by Leah Vale
Thinking of the turmoil they'd all been through since that afternoon, Harrison said, "We all have."
Juliet nodded silently.
Though he trusted the doctor's prognosis that Nathan was fine, he offered, "Do you want me to set my alarm and come wake him in a few hours, like the doctor recommended?"
She shook her head. "No, I'll do it. But, thanks."
He nodded. "Then I'll let you get to sleep. If you need anything, Grandmother's room is at the end of this hall."
"And your room?"
His heart picked up its tempo at her soft question. All sorts of erotic possibilities raced through his mind, but he shut them down as quickly as he could while clearing his throat. She was undoubtedly only curious. "Down the opposite hall, around the corner, second door on the left."
She nodded again. Harrison hesitated at the door, thinking she might say something more. When she remained silent, he forced himself to leave. The possibility of late-night visits to each other's room was not why he'd brought her here.
"Good night," he said just before he closed the door behind him.
An incredible feeling of satisfaction seeped through him as he headed for his room. His son was in a safe, stable environment with both parents, Dad would hand over the chairmanship of the company at his retirement party, and Juliet was close enough at hand that he wouldn't have to spend all his time thinking about her.
His world was well on its way to being exactly how he wanted it. Assuming, of course, he'd be able to
sleep knowing his favorite fantasy was only half a house away.
Juliet woke to the sound of breaking glass.
The second the pale-yellow walls, crown molding and the empty pillow next to her came into focus, she jerked upright, rigid with dread.
Expensive glass.
She quickly scanned the room for her toddler and any sign of destruction, but when she spotted the open door, she threw back the covers and bolted from the bed, not caring that she only had on an oversize football jersey. Nathan was on the loose in the mansion. A mansion filled with pricey breakables.
She tore into the hallway and spotted Nathan standing at the top of the staircase, his little hands curled into fists and tucked beneath his chin in his oops pose, looking down the stairs. Good Lord, he'd undoubtedly pitched something down the staircase. At least he hadn't joined whatever it was for the ride.
Juliet pulled in a steadying breath and made her way as calmly as she could toward her son. "Nathan, baby, what'cha doing out of Momma's bed?"
Nathan gave a guilty start. Fortunately she was close enough to him by then to put her hands on him and pull him away from the top stair. Though he'd become a master at sliding down the narrow staircase at home-make that their old home-she wasn't sure if he'd be as cautious with the Rivers's wide-open, curving staircase. Not to mention that the fall he took yesterday might have affected his balance.
With an impressive show of bravado, he smiled his ain't I a stinker smile, then glanced from her to the stairs. "Dada play," he offered, obviously trying to put a positive spin on his destruction.
Juliet followed Nathan's gaze, and sure enough, there was Harrison, in shorts and a tank top, frozen in the act of starting up the stairs with his fisted hands full of something.
He blew out a breath. "Oh, good. You can keep a hold of him. I had him sitting on the stairs down here, but in the time it took me to pick up these," he opened his fists and showed her the chunks of clear crystal, "the little scamp had climbed all the way up."
Dreading what the pieces of crystal had once been in the shape of, she asked, "What broke?"
He shrugged as if it didn't matter and stepped back down on the foyer's black and white marble tiles. "An ornamental ball." Kneeling carefully, he started picking up more of the crystal.
Though she knew it was a silly question, she asked anyway, "Did Nathan do it?"
He sent her a lopsided, guilty grin that echoed Nathan's so much her heart swelled until her chest hurt. "I guess it wasn't such a good idea to let him hold the ball while I carried him down the stairs."
Juliet pulled in a deep breath to crowd her stupid heart back into its dark corner and chided, "Not when the ball is glass!" She'd be in big trouble if she had to parent him, too. Hadn't she proved yesterday how dicey her abilities were?
Not sure at what point on the trip down the glass ball had been launched, she returned her attention to Nathan and said, "Sit right here for Momma, sugar, and stay put, please." She settled him on his bottom away from the stairs but close enough to still see his
father. When she was certain he'd heard, she hurried down the stairs, the plush, cream-colored runner cushioning her bare feet and her football jersey nightshirt flapping around her thighs.
Harrison sat back on his heels and watched her with a dorky, slack-jawed kind of look on his face until she was almost to the bottom step. Jeez, didn't he care that an undoubtedly expensive ball-thing had been busted to smithereens?
He finally seemed to snap-to and raised a hand to ward her off. "Stop. Stay on the stairs. Your feet are bare."
"I know that." An old pro at cleaning up Nathan's oopses, she ignored his warning and stepped carefully onto the tile, avoiding the glass he had yet to pick up.
"Juliet, you'll cut your feet. I can get this."
"No. Nathan is my responsibility." And she'd be damned if she'd draw her suitability for the job into question anymore. After a quick glance to make sure their baby was still sitting back from the stairs, she squatted next to Harrison and started picking up the pieces. Fortunately, the crystal had been thick and broke into large chunks. Unfortunately, that was probably a sign of high quality. The thought made her hand start to shake. It would take her forever to replace the thing. "I'll clean up after him."
Harrison reached out and covered her hand, stilling it. The warmth of his touch warmed her clear to the soles of her bare feet.
"Juliet." The way his deep, smooth voice said her name gave her more bittersweet pleasure than the most fattening Valentine chocolate. "It was really my fault."
The same guilt that had tore at her yesterday made her unable to meet his gaze. "But he was sleeping with me. I should have woken up when he got out of bed."
"I got him out of bed."
She quickly looked at him and searched his deep-river eyes for an explanation. If she didn't know better, she would have sworn a blush spread under his tan.
"It was nearly nine, which, I'm sure, is considered nearly afternoon for a toddler, so I thought I'd peek in and check on you two before I went to the weight room."
His attire finally registered in her brain, and she allowed her gaze a quick trip over what could only be described as a beefcake buffet. He might as well have been bare-chested for the way his gray weight-lifting-style tank top covered his muscle-capped shoulders and mounded pecs. And while his black shorts were probably long and loose when he stood, in his current crouch, they'd pulled high and tight to expose enough powerful, perfectly hairy leg to make her mouth go dry.
He continued with his explanation and she had to jerk her gaze back to his. "Nathan was still lying next to you, but he was wide awake. I knew it would only be a matter of time before he woke you up, too, and since you needed the sleep, I slipped in and picked him up." He shrugged a thick shoulder. "Couldn't help it. He was grinning at me...and well, you know."
"Yes, I know," she croaked. Like she knew what she wanted to do to Harrison's magnificent body. Clearing her throat, she added, "He's irresistible."
Just like his daddy. Slipping her hand from beneath his before the contact and his masculine seductiveness made her say something that might jeopardize whatever it was building between them, she focused on the broken crystal. "But you should try to resist letting him hold pricey breakables. Especially when they are in the shape of balls, which he thinks are meant to be chucked."
He laughed. The sound warmed her to her soul. "You have the best way of putting things. You're right, I should h
ave resisted that particular urge."
The image of other urges he hadn't resisted brought her gaze back to his. The warmth she'd been feeling grew until she realized the sensation hadn't come entirely from his laugh or his touch. And it didn't all stem from the shadows of shared passions swimming in his dark-green eyes, either.
"Oh, my gosh!" Juliet flattened her palm against the tile floor. The heat radiating from it was unmistakable.
Harrison's dark-blond brows slammed together. "What? Did you cut yourself? Are you all right?"
She couldn't help giggling in delight over his obvious concern. No one had been that concerned about her. Ever. "No, no. The tile. It's heated!"
His eyelids slid closed, and he let out a noisy breath. "Oh. Yes, it is. Grandmother had heating coils laid under them when the floors were redone after the '96 flood."
"Wow." She stood up to more fully absorb the heat through the bottoms of her feet. "This is so awesome."
He shook his head in a bemused way. "I guess I've grown so used to it that I don't notice it anymore." Raising a brow in a sinfully sensuous way, he gave her his lopsided grin. "I could have used it as a selling point to get my barefoot girl here sooner."
Unsure whether to be angry that he thought her so easily manipulated, flattered because he'd wanted her living with him sooner or hot and bothered by his suggestiveness-heck, by his mere presence-Juliet latched on to the first part of his comment instead. "So you don't get any kind of pleasure from this sort of luxury?"
He shrugged again. "There's pleasure," he paused, and sent her a look that should have set off the smoke alarms, "And then there's pleasure."
Suddenly very aware that she wore nothing more than an oversize football jersey her body wanted off she dropped back down and snatched up more chunks of crystal. "Is there a garbage can handy? We really should finish cleaning up this glass."
As if on cue, Donavon appeared from a room off the foyer with a broom and dustpan. "Allow me," he said genially.
Both Juliet and Harrison stood and carefully dumped their handfuls of glass in the dustpan. Before she knew what he intended, Harrison whisked her into his arms and started carrying her up the stairs.
Frantically tugging at the hem of her jersey to make sure she wasn't flashing Donavon with her Sunday undies, she squawked, "What are you doing?"
"I don't want you cutting those feet of yours. Nor do I want you worrying about Nathan instead of getting the rest you need. I have something to show you."
By the time they reached the top of the stairs, Nathan was jumping up and down and gleefully shrieking, "Mamma up! Mamma up!"
Dizzy from his actions and desperate to keep the chaos to a minimum, Juliet pleaded, "Put me down."
"But of course, m'lady." Harrison released his hold on the back of her legs and set her lightly on her feet without the slightest effort.
Her heart beat wildly from being in his arms. "What did you want to show me?" she asked in an embarrassingly breathy voice.
He swept up their baby the same way he had her and said, "Nathan's room," then strode down the hall.
He stopped in front of the door directly across from her yellow room and Juliet hurried to catch up with him. Shifting Nathan to one arm, he opened the door with a flourish.
Expecting a guest room much like her own, though ridiculously curious about its color, she peeked in, then blinked. The room looked like the inside of a Toys-N-Stuff van. She sucked in a breath. The very Toys-N-Stuff van she'd sent packing. The only new additions were an unassembled, elaborate white crib and a matching armoire.
From beside her Harrison said, "Some assembly required, of course."
Distrust oozed through the cracks made by her insecurities and threatened to smother the pleasures of only a moment ago. "You'd planned on him moving here all along?"
"You and him."
His look of patient tenderness sealed up the cracks quite nicely. Maybe this is what he'd meant when he'd said he wanted to take care of her. Overwhelmed, Juliet stared at the room filled with everything an eighteen-month-old boy could want, and all
she could think was that she and Nathan had moved into Harrison Rivers's house and their lives would never be the same again. But would Nathan grow up like his father and not even notice how lucky he was? Not if she could help it. And maybe Harrison would end up better for it, too.
Late that night, despite having spent her first day at "Richville" herding her curious toddler away from huge but still-tippy floor vases and table runners loaded with a million breakables just itching to be yanked off, Juliet couldn't sleep. She needed to think, to assure herself she'd made the right decision moving here, and the only place she could do that was down by the river.
She glanced at the video monitor glowing on her nightstand. Nathan slept so soundly in his newly assembled crib across the hall that she wasn't worried about him waking, but she waited until after midnight before she slipped into her jeans and a T-shirt and ventured from her room. She didn't want to risk running into George Rivers on her way out.
She'd successfully avoided him during the day, and she wanted to keep it that way. The man's opinion of her wasn't going to change, regardless of what Harrison or Dorothy thought, and Juliet would just as soon dodge him as much as possible until she decided what to do.
She hadn't been so successful avoiding the father of her child. He had decided to forgo his workout in favor of playing with Nathan while she showered and dressed. Unfortunately, he hadn't felt it necessary to change out of his skimpy, disastrously appealing exercise clothes the entire day.He had to know what he was doing to her, so why the torture? He'd gotten his way, hadn't he? Maybe it was his way of getting back at her for messing up his orderly, controlled life by getting pregnant.
He hadn't acted particularly vengeful during the day, though. He'd seemed really happy to have them there, even going out to pick up fast-food hamburgers and eating them with her and Nat in the kitchen because that's what their son had wanted.
She didn't know what to think as she made her way downstairs and to the back of the house, thankfully without smacking into anything. Momentarily daunted by the security system, she figured out which button to push on the small control panel next to the French doors to allow her to slip outside without alerting the marines. The bright, silvered light of a nearly full moon lit the way out onto the veranda and down to the sprawling lawn. The perfectly tended grass felt like cool, slightly moist shag carpeting beneath her bare feet.
She retraced the path Harrison had taken her on yesterday-seemingly ages ago-until she reached the low dock extending out into the inky blackness of the river. Though the Rivers estate sat on a much more refined section of the Mac, the moist air smelled the same, and she pulled in a soothing lungful as she walked toward the lone chair standing guard at the end of the dock. She could think here, maybe even better than on her stupid old balcony.
Grinding her teeth at the pang of loss the thought of the balcony sent through her, she had nearly reached the large wooden chair before she realized with a start that it was occupied by a very large body in a dark shirt and chinos.
"Couldn't sleep?" Harrison's silky-smooth voice touched her as effectively as his hand and sent her blood pounding through her body.
"No," she practically croaked. She should have known she would never be able to escape this man long enough to think straight for five seconds, let alone sleep. This was his home, for heaven's sake, and whether she ran into him like this or not, he would be everywhere, always. And she couldn't imagine a sweeter torture.
The chair groaned as he pushed himself to his feet. "Me, neither."
She would have backed away from him, but she wasn't sure where the dock ended behind her and she couldn't manage to look away from his moonshine-handsomeness long enough to check. He towered above her and crowded into her personal space without even trying, unwittingly reminding her of the glorious knight who used to sweep into her dreams and effortlessly fill all the aching empty places i
n her body and soul.
Would he ever want to play that role again? Did she dare ask him?
He pointed a hand toward the chair. "Have a seat."
She couldn't have moved if her butt were on fire.
So it was understandable that she didn't flinch when he raised a hand and swept a strand of her hair back from her face and tucked it behind her ear. The now familiar gesture made her heart ache.
"I know it's not the same as your balcony, sweetheart, but I think you'll be able to find the same sort of peace here as you did there." His voice caressed her again and made her sway toward him.
Didn't he know the only place she felt at peace was in his arms?
He flattened his palm against her cheek and ran the warm pad of his thumb over her lips. "I just wish you'd trust me again, Juliet. Like you did that day two years ago."
Closing her eyes against his agonizing tenderness, she whispered, "It's me I don't trust."
"I know exactly what you mean," he answered, and pulled her toward him, his mouth finding hers without hesitation.
She returned his kiss with the same conviction because deep down, in the place where her dreams hid out and refused to die, she did trust him, with all her heart.
Just as she loved him.
She slipped her arms around his neck, and he gathered her against his big body, his kiss growing almost frantic. She took everything he gave and still wanted more.
Instead of holding her tighter, touching her more, he loosened his hold and brought his hands up to capture her face. He pulled his mouth from hers."Juliet," he gasped. "I need you so much. Let me make love to you again. Let me be inside of you."
Before she could answer, he kissed her again and grazed a hot hand over the thin T-shirt material covering her breast, as if he thought she needed further proof of his passion for her, then he gathered her to him and hugged her tight.
Into her hair he murmured, "And this time it won't cost you so much. I have protection. You'll never have to pay for my irresponsibility again."Juliet choked out a laugh. He had to be kidding.
