“What’s your relationship with his uncles?” he asked, a hint of what sounded like jealousy in his tone.
“They’re like my brothers.”
He exhaled a long breath, the rush of warm air hitting her shoulder. Then he slid his hand around and cupped her breast in his palm.
Next thing she knew, he’d flipped her over, reached for his jeans to grab a condom, and slid into her, making her feel utterly owned as he took her for a hard ride.
Early the next morning, Shane woke her with a kiss. “I’ve got to get going.”
She rolled her head to the side. “Are you going to be okay alone?”
“Are you offering to come with me if I’m not?”
She chuckled. “Funny.”
He stared into her eyes as he spoke. “I’m not kidding. Want to take an hour’s ride? I could use the company as well as the support.”
She sat up, pulling the covers with her. “You’re serious.”
He nodded.
“Okay then. No class today. Study group doesn’t need me. I can call in sick. Sure. I’d be happy to come,” she said, and she wondered what she was getting herself into.
Chapter Five
On the drive to the hospital, Shane and Amber talked more about their childhoods, how she’d managed raising L.J., and he learned a lot about her son.
According to Amber, he was a sweet boy with a good disposition, easy to get along with, hated baths, showers, and anything to do with water. On the plus side of that, he was a good listener, so she merely had to remind him and nudge him a time or two to get him to clean up at night. He liked superheroes and baseball. He also loved to read and was ahead of his grade. His favorite books were Harry Potter, and he was looking forward to making new friends in school this year.
Shane hoped to meet her son soon, which was saying something, considering he’d never have thought he’d be interested in a woman long-term, never mind getting to know her child.
Now he was focused on his immediate concern, dealing with his father. He strode into the hospital with Amber by his side, following the directions Margo had texted to him, walking down the hall where his father’s room should be located.
From a distance, Shane saw his dad, Margo next to him, slowly making his way toward them, his father’s hand on an IV pole as he walked.
“Incoming,” he said, gripping Amber’s hand, and she glanced up at him.
“That’s your father?” she asked.
He nodded.
They met up with the other couple in the middle of the hall. In his hospital gown and slippers, his face pale, expression drawn, his dad looked much older than his years. Margo, too, looked exhausted, her dark hair pulled back, no makeup, as if she’d been at the hospital since his father had been brought in.
“Shane! Margo said she’d called and you were coming but I wasn’t actually sure,” Zachary said.
“I’m here. Hello, Margo.” Shane tipped his head at his stepmother, the awkwardness between all of them a tangible thing. “Dad, Margo, this is Amber. Amber, my father, Zachary, and his wife,” Shane said stiffly.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Amber murmured.
“Same.” Margo smiled at Amber, her entire demeanor welcoming, while Shane could feel his father studying Amber, assessing her.
“Zach, you should get back to your room. The nurse said a short walk,” she reminded him.
“Sure. Son, walk with me,” Zachary commanded.
“If you could point out the waiting room?” Amber asked before Shane could comment. “I’ll grab a cup of coffee if there is one.”
“I’ll show you,” Margo said. “I’d like a cup myself. I’ll be right back,” she assured her husband.
Amber sent Shane a reassuring smile, and though it grated, Shane stayed with his father, not wanting to upset him while he was in the hospital.
They slowly headed back to his father’s room in silence, and Shane waited until he resettled himself in bed before walking over and speaking. “So you’re okay?” Shane asked.
“I haven’t gotten yesterday’s test results back yet but I think so. It’s just going to be a lifestyle adjustment.” Zachary shifted in the bed, getting more comfortable.
“So no more steaks and whiskey?” Shane pulled up a chair and sat down.
“Bite your tongue.” His father’s mulish expression was typical.
“Well, I’m sure things will have to change, and Margo will make sure you’re here for a while.”
A long while, hopefully, because his father wasn’t old at all. He’d just turned sixty last year. Margo had thrown a party. Shane had made sure he was too busy to attend.
“So who’s the woman you brought with you?” his father asked before Shane had a chance to delve into why Zachary had wanted to see him.
Smiling at the mention of Amber, Shane glanced at his father. “A good friend.” He had no intention of involving a man who couldn’t care less about him most days of the year in his private life.
His father narrowed his gaze. “Tell me about her.”
Shane shrugged. Talking about Amber wasn’t a hardship. “She’s smart, going back to school to make a better life for herself and her son.”
“Seriously? You can do better than a single mother looking for someone to take care of her.”
Shane blinked, any hope he’d harbored deep down that this heart attack had softened his father gone in the second it had taken for that shit to spew from his mouth.
“First, I said we were friends.”
“And I saw the grin on your face the minute I mentioned her.”
Shane pushed himself to a standing position. “Okay, I came because Margo said you asked for me, but if you’re going to be your usual pompous, arrogant self, I’m out of here.”
Insulting Amber was off the table. Shane admired all she’d done with her life in the face of difficult circumstances. He was falling hard for her, and though he had to hide it publicly for now, he wasn’t letting her go. Especially not because his father didn’t approve. He couldn’t give less of a shit what Zachary thought.
“Wait.” Zachary paused, then added, “Please.”
Folding his arms across his chest, Shane met his father’s gaze. “Why did you want to see me?”
His father’s expression faltered, and suddenly he looked more … humble, if Shane had to pick a word. “When I had the heart attack, I was lying waiting for the ambulance and a lot of my mistakes flashed in front of my eyes. Things I’d done wrong, especially with you.”
Shane wasn’t exactly shocked his father had had a revelation when he was scared and thought he might die. But how he’d reacted to Amber? The man hadn’t changed. He waited for Zachary to talk more before he passed full judgment.
“I wasn’t a present father.”
“To put it mildly.”
A muscle ticked in his father’s jaw. “I wanted a fresh start, and I thought if I threw money at your mother I was doing right enough by you. I was wrong.”
Shane swallowed hard. “I’m grateful Mom didn’t have it harder than she already did, raising me alone. But you were wrong. A boy misses having a father.”
Something Amber’s son would surely go through, Shane suddenly realized, his heart hurting for the little boy. Although she’d said he had a solid support system, uncles, grandparents. That ought to help. And if he met and liked Shane, he could be there for him, too. A more local, present male influence. Once again, he was shocked the man who’d never thought he had the time for anything more than his work and his future goals was thinking about Amber and her son as more than just a summer fling.
“Shane. Are you listening? I said I know and I’m sorry,” Zachary said.
“But you still have your opinions. And those don’t jibe with the way I live my life. What you said about Amber is just one example. You don’t even know her and you found her lacking and assumed she’d be using me.”
His father nodded. “You’re right. But you don’t expect a zebra
to change its stripes overnight, do you?” He tried to make a joke of it but Shane wasn’t laughing.
Frowning, he shook his head. “No. But I can’t say it’s going to be easy to have a relationship after all these years.”
“I’m just asking if we can try.”
He wasn’t about to argue or upset the man who’d just had a heart attack. As much as he resented his father, a small part of him, the little boy who’d missed a father at his ball games and graduations, wanted more than one birthday phone call a year with him. “We can try,” Shane agreed.
Just then, a knock sounded on the door and Margo walked into the room. “Okay if I stay?”
“Sure, honey. Come in,” Zachary said.
Margo walked over to the bed and sat on the edge. “Did you two have a good talk?”
Shane nodded. “We did.”
“I spent some time with Amber. She’s a sweetheart,” Margo said.
With a grin, Shane couldn’t help but agree. One thing his father was right about, he couldn’t help his reaction at the mention of Amber. She had him wanting things he hadn’t imagined in his future before he’d bumped into her on campus.
Now all he had to do was get through the end of the summer semester and they were free to explore what could really be between them.
* * * *
Amber sensed Shane’s need to think on the ride home from the hospital, and she allowed him the silence he needed. If he wanted to talk, she was here to listen. He surprised her when he pulled off at an unfamiliar exit.
“Where are we going?” she asked him.
“I think we need a nice late lunch, don’t you?”
Her stomach rumbled at his suggestion. “Yes, as you can hear.” She patted her belly and laughed.
“I know of a place off this exit. A colleague mentioned it at a faculty meeting. We’re here. We might as well give it a try.”
She nodded in agreement. “Sounds good to me. What kind of food?”
“American. Burgers, chicken, that sort of thing. I think they also have an outdoor terrace where we can eat if you don’t think it’s too hot.”
“I’d love to sit outside.”
“Good.” He didn’t speak again as he drove to the restaurant.
She glanced at his still-serious profile. He was clearly uptight about whatever had happened with his dad. She had to admit the man hadn’t been friendly to her, but she’d chalked it up to illness. Margo had been sweet and she’d enjoyed the few minutes she spent with her, although she understood why Shane had his issues with his father’s wife. Amber’s parents had a happy marriage, and she couldn’t imagine what he’d lived through as a child.
After a short drive off the exit, he pulled into the lot. A large framed building with a wraparound porch sat behind it. Shane helped her out of the car and led the way up three steps to the hostess stand.
On their request, they were seated outside in a private corner where no one was around them. They each ordered a glass of iced tea and studied the menu and placed their orders, a Niçoise salad for her, a grilled chicken sandwich for Shane.
Finally, she couldn’t take the silence any longer. “Are you okay?”
He braced his arms on the table and met her gaze. “It’s hard admitting my father’s an asshole. Always was, always will be. Yes, he had an epiphany and knows he didn’t do right by me, but it hasn’t changed who he is deep down. And that’s tough to swallow.”
She reached across the table and put her hand in his. “I’m really sorry.”
“Thank you.” He nodded, stroking his thumb over her skin. “The thing is I’d made my peace with who he is. I just hated having it thrown in my face again.”
She bit down on her lower lip. “Do you want to talk about it?” she offered.
He answered with an abrupt shake of his head. “It’s fine. I’ll eat a good lunch with fabulous company and put it behind me.”
His more relaxed grin put her at ease. “Sounds like a good plan to me.”
She picked up her drink to take a sip just as her phone chimed and she recognized the sound. “Sorry, it’s L.J. on FaceTime.” She hated to ever not accept her son’s call.
“Take it,” he said. “And maybe you could introduce me? As your friend?”
He sounded eager to meet her son, and a warm feeling wrapped around her heart. She hit the accept button and her little boy’s face showed on the screen.
“Mom! We went to the Statue of Liberty!”
She grinned at his excitement. “That’s so cool. Did you see the whole city?”
“It was amazing.”
“Are you going to the beach this weekend?” Carrie and Samuel had been taking him to the Hamptons on the weekends to a house they’d rented for the summer, and during the week they were staying with Landon and touring Manhattan.
“Probably. I hope my friend Andrew is there. He’s from a place called Long Island.”
“That sounds great, honey.” She glanced across the table at Shane, her heart in her throat.
She’d never had reason to introduce a man she was seeing to her son. For one thing, she’d be careful before bringing someone into his life who would only disappear again a few weeks or months later, and for another, no man had been that interested.
Swallowing hard, she gestured for Shane to sit in the chair beside her. “Speaking of friends, I want you to meet a friend of mine. This is Shane Warden, honey. I met him this summer.” No reason to explain to her ten-year-old that Shane was her professor.
She turned the phone so Shane could see her brown-haired little boy. “Hi, L.J. I’m Shane. Your mom has told me so much about you.”
He lifted his hand in a shy wave.
“Say hi to Mr. Warden, honey. I mean Professor Warden.”
“Shane is fine. I hear you’re having fun with your grandparents in New York.”
L.J. nodded. “Next week we’re going to a Yankee game!”
Shane grinned. “I also heard you love baseball. Maybe we could play some catch when you get home. I could dust off my catching mitt.”
An excited light hit her son’s brown eyes. “That would be awesome!”
“I’ll look forward to it. Here’s your mom.” He fully turned the phone back to her.
She had to fight back the lump in her throat and the tears forming in her eyes. This man, he’d barreled into her life or she’d barreled into his and turned her world upside down. He made her feel things long forgotten, and now he was including her son.
She swallowed hard. “Hi, honey. I need to go. I’m sitting in a restaurant.” At least no one was around her or she wouldn’t have taken the call and disturbed their lunch.
“Okay. I love you, Mom.”
“Love you, too, baby.”
“I’m not–“
“You’ll always be my baby,” she said before he could finish. Laughing, she said goodbye again and they each disconnected the call.
She drew a deep breath and met Shane’s warm gaze.
“Well, that went well,” he said.
“It did.” Acting on impulse, she leaned forward and kissed him, expressing everything he made her feel without using her words.
His tongue slid against hers, the moment quickly heating up, the kiss going on, arousal settling low in her belly, desire pulsing between her thighs.
He placed a hand on her leg and broke the kiss, his dark eyes meeting hers. “We really need to get back to your place.”
“We so do.”
He straightened in his seat. “But there’s something we need to talk about first.”
With her mind still hazy from his warm lips on hers, she wasn’t thinking all that clearly. “What is it?”
“Where we go from here. At least for the next two weeks while class is still in session.”
She froze, knowing the wonderful feelings she’d experienced since he’d shown up on her doorstep were about to disappear. Temporarily, she hoped, but it hurt. Still, she was adult enough to understand and handle it.
She straightened her shoulders. “I get it. We can’t be seen together.” But was he going to disappear from her life as if their time together had never happened? “What are you thinking?” It was his job on the line. No matter how her heart felt, because she knew she was falling hard for him in a very short time, she could handle a few weeks apart. She had to.
“I need every possible angle of professionalism covered. To start with, nothing changes in public. I’m the professor, you’re the student.”
She nodded in understanding.
“And for the final exam, I’m going to have my teaching assistant proctor the exam. I’m going to assign random numbers to each student and grade anonymously. If anything ever gets out about us, nobody can say I favored you at all.”
“Makes sense.” She paused. “You’ve really thought about this.”
“The whole trip here. My time with you is precious.” Taking her hand, he held it up to his face. “I don’t want us to risk anything or have anything taint our future.”
She blinked, shocked by the tears that suddenly fell from her eyes. “Future?”
He met her gaze, staring into her eyes. “I know it’s fast. I know we have a lot to learn about each other, but that’s what I want. The chance for a very real future.”
“I want that, too.”
“Good. Then let me do everything I can to protect it.”
She nodded. Because she’d never wanted anything more.
* * * *
Was there really such a thing as the one? Because Shane sure as hell was certain Amber was it for him.
The whole way home from the hospital, his focus wasn’t on his sick father but his attitude towards Amber. He’d be damned if he’d tell her the rude things his father had said. Instead he would do everything in his power to get through the next two weeks and move on with their lives.
Sexy Love: A Sexy Series Novella (The Sexy Series Book 4) Page 6
