by Robyn Grady
Xander began to explain. “There was this contest—”
“A bachelor draw for charity,” Brooke chipped in.
“Yeah…I read the woman who won had backed out.” Ella’s voice lowered in awe. “My God, Brooke, was that you?”
Brooke nodded. “Still don’t know how that happened.”
Ella looked between the two of them. “Someone must have put your name in. Don’t you want to find out who and seriously thank them?”
While Xander rubbed a corner of his grin, Brooke explained to him. “Ella’s a little excitable.”
“But what’s he doing here now,” Ella went on, “serving?”
Xander made himself useful, spraying some mixed bouquets, while Brooke explained the situation fully. Ella still couldn’t come to grips with the news.
“I’ve phoned,” Ella said. “I’ve come over nights to visit. Why didn’t you say something before now?”
Brooke kissed the top of Chance’s head. “I wanted to see if this partner thing worked out.”
Ella eyed Xander again. “Looks like it’s working out pretty well to me.” Then her focus shifted to the baby. “And why haven’t I said hello to you yet?” She put out her arms to nurse Chance and cuddle him close. “Lord, you smell good. All powdery and fresh and cuter than any baby in the world.”
Chance was talking back, in cooing baby language, of course.
Ella spoke to Xander. “Mind if I borrow my sister for a minute. There’s a matter of utmost importance we need to discuss.”
He shot spray at the gerberas. “Be my guest.”
“I’ve come over to make you an offer you can’t refuse,” Ella told Brooke. “I’m staying over Hannah and Dan’s tonight. We really, really want to look after Chance, give you a night off.”
Brooke took a moment and then exhaled. “Okay.”
Ella froze. “Did you say…? I thought you said…”
“Yes,” Brooke said, moving behind the counter. “You can look after Chance tonight.”
Ella gently bounced the baby. “Yay us!” Then she sent Xander a sly but approving look. “Did you guys have something planned?”
Brooke said “not really” at the same time Xander said “yes.”
He clarified. “We do now.”
“I expect to hear more about this,” Ella said, heading for the back room. “Right now, I’m going to pack this little man’s bag and get outta here before you all change your mind.”
Xander joined Brooke behind the counter. She never wore make-up other than a lick of gloss he had grown increasingly impatient to taste. He got the feeling she was leaning that way, too. He often caught a certain sparkle in her eyes…a breathy quality to her voice. Still, her main priority was that baby. Only made her more attractive. There was something special about Chance. He got more into that kid every day.
“So, what have you got in mind for tonight?” he asked, setting down the spray bottle.
“You’re right. We totally need a change of scenery.”
“Consider it done.” He tore off his apron and set it down beside the spray. “Put on something pretty and I’ll pick you up at seven.”
Her eyes were sparkling again. With a burp cloth slung over one shoulder and her ponytail mussed from where Chance had caught a handful of hair, Xander didn’t think his business partner had ever looked more beautiful.
“Can I ask where you’re taking me?” she said.
“And spoil the surprise?”
“As long as it’s not a red carpet affair.” A finger went to her mouth. “I’m not much into the socialite scene.”
“I promise.” He headed for the front door. “What I have in mind is ultra private.”
Chapter 8
She might not be a princess or a movie star, but at this minute, Brooke felt as if she were the most desirable—the luckiest—woman in the world. Sitting in a private area of a quaint but tasteful restaurant, with the sound and scent of ocean waves crashing on the nearby shore…this must be heaven on earth.
She’d known Xander a little over two weeks. Practically no time at all. So, why did she feel so connected? How did Xander truly feel about her? He’d said that he liked her. He had absolutely invested in her. During the day, they talked and laughed and made plans…
Was it crazy to wonder if one day there might be more?
Xander was refilling her wine glass. “How do you feel about the baby being more than five seconds away?”
“Like I’ve lost a limb.”
In the soft yellow glow of the candlelight, she saw his eyebrows lift. “That bad?”
“Not bad, exactly. Different. Weird. Thing is I know he’s safe and being lathered in love.”
This afternoon when Ella had offered again to have Chance for the night, Brooke had come to an overdue conclusion. She’d been hooked up on her promise to Tiffany: Brooke had vowed to always look after her son. Didn’t mean she had to lock Chance away until graduation. Moms were allowed to go out every now and again, weren’t they?
“Your sister’s quite a character,” he said, scooping up a forkful of linguini.
“She can wrap anyone around her little finger. Hannah’s the oldest...a total egghead. The one with all the degrees, remember?” Toying with her salad, Brooke gave up a bit of information she hadn’t offered before. “Hannah and her husband are trying for a baby.”
“Good for them.”
“Being a parent has to be the best feeling in the world. I couldn’t imagine life without Chance now.”
Xander set down his fork. “There are questions that need to be asked though.”
“Questions?”
“About the birth father. You don’t want him showing up out of the blue, hiring a lawyer and demanding parental rights.”
Brooke’s heartbeat began to race. “Could that happen? I was named in Tiffany’s will. I’ve lodged my consent . I know I’ve passed the background check.”
“I’ve had my attorney look into it. Seems there’s a lack of uniformity between states regarding level of protection for unwed fathers. If he pops out of the woodwork, it could mean a lot of emotional and legal issues.”
For an evening that had started out so well, now Brooke felt a little ill. She had given thought to Chance’s biological dad before. But now…“What should I do?”
“I can make a few enquiries. Shouldn’t take long to find something out.”
“And if we can’t find anything?”
“Then we tried, for Chance’s sake.”
When a song drifted out through the speakers, she sat back and closed her eyes. Ella’s words from the other week were ringing in her ears. Was Chance’s father a good man, an unselfish person…or was he cut from a similar cloth to Jake’s?
She shivered and opened her eyes.
A pulse was beating in Xander’s jaw. “I’ve upset you,” he said, sounding annoyed at himself.
“It’s not you. It’s just this song reminds me of someone.”
“A man?”
Her stomach swooped as she nodded. “It’s over.”
“Are you sure?”
She was taken aback. “Positive.”
They were seated in front of a wall of glass. For a long moment, Xander concentrated on a series of night waves rolling in on the shore.
“Yesterday, after closing, who was it at the door?” he finally asked.
She opened her mouth to tell him again. No one. But she saw in his eyes…Xander had guessed anyway.
She locked her hands in her lap. “Jake and I were an item for six months. I met him at a friend’s wedding. We’re both huge Dodgers fans. He took me to a game. A homerun sailed straight to us in the stands. For the first four months, we really seemed suited. Then his mom let it slip that he’d spent a bit of time in Juvie, and that now he owed people money, including her. We’d make a time to see each other and he wouldn’t show up. The final straw was his reaction to the baby. He didn’t like the idea of sharing.”
Xander’s brows knitte
d. “He didn’t like Chance?”
“He wasn’t so keen on me liking Chance, either.”
Sitting back, he swiped a hand down over his mouth. “So, you dumped him.”
“I didn’t want to see Jake the other afternoon. I never want to see him again.”
Xander raised his glass. “I’ll drink to that.”
Later, when they left the restaurant, Xander’s arm slid loosely around her back as he steered her toward the boardwalk.
“Is it too cold for a walk?” he asked.
She fought the urge to lean closer. “A walk sounds good.”
For the longest time, they strolled in a comfortable silence. Knowing Chance was, by now, blissfully asleep, Brooke simply enjoyed the sound of the waves…the appeal of having Xander this close.
“Bet you’re thinking about the baby,” he finally said.
“You, too?”
When warm fingers slipped around hers, Brooke siphoned down a quick breath but didn’t pull away.
“He’s fine,” Xander said, peering down the misty, otherwise vacant boardwalk.
Brooke had talked about her family, but Xander always seemed to dodge the subject of his own. Now she asked, “Do you have any sisters or brothers?”
“Two brothers, one sister and a mom.”
“No dad?”
“He vanished when I was six.”
Brooke’s step faltered. Ohmygod. “Why?”
“Classic case of another woman. Or two…or three.”
Although Xander’s expression was calm, that pulse in his jaw had started to pop again.
“Did you see him after that?” she asked gently.
“Half a dozen times. He was too interested in his love life to worry much about being there for his kids. I was just happy the yelling and tears had stopped. Made me realize what I didn’t want when I grew up.”
When his grip on her hand shifted, Brooke automatically squeezed back.
“Are you the eldest?” she asked.
“Second youngest.”
“That blows the order of birth theory. Aren’t firstborn children supposed to rule the world?”
“The other Drake kids have done okay. They’re all married with kids. Holidays are fun. How about you? Into big family Christmases?”
Before Brooke could answer, under a brighter street light, the shimmer of a conch shell caught her eye. She swept down to pick it up, turn it over, and then back again.
“It’s perfect. Not a chip anywhere.”
“You collect shells?”
“When I was a kid.”
She scanned the shadowy stretch of beach. This shell didn’t get up here by itself. Someone must have dropped it.
She put the shell to her ear and grinned. “Yep. There’s the ocean rushing around.”
He chuckled. “That’s the sounds around you resonating in the cavity.”
“Mr. Brain McBrain,” she teased, lowering the shell. “Is there anything you don’t know?”
He only grinned. “It’d be the same if you held a cup to your ear. Airflow, ambient noise, resembles the sound of ocean movements. The human ear also picks up the sounds your body makes.” His hand found hers, lifting and cupping the shell against her ear again. “Can you hear muscles working? Blood flowing?” His voice and head lowered. “Can you hear your own heart beating?”
She gazed into his eyes. Most definitely.
He brought the shell, and her hand, to the side of his own face. As the bristles on his cheek lightly grazed her knuckles, Brooke swallowed and asked, “What do you hear?”
“A voice.”
“What’s it saying?”
His gaze dropped to her lips. “It’s telling me not to wait.”
Chapter 9
When Xander’s lips brushed hers, lights switched on all over Brooke’s body. Every day, she’d felt a little more drawn. The awareness surging between them now practically crackled.
As his mouth grazed again, with more intent this time, each of her senses heightened at the same time inhibition dropped away. Leaning in, she imagined them coming closer still, those big hands trailing her skin, and a kiss so deep that fireworks went off in her head.
Xander drew away and smiled into her eyes. “I’ve wanted to do that for a while,” he said.
“I’m glad you did it now.”
“Because we’re alone?”
“Because I wasn’t sure…”
A line formed between his brows. “I’m not like Jake.”
Brooke released a breath. “You’re not like anyone.”
He brought her hand to his lips and dropped a kiss on the first fingertip before she realized and pulled her hand away.
Her cheeks were hot. “You don’t want to do that.”
“What are you talking about?”
“My nails. I bite them to the quick.” I bite them till they bleed. He still looked confused. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Yeah, I do. I get it. You’d like to break a habit. I wish I didn’t fall asleep in front of the television and wake up with a back an eighty-year old wouldn’t want.” He leaned closer and confessed. “I’m also addicted to Candy Crush.”
She laughed. “You are not.”
“It doesn’t matter to me that you like a nibble. I don’t care about your nails. Brooke, I care about you.”
When he lifted her hand this time, and one by one kissed each fingertip, emotion pushed up Brooke’s throat and she surrendered it all.
Maybe guardian angels in Italian suits really did exist.
He placed her palm on his chest, and then brought her close to kiss her again, deeply this time. A flame curled through her veins, warming her through to the core. She adored the taste of him, his raspy chin, the scent of his skin and his hair.
As she craned higher on the tiptoes of her knee-high boots, Xander’s hand on the small of her back pressed her deliciously close. When his lips gradually left hers, his hands trailed higher until he was gently kneading her shoulders through her jacket while his lips trailed across her brow.
“You don’t want to go back to the shop alone tonight,” he murmured. “Come home with me, just to hold each other, if that’s all you want.”
When his fingers filed up the back of her head, through her hair, she sighed. “You want to do more than cuddle.”
“I can go slow, if slow gets us where we need to go.”
“Now we’ve come this far,” she grinned, “I vote for full-steam ahead.” Her palm fanned over his chest, beneath his coat. “How far away is your place?”
He glanced toward the building that housed their restaurant on its ground floor. “I have the penthouse.”
Her smile was wry. “Convenient.”
“I like the food here. I like the beach. Brooke…” He tasted her lips again. “I like you.”
A second after she and Xander rode the elevator to the top floor and he ushered her inside his penthouse apartment, he swept her up into his arms and carried her into the master bedroom. He set her down beside the bed, flicked on a soft lamp and then brought her close again.
After a kiss that made her toes curl, he murmured against her lips. “If you’re still okay with full-steam ahead, I suggest we get naked.”
She pressed in. “I like that suggestion.”
“I have more,” he said, peeling the jacket off her shoulders.
As he whispered a proposition in her ear, she bit her lip to stop a groan; she could barely wait. By the time he’d finished explaining how he proposed to go about it, he was slipping blouse sleeves off her arms and Brooke was dissolving, she wanted him so bad.
His palms ran down her arms as he crouched in front of her. When she felt the tug and then heard her skirt’s zipper slide down, she had to grip both his shoulders to stop weak knees from folding. He dropped a lingering kiss below her navel, and then tip of his tongue drew a moist strip an inch above her bikini line. As a finger slipped down the front of her panties, she quivered and arched into his caress. Then the tip
of his tongue delved lower until he was kissing her there. Her fingers knotted, and then fisted in his hair.
After he’d dragged her underwear all the way down and he helped her out of her boots, he pushed to his feet and unsnapped her bra. When she stood before him with not a stitch on, he raveled her up in his arms and his mouth found hers again. She was aware of him backing her up, blindly flipping back the covers and then urging her to lie down. He dabbed a kiss at the base of her throat before he straightened and undressed.
In the shadows, she watched him shrug out of the shirt, ditch the shoes then the rest. When the mattress dipped and he lay beside her, she immediately rolled into his embrace. With an arm coiled around his neck, she nipped his lower lip and admitted, “You feel unbelievably good.” Like slabs of rock wrapped in warm velvet.
His kisses now were disciplined snatches, followed by penetrating strokes that ignited spot-fires through her veins. When he moved, carefully crowding her until she lay on her back, he squeezed her outer thigh as his tongue looped and flicked the tip of one breast. He drifted across to the other side and this time nipped lightly before drawing that nipple back into his mouth.
His palm ironed down over her belly. When a single finger slid between her thighs and inside of her, she clamped shut her eyes and instinctively drilled down. For the next few bone-melting moments, he alternated between that and drawing circles over the nub at the top of her folds.
When he shifted away, pent up air rushed from her lungs; he’d lifted her to a place where she’d forgotten where she was. Her heartbeat pounding, she watched his silhouette turn away. Then she heard a bedside drawer open and a foil wrapper tear. A moment later, he joined her again, and this time he kissed her like he wouldn’t have another chance.
Positioned above her, he entered her slowly, filling her a little more with each stroke while her hands trailed over his bare shoulders, down those epic arms. His body was steaming. Every tendon felt locked and rock hard. And the way that he moved…
Pressing into the mattress, she hummed over a big smile. She could lie here with Xander doing this forever. Even better when he murmured those endearments in her ear…words like beautiful and wonderful and mine. And then, one thrust hit a spot that turned her inside out. Nerve-endings caught light, inhaling every drop of her blood. As he kissed her again, his rhythm picked up. The hot spot inside her began to sizzle and contract.
