by J. S. Scott
Sarah made her way back to the front of the store just as Mara was handing Dante a large bag. Apparently, he’d found something he liked.
Mara Ross was a quiet, curvy woman with dark, shoulder-length hair that was currently pulled back in a clip at the nape of her neck. Her glasses covered sharp brown eyes, and she always smiled readily, even though she was a little bit shy.
Sarah came to the front just in time to hear Mara tell Dante, “This house was originally owned by a Sinclair. I’m surprised you never knew.”
Mara knew the history of the whole town, her family having been here since the town was founded. “It was?” Sarah asked curiously.
Mara nodded at Sarah. “It belonged to a Sinclair sea captain.” She looked at Dante. “How do you think your family acquired the peninsula? The captain purchased the land to build his wife and children an even bigger home, but he died at sea before it was ever built. This house was eventually sold, but the land on the peninsula stayed in the Sinclair family.”
“I didn’t know,” Dante admitted. “My family owns property everywhere. I guess I never looked into the history.”
“The peninsula has been in your family for generations, Mr. Sinclair,” Mara told him informatively.
“Dante, please,” he corrected with a charming smile.
Mara nodded shyly before commenting. “I think your brother, Jared, knows most of the history. He came in asking once, and I sent him to the clerk’s office for the old town records. I know the basic history, but I thought some of the records might help answer his specific questions.”
“Jared had questions?” Dante asked, looking perplexed.
Mara shrugged and flushed. “He seemed interested in the Sinclair history.”
“How did your family end up owning the property?” Dante asked curiously.
“We don’t. We’ve rented the house since my grandmother’s day. It’s actually owned by another party, someone who doesn’t live here anymore.” Mara frowned. “I know the house needs some work, and I do whatever I can, but the landlord just doesn’t have any interest in the property anymore. He doesn’t want to do much as far as repairs.”
“It’s a beautiful old home,” Sarah said thoughtfully.
“It is,” Mara agreed with an enthusiastic nod. “I just wish I could do more to fix it.”
Dante thanked Mara for her help, and Sarah wandered outside with him, waving at Mara as they departed.
“What the hell is Jared up to?” Dante muttered quietly.
“Maybe he’s just interested in the Sinclair history,” Sarah suggested, taking Dante’s outstretched hand as they walked back up Main Street.
“Doubtful,” Dante replied dubiously. “More than likely he’s interested in Mara. Did you see her face when she talked about him?”
“She’s sweet,” Sarah argued. “And that’s hardly Jared’s type.” Somehow, she couldn’t see Jared trying to romance a shy, girl-next-door kind of woman like Mara. Jared was more the type to go for style and sophistication.
“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Jared with any woman since he’s been here. And you think she’s not his type just because she’s sweet?” Dante asked meaningfully, pulling her into an alley between shops. He crowded her, pushing her back against the brick wall. “Emily is sweet, and look what happened to Grady. You’re sweet, and look what’s happening to me. I think sweet women are a Sinclair downfall,” he told her gruffly. “We gravitate to sweet because we’re all assholes.”
Sarah looked up at him, trying to swallow the gigantic lump in her throat. His expression was teasing but vulnerable. “What’s happening to you?”
“I’m as pathetic as Grady,” he answered, but he sounded far from unhappy. “And I need you to kiss me.”
“What happens if I don’t?” she asked teasingly, wanting to immediately breach the distance between their lips and devour him whole.
“I’ll pass out right here in the dirt from yearning, and you’ll have to resuscitate me,” he replied with a wicked gleam in his eye, his body starting to sway playfully.
Laughter bubbled up inside her as Dante rolled his eyes, trying unsuccessfully to look weak.
“I’m fading,” he told her dramatically.
“Don’t worry. I’m a doctor. I think you’ll live,” she answered, still laughing as she grasped the front of his T-shirt and yanked him toward her, curling her arm around the back of his neck and bringing his mouth down to hers.
Her heart skittered as Dante immediately took control, pinning her against the wall and kissing the breath from her body with an embrace meant to brand her. He swept his tongue into her mouth, pressing his hard body against hers until she could feel his engorged cock against her lower abdomen. He teased, he possessed, and he enticed until she no longer cared who saw them. They were tucked away into an alley, but they still had a view of the entire town. It didn’t seem to matter. She was swept away by the power of Dante’s possessive embrace, drunk on passion.
Sarah was panting for air by the time he lifted his mouth from hers.
Dante put his head against the wall and scooped her into his arms. “I can’t do it. I can’t go back to Los Angeles without you, Sarah.” His voice sounded tortured. “Come with me. Be with me. I do need to go back, but I can’t go without you.”
She took a deep breath, letting it out as she laid her head on his shoulder. They had lived for the moment, but the future was catching up with them. “When do you have to go?” she asked quietly.
“Friday,” he answered hoarsely. “I have to check back into the department or put myself on leave again. They’re shorthanded—”
“I understand.” She cut him off, not needing to hear his explanation. Dante had responsibilities, and he was thinking about the good of the department. She didn’t expect him to be any other way. Still, he was leaving Friday, and it was only two days away.
“I need you with me. I know I’m asking for a lot. But money will never be an issue. You can take as long as you need to set up your practice there. We can be together.” He sounded desperate. “Come live with me, Sarah.”
She sighed, trying hard not to cringe over the thought of living in a big city again. She loved living in Amesport, but she loved Dante more. Location wasn’t truly going to matter if she didn’t have him. “I can’t leave Friday,” she told him tremulously, still stunned at the fact that he was leaving and he wanted her to go with him. “I’ll have to reassign my patients, take care of things here.”
“But you’ll come,” he pushed urgently, pulling back to look down at her, his gaze intense.
“It will take me a month or two at least,” she reasoned.
“Two weeks. I’ll never make it a month,” he insisted.
“A month or two,” she repeated breathlessly, his urgency making her heart pound until she could hear the deafening sound ringing in her ears. “Dante, I can’t just leave, either. I have a responsibility to my patients.”
He groaned. “I know. It’s just going to be hard. Literally. All the time.”
She laughed and pushed against his chest. “Is that all you ever think about?”
“Since I met you . . . yeah. Pretty much,” he answered unhappily.
Sarah pushed harder, getting him to step back. “I’ll move as soon as I can.” Relief flooded through her body, elated that she wasn’t going to have to try to live without Dante.
He wants me with him.
They’d been avoiding any mention of the future, but now they were going to have one together. “Coco has to go,” she mentioned casually.
“Damn dog,” he muttered, but he was smiling. “I can handle that if you come with the deal.”
Sarah knew Dante adored Coco. When it came to her dog, Dante was a total fraud. He fed her human food at every opportunity and spoiled the little dog rotten. “You’d miss her if she didn’t come with me.” She started to step carefully through the dirt alley to reenter Main Street.
“Sarah?” Dante grasped her upper arm,
his voice compelling.
She gave him a questioning look.
“I’d miss more than the sex,” he told her gravely. “I’d miss you.”
Her heart skipped a beat as she looked at his earnest expression. “I’d miss you, too,” she admitted, reaching out to run her palm over the stubble on his cheek. Living without Dante now would be like taking the light he’d lit inside her and putting it out, plunging her back into loneliness. Except now that aloneness would be all the more profound because she knew what it was like to not be lonely.
He took her hand from his face and kissed it before leading her back to the pavement. “Here.” He handed her the bag he’d gotten at Dolls and Things.
She tilted her head and looked at him. “What is it?”
“Something you should have had a long time ago,” he rumbled, waiting.
Sarah opened the bag and pulled out the gorgeous Victorian doll she’d always admired in the window of Mara’s shop. “Oh my God. Dante,” she breathed reverently. “I love this one.” She hugged the doll for just a second, stroking the velvety softness of the dress.
Dante’s eyes softened. “Why didn’t you buy it?”
“I’m twenty-seven years old. It didn’t—”
“Make sense?” Dante finished, grinning at her. “Woman, a lot of really good things in life don’t make sense.”
Like she hadn’t learned that? In reality, she and Dante made no sense at all, yet they fit together perfectly. “She’ll be a wonderful memento of Amesport,” Sarah said, still in awe that Dante had bought her something so simple that touched her so deeply. “Thank you.”
Dante shrugged. “It was nothing.”
He was wrong. It was definitely . . . something. It was a gift from the heart, and it touched her soul. It was ironic that the best gifts she’d ever gotten, her bike and this beautiful doll, had come from Dante. How had he ever gotten to know her deepest desires so quickly?
She tucked the doll back into the bag carefully and Dante took it from her to carry. He snatched her other hand possessively as they continued walking back to the other end of the street, where he’d left his truck.
“You’re not driving back to California?” Sarah asked curiously, wondering why he wasn’t taking his truck.
“Hell, no. I’m letting Evan send it back. I’d cut off my time here if I drove. I’d already have to be on the road.”
Friday. The day after tomorrow.
Really, they only had tomorrow if Dante had to leave early enough on Friday to check back into the station before the weekend. “What would you like to do tomorrow?” Sarah asked earnestly. “I’ll see if I can clear most of my schedule since it will be your last day here.”
“Anything I want?” Dante asked, turning his head toward her and grinning wickedly.
“Yes.” Sarah knew that evil grin, and her heart started to beat faster.
“You’ll be sorry,” he warned her.
Sarah wasn’t sorry, but she was sore the next day. Dante got his wish, and they never left the bed the entire day.
The next evening, Jared and Grady left Dante’s house after saying good-bye to Dante, both of them a little solemn.
“I guess you’ll be headed out pretty soon, too,” Grady commented thoughtfully to Jared as he started his truck.
Honestly, Jared could have walked back to his house, but he welcomed Grady’s company for a little longer. “In a while,” he said noncommittally. “Was it me, or did those two look like they’ve been heating up the sheets all day?” Jared had noticed that Dante looked worn out but smug, and Sarah had been more than a little tousled. “Maybe we should have called first.”
Grady grinned as he turned out of Dante’s driveway. “Naw. It was more fun to watch both of them scrambling and looking guilty as hell. I think we interrupted a very long good-bye.” He didn’t sound the least bit repentant. “Going there was pretty pointless other than the fun of watching the two of them squirm.”
Jared looked at Grady’s mischievous expression. And everybody thought he was cold? Dante was their brother, he’d almost died, and he was leaving. “We don’t know when we’ll see him again. I wanted to see him before he took off.”
“He’ll be back by Saturday,” Grady said nonchalantly.
“He’s leaving tomorrow,” Jared answered, perplexed.
“And he’ll be back by the next day. He’s in love with Sarah. I don’t even know if he realizes it yet, but he isn’t going to be able to stay away from her for the month or two it will take her to get her business taken care of here,” Grady replied, no hint of doubt in his tone. “Besides, he knows she’s happy here, and I think he’s been happy here, too.”
“What does love have to do with anything? He has a job he needs to get back to, a life in Los Angeles,” Jared grumbled, thinking Grady had temporarily lost his mind.
“You’ll meet a woman someday, and she’ll knock you flat on your ass,” Grady commented hopefully. “She’ll be a woman who will make you lose all control, make you think about nothing except her until you realize that love is the most important thing in the world.”
“You’re dreaming,” Jared replied caustically, but he squirmed just a little in the seat of the truck, trying not to think about how badly he wanted to go back into Mara Ross’s store again just to see her sweet face or listen to her voice.
She’s going to hate me.
Considering his plans, his chances of Mara Ross ever speaking to him again were slim to nonexistent.
Grady pulled into Jared’s driveway as he said, “Saturday. Want to place a bet?”
Do I? Oh, hell no. I’ve seen the way Grady is with Emily, and I see the same damn look on Dante’s face.
It was highly possible that both of his brothers were lost causes now. “Shit,” he mumbled as he opened the door of the truck, his sympathies with Dante if he was going to become as sappy as Grady. “No thanks. I’ll pass and see what happens.”
“You know I’m right,” Grady said knowingly as Jared exited and slammed the door of the truck behind him.
Jared watched as Grady’s taillights disappeared after he turned his truck around, seriously wondering if Grady really was right.
Another brother bites the dust?
If Dante was another victim, Jared hoped he ended up as happy as Grady was with Emily. After all Dante had been through, he deserved it. Judging by the look on Dante’s face tonight, Grady was probably right. Dante probably wouldn’t even last a day without Sarah.
Someday you’ll meet a woman . . .
Jared didn’t agree with Grady. Happiness and love weren’t for guys like him. What he’d done today had solidified the fact that he was a complete and selfish prick, and he knew it. He put his hands in the pockets of his pants, his expression grim, and headed for the front door of his house, knowing that he deserved to be alone, and always would be.
CHAPTER 20
I should have told him. Why didn’t I tell him?
Sarah had watched as Dante went through security and disappeared out of sight to board Grady’s private jet. Right then, she’d felt the urgency pounding at her, the words stuck inside her by a lump the size of a grapefruit in her throat. She’d been afraid that it was too soon to tell Dante, too soon to let him know. Everything for them was too new, too surreal. She hadn’t wanted to spoil what they had by blurting out that she loved him prematurely. Now the words were pounding at her soul.
I should have told him.
She and Dante had never talked about love. Need, want, desire . . . yes . . . but never love. Now that she wanted to tell him, needed to tell him, it was too late.
Tears streaming down her cheeks, she walked outside, making her way to the parking lot, searching absently for her car.
She, of all people, knew how short life could be. At the age of twenty-seven, she’d already had two brushes with death and knew that anything that had to be said should be said when she wanted to say it.
I was afraid.
Sarah readily
admitted to herself that she would be shattered if she said those words and Dante didn’t respond favorably. Now she realized it shouldn’t have mattered. The fact was that she did love him, and he needed to know that, especially if he wanted them to have a life together. He’d either have to accept the way that she felt . . . or not. Admittedly, she wasn’t used to loving a man, didn’t know what he’d say, but she should have said it out loud. Yesterday, she’d tried to tell him with her body how much she loved him, but she’d clamped down hard on her lips to keep from letting the words escape her mouth.
I should have told him.
Sarah didn’t start her vehicle. She leaned her head back against the seat and let the pain of her separation from Dante flow over her like a river. The agony was for the words that had gone unsaid. Had she told Dante that she loved him, maybe it wouldn’t hurt quite as badly. But he was leaving not knowing how she felt.
Suddenly, it didn’t matter that Dante had never said it, or if it was too soon. She needed to say it, and the compulsion was so vital that she started rifling through her purse for her cell phone. Knowing Dante’s plane had already left, she sent a text message, relief flooding through her body at the thought that he would know as soon as he switched on his phone in California. It would have to be enough.
She’d say the words out loud as soon as she talked to him, but for now, she’d done everything she could to let him know the minute he was within contact range again.
“I love you,” Sarah whispered, wishing she’d been able to tell him before he left.
With a long sigh, she swiped away her tears and started the car to begin her drive back home.
“I apologize for the delay, Mr. Sinclair. We’ll be in the air shortly.”
Dante nodded at Grady’s pilot abruptly before the middle-aged man went into the cockpit, wishing the damn plane would just take off. Now that he couldn’t see Sarah anymore, he was antsy and ready to get back to Los Angeles.
