Chapter Six #2
Mara opened her mouth to argue, but something in his expression, or in the pitifulness of Julia’s wails, changed her mind. Carefully, she transferred the whimpering baby into his arms.
Agustin gritted his teeth against the sensation of his arm brushing against the soft give of Mara’s breast, unrestrained underneath the thin pajama top.
He turned away from her, focused on the upset baby. Julia wriggled, she whimpered, but he held her close to his chest. His arms and his chest made a kind of blanket to wrap her in warmth and safety.
It didn’t take long at all for her to calm down after that. She looked up at him with those dark eyes, still a little wet from tears, but the distress on her face had turned to something more searching.
What went on in a child’s mind? A child who couldn’t talk or communicate yet. Who had been thrust into the arms of strangers.
He murmured his own soothing words to her. Regardless of parentage, no innocent child would be left to fend for themselves on his watch.
“I fed and changed her before you came in, so she should be ready for another few hours of sleep,” Mara said quietly. “If you gently rock her, she might fall back asleep.”
Agustin took Mara’s suggestion and gently began to rock Julia back and forth in his arms. The baby’s eyes drooped, her sweet face relaxing into sleep inch by inch over minutes of rocking.
He did not so much see his brother’s face in the baby’s, but there was this…connection Agustin felt twisting inside of him. He did not believe blood could tell in any mystical way, but there was this tie, nonetheless.
He felt the overwhelming need to protect Julia at all costs, to give her everything she needed, wanted, as she grew.
If she was Felipe’s, he would. He would ensure his brother’s legacy lived on.
If she was someone else’s? He did not quite know, but he would feel honor bound to leave her with something.
He felt Mara move closer, close enough to look down at the sleeping babe in his arms. “Try to put her down in her crib,” she whispered, gently placing a hand on his shoulder before letting it drift away.
He wished she’d leave it there, which was enough of an errant and unwelcome thought to do as he was told. He moved for the crib, then set about somehow putting Julia down without waking her up.
It was an awkward way to contort one’s body, trying to lean over the edge of the crib and delicately shift the baby’s weight from his arms to her mattress. Still, he did it with some degree of smoothness, if he did say so himself.
Except once she was on the mattress, his hand was still trapped under her back. Easily moved, but not if he wanted her to remain asleep.
“Now, just move your arm out slowly and carefully. If she moves or frets a little, just pause. She’ll likely drift back off.”
He could feel Mara’s breath on his neck, and it was doing a number on him. But he followed her instructions. Julia wriggled a little as he pulled his hand away, but Mara reached out and placed her hand over the child’s stomach and the girl quieted, stilled, her breathing growing even and heavy.
He stood shoulder to shoulder with his assistant, with his right-hand man so to speak, looking down at a sweet, sleeping bundle.
After a few moments of the quiet, settled warmth of the moment, Mara lifted her hand from Julia’s belly. She did not look at him, but she took a few steps away, creating a measure of distance between them.
He knew he should immediately leave, but he found himself drawn to looking at her. Her gaze was on the baby, but there was something stiff in her posture now that hadn’t been there before when her attention had fully been on Julia.
“I have never seen your hair in such a state.”
She blinked, then lifted a hand to her hair before it fell, still not quite looking at him. “Well, you can see why I keep it up during the day.”
He couldn’t exactly. Perhaps the wildness of it might not be appropriate for every professional setting, but it was fascinating. That there were such dichotomies hiding under his prim, elegant assistant.
When he said nothing and made no move to leave, she finally met his gaze. Something in his expression must have startled her, because she took a step back, but Julia’s bag was on the floor next to the crib. Mara must have forgotten this because she tripped over it.
Instinct had Agustin reaching out and grabbing her, so she didn’t tumble to the floor and wake the baby.
Something else entirely had him keeping her in his grip, long after she’d regained her balance.
She was so…slim. The way she moved through his life with such focus and determination, it seemed she should feel sturdy and heavy in his arms. Instead she was soft and warm and delicate.
And he had no business knowing this about her, wanting to explore more, but he did not let her go.
Mara’s heart was thundering so loudly in her ears, she wasn’t sure she’d hear Julia cry if the baby started to wail in earnest. She wouldn’t hear anything except this loud, reverberation of blood being pumped through her body.
Her body, currently in Agustin’s grip. Her body. Currently a riot of heat and sensation, and it only increased as Agustin’s gaze took a tour of the length of her—from head to toe. He did not release her. She did not push him to.
She was frozen in fear.
Fear that she would do something stupid like throw herself at him. So she held herself impossibly still, best as she could, considering how difficult it was to breathe.
His mouth was so close to hers. Her breath so ragged, and he hadn’t done anything. It was just the proximity.
And the fact you’re a fool. But chastising herself did nothing, because his grip was firm, and his eyes were intense, and she… Well, she wanted. Beginning and end of story. No amount of telling herself she should push him away, if it came to that, seemed to penetrate her body’s response.
She was pressed against the hard wall of him now, his arms a tight band around her. She hadn’t gathered up the courage to lift her arms to his shoulders like she wanted or run her hands through his hair like she really wanted.
There was no surviving something like that. There was barely any surviving this.
Something vibrated, the sound discordant to the thudding beat of her heart. She looked over at the source of the noise at the same time he did.
The phone on her nightstand.
“My…phone,” Mara said lamely. She didn’t want to deal with it, she did not want to be released, but she didn’t want Julia to wake up and…
And this was very, very bad.
If they walked away not engaging in anything more than a too-intense embrace, everything could go back to the way it should be.
After a moment when Mara wondered if he would let her go, if he would let sense prevail—she prayed he didn’t—Agustin finally relaxed his hold. He released her, carefully and slowly, but it was a release. He did not step away until she was balanced on her own feet.
For a moment of silence, they simply looked at each other.
Then her phone vibrated again, and Mara had to walk over to the nightstand. She picked up the phone, very aware Agustin had not left.
The screen had three texts from the countess’s assistant—a painful, icy reminder that not only could Mara not engage in embraces with her boss, but that said boss was planning to marry another woman.
“It is the countess’s assistant with the details for her trip next week,” Mara said. She did not turn to look at him. Could not, because she did not know what her expression would betray. Nothing good. “I suppose you will have to decide what you plan to tell her about Julia.”
This was met with silence. When she finally thought she had her mask in place enough to look at him, his expression was as blank as she hoped hers was.
“We will,” he said eventually. “Once we know for sure.” He paused once more, flicked a glance at the crib, then turned on a heel. “Good night, Ms. Valdez.”
“Good night, Mr. Delgado.” Good reminders that they were colleagues, even if their rooms were currently connected by a bathroom…and he’d put his arms around her.
To stop her from tripping and waking up Julia. Nothing else.
No matter what his gaze had felt like on her body. No matter that the hold had lasted much longer than needed to ensure her balance.
Gingerly, Mara lowered herself onto the edge of her bed, willing herself to think of work, of Julia, of anything but this strange, nearly disastrous moment.
But when she finally crawled under the covers, closed her eyes and dozed off…she dreamed of his hands and his mouth.
On her.