
Love? Yes, he thought with a sigh. At this point, it would be foolish to deny that he was falling fast and hard.
“Why the big sigh? I keep telling you that you don’t have to do this.”
“And I keep telling you I don’t mind.” Rather than take her back to bed, he settled into one of the upholstered armchairs, keeping her on his lap, next to the table where he’d set her tea.
“Owen—”
He rested his hand on her head to keep her snuggled into his chest. “Relax, Princess. I’ve got you.”
Her entire body went lax as she released a deep, shuddering sigh of her own.
“Do you want your tea?”
“Not quite yet.” When she flattened a hand on his chest, he wondered if she could feel the effect her nearness was having on his heart rate. “You’ve really got to stop waiting on me hand and foot. What’ll I do without you when you leave?”
“I’m not going.” He hadn’t planned to tell her for a while yet, because he knew she’d protest. But the words were out of his mouth before he could contemplate the consequences of tipping his hand too soon.
She raised her head and met his gaze. Those dark circles under her eyes bothered him more than they should. He’d get rid of them if it was the last thing he ever did. “What do you mean you’re not going? Of course you are! It’s the great gig in Boston that you do every year—”
Owen placed a finger over her lips. “I’m not going.”
“Why?”
His face twisted into a wry smile. “You know why, Princess.”
Incredulous, she stared at him for the longest time, during which he hadn’t the foggiest idea what she was thinking.
It suddenly occurred to him that maybe she didn’t want him around, and perhaps he’d made a huge mistake in judgment.
Before that unsettling thought could take hold, she cupped his face with her soft hand, making his heart stagger.
“None of this is your problem, Owen.”
“You know, it’s funny, I keep telling myself that, but it doesn’t seem to matter.”
“You’re really staying?”
“I’m really staying.”
“Because of me?”
“No, because of Evan. He needs constant supervision.” Owen cuffed her chin. “Yes, because of you, silly. Someone has to pick you up off the floor every morning. It may as well be me.”
“Oh.”
“Is that okay?”
“You really don’t have to . . .”
Burying his fingers in her soft blonde hair, he pressed his lips to her forehead. “I want to, Laura. I really want to.”
“I can’t.”
“What can’t you do, honey?”
“I can’t allow myself to depend on you.”
“Why not?”
“Because this isn’t the life you want. You don’t want to be settled and domesticated, and I’d never ask you to change for me. You’d hate me for it someday.”
“First of all, I could never hate you. And second of all, you’re not asking me for anything. All I know is I can’t go off and leave you here all by yourself. I don’t want to go off and leave you here.”
“How long will it be before you’re itching to get out of here, before the open road beckons and you feel trapped by responsibilities that shouldn’t even be yours?”
As much as he wanted to argue otherwise, she made good points. “I have an idea.”
“I’m listening.”
“Let’s spend this winter together. I’ll stay until the baby is born, and then we’ll see what’s what. How does that sound?”
“It sounds like just long enough to ensure that I’m completely attached to you and unable to imagine a single day without you in it.”
Which was exactly what he wanted, he realized with sudden clarity. “The idea of being domesticated no longer horrifies me.”
She laughed, which he’d hoped she would. “That’s something, I guess.”
“Give me a chance, Laura. That’s all I’m asking for. You have to know I’d never hurt you.”
“You’d never hurt me on purpose.”
“All I know is being where you are is way more appealing than being anywhere else.”
“I don’t know that I’ve ever received a nicer compliment,” she said, smiling warmly at him.
That smile filled him with a kind of joy he’d never experienced before.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for the longest time.” She reached out to bring order to his unruly hair. Rolling her bottom lip between her teeth, she was the picture of concentration. “There,” she said when she was satisfied. “All better.” She dropped her gaze to meet his.
He’d promised her he wouldn’t kiss her again, but hadn’t they just brokered a tentative agreement to give this thing a whirl? “Laura . . .”
“Yes?”
“I really want to . . . That is, would it be okay if . . .”
She put him out of his misery by drawing him down to her and pressing her lips to his in a sweet, chaste kiss that affected him more profoundly than any kiss ever had. When she started to pull back from him, he stopped her with a hand on the back of her head.
“Do it again.”
With her hand on his cheek, she kissed him again. This time, her lips parted, ever so slightly, and her tongue skimmed over his bottom lip. Nothing in his entire life had ever been more erotic or electrifying.
“If being domesticated means more of that, I think I’m going to like it,” he said, smiling at the shell-shocked look on her face. His own expression had to mirror hers, because he felt as shell-shocked as she looked. “Do we have a deal, Princess? We’ll give it the winter and see where we stand?”
She took his hand and brought it to her lips, placing a soft kiss on the back. “We have a deal.”
Grace watched the clock edge closer to noon. “I have to check out soon.”
Evan released her, turned over and reached for the bedside phone. “Hi, there. I’m in room 320, and I’m wondering if I can reserve it for another night.”
“Evan! I’m leaving at five!”
“It’s available? Great. I’m going to use a different credit card for tonight, so I’ll bring that down later.” After a pause, he added, “You can tell housekeeping we’re all set. Thanks.” He hung up the phone and turned back to her.
“What’re you doing? You’re wasting your money—”
He shut her up with a kiss that cleared her brain of every thought that wasn’t about him. “It’s not a waste if it buys me four more hours right here,” he said, kissing his way to her breasts.
“Evan . . . This is depraved. We can’t keep doing . . .” His mouth closed over the tender tip of her breast, and all she could think about was the exquisite feel of his lips and tongue on her sensitive flesh.
“You still haven’t answered my question,” he said as his tongue made circles around her nipple, denying her more.
“I can’t think when you’re doing that.”
He stopped what he was doing, lifted his head to make eye contact and raised a brow in question.
“You know I want you. Why do you need me to say it?”
“Because it’d be nice to know we’re on the same page here.”
“Haven’t we been on the same page all morning?” she asked with a smile, hoping to diffuse some of the tension.
Shifting onto his back, he stared up at the ceiling.
Grace put her hand on his chest. “Evan—”
His cell phone rang, breaking the uneasy silence. “Sorry,” he said as he got up, “I’ve got to take this with everything that’s going on.”
“Go ahead.”
“Oh, it’s Grant. Hey, bro, what’s up?” Evan listened for a minute and then turned to look at Grace.
“Let me ask her.” Holding his hand over the phone, he said, “Stephanie’s new lawyer, Dan Torrington, managed to get the hearing for her stepfather’s case moved up to Wednesday.
They need to get a car off the island ASAP so they can spend tomorrow with Dan going over her testimony, but the ferries are booked for the rest of the day. Is there any chance—”
“Yes! She can have my spot. Of course she can.”
“They can get you on the eight o’clock boat in the morning, so you’d only be a little late for work.”
“It’s fine. Tell her I said no problem and good luck.”
“Thanks, Grace.”
While Evan worked out the particulars with his brother, Grace thought about Stephanie and how excited and nervous she must be.
Her mind also raced with the implications of another night with Evan.
By the time she left the island, she’d be completely in love with him, a thought that would’ve terrified her before the morning they’d spent together.
In the last few hours, she’d gotten a good glimpse at the man Stephanie had told her might be inside the overgrown boy. While she was thrilled to have more time to spend with the man, she was worried about whether the boy would return and ruin everything.
“How about a shower?” he asked when he’d stashed the phone in his shorts pocket.
“Go ahead.”
“I meant together.”
“Oh.”
His face lifted into a sexy half smile as he held out a hand, inviting her to join him. Despite the intimacy they’d shared, it still took an act of courage for her to throw back the sheet, get out of bed and walk across the room naked.
He watched her every move, his eyes heating with desire as she came toward him. “Go start the water,” he said. “I’ll be right there.”
When he joined her, he placed a condom on the soap dish.
Grace’s belly took a dip when she tried to picture how sex in the shower would work.