Her hands found his hair. She raked her fingers through it, loving the feel against her skin. When his grip tightened, she gave into the need and lowered her head. She pressed a kiss against his skull.
Swallowing the lump in her throat proved harder. “We’re both new to this.”
“You’re a natural. Everyone automatically loves you.” He brushed his forehead back and forth against her stomach, rustling her T-shirt and holding her tight. “You’ll do great.”
She had so many doubts but hearing his faith restored some of hers. “We are going to do great.”
She whispered the promise into his ear and for the first time believed it. She knew he’d heard her when a palm flattened against the back of her thigh. She needed to get rest and lie down. But she stood there.
He gave her a baby. She could give him this moment.
When he finally lifted his head a few minutes later, some of the starkness had left his face. “You need sleep.”
Of course he thought about her comfort first. She rubbed a hand over his cheek. “We both do.”
“Go on to bed.”
“Yes.” Fighting every muscle and her heart that wanted her to stay, she pulled back, separating from him. “Are you going to be okay out here?”
“Sure.”
Her gaze went to the small couch. Even if he folded his body in half, he wouldn’t fit on there. She spied something blue and glanced down. The pillow and blanket she’d given him were stacked between the couch and the coffee table.
“You’re sleeping on the floor?” She walked over and studied the makeshift bed close up.
“Yes.”
She glanced back at him. He hadn’t moved from the chair. “At least try the couch.”
“I have a thirty-four inch inseam.”
That sounded weirdly sexy in her head. “You could sit up.”
“There’s no need to worry. I’ve slept on a floor before.”
She laughed. “Right, I’ve seen your apartment. It’s thousands of square feet of gorgeous.”
He rubbed his finger over a crack in the old kitchen table. “I didn’t always have money, and there was a time when sleeping on a bed was a luxury.”
The comment didn’t make sense. She knew he didn’t come from a lot of money, but there should have been more than enough for the basics. His father found the cash to send Linc and his sister to Catholic school, after all. “What are you talking about?”
“Nothing.”
“I will stand here until you explain.”
“Bossy,” he mumbled.
“Damn straight.”
“One of my dad’s favorite punishments.” Linc continued to trace that line, keeping his head down and his focus on his finger as it brushed over the table. “If I disappointed him, which was always, I had to sleep in the hall.”
She froze, riveted in horror to the spot. “I don’t get it.”
With a long exhale, Linc sat back in the chair and looked up at her.
The stark expression tore at her. “Linc?”
He threw up a hand and let it fall hard against the table. “Apparently it was needed to make me more of a man.”
“That’s insane.” Words sputtered as she rushed to get them out. “Was anyone called? Did someone help you?”
His eyes narrowed in what looked like confusion. “Like who?”
“Protective services or the police.” Hell, she wanted to get in the car, drive to the old man’s house and shake the crap out of him.
“He wasn’t abusive.”
They clearly had two different definitions of the word. She wasn’t just throwing out compliments when she said Linc was rock solid. He was. He got angry and wasn’t shy when he did so, but she couldn’t imagine him using violence or humiliation on a child. Never.
Even when his anger exploded and his rage blew over her at the office that last day, she’d sensed he held back. He didn’t disclose their personal relationship. She did. He didn’t resort to name-calling. He’d kicked her out, but he kept asking for explanations. It was as if he’d wanted to be wrong. She didn’t know why it took until now for that fact to register in her brain.
But she needed him to understand what she already knew. “Would you ever make your kid sleep on the floor to toughen him up?”
He made a face as if he’d swallowed something sour. “Of course not.”
“Because it’s abusive.”
“I doubt taking away a mattress meets anyone’s definition of abuse.” Linc blew out a breath. “Look, he’s a bastard. Always was. I got the toughen-up shit and Chelsea got the never-ending lectures about how she was a slut and would get knocked up one day and…”
All animation and life drained from Linc’s face but the words bounced right off Thea. She knew Linc wasn’t tying their situation to his dad’s threats. He was stating the horrible facts and ripping her insides apart as he did it. The idea of little kids living like that, being stuck in that nonsense, brought her to the brink of weeping.
“It’s okay,” she said and she meant it.
The chair creaked as he stood up. He was in front of her in a blink. “Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by that. I wasn’t trying to sucker punch you.”
“Linc, it really is okay.” She trailed her palm down his cheek.
“I need you to understand.” Pain thundered all around him and his eyes pleaded with her. “My sister didn’t sleep around. I know you didn’t. Even if you did, so what. The whole shaming-women-for-liking-sex thing is not okay with me.”
The poor guy looked as green as she did when she smelled meat cooking these days. There was no need. She’d never heard him engage in any of that talk or demean a woman for being a woman. “I know that too.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive.” The yawn snuck up on her. Then another.
“You should go to bed.”
He’d never opened up before and no matter how hard the stories were to hear, Thea hated to stop him now. But the baby had her exhausted and the sickness likely would start again in a few hours. “Agreed.”
He shifted around her and inched closer to the bed on the floor. “Sleep in and I’ll treat you to an extravagant breakfast of toast and decaf tea.”
“Sounds fabulous.” She thought about touching him or saying something that would make this all better. She went with walking away. “Good night.”
When she got to the bedroom door, she looked back and watched him pick the throw off the couch. He added it to the pile he pretended worked as a bed. Guilt smacked her out of nowhere. He deserved to grovel for all he’d done to her, but not now. Not tonight.
“Linc.” When he glanced at her with an eyebrow lifting in question, she ignored the warning bells chiming in her head and held out a hand to him. “Come with me.”
“What?”
“We can share the bed.”
He started shaking his head before she finished the sentence. “That’s not a good idea.”
“Sleep only.” And she meant that, so she kept her arm extended. “You need your rest too.”
“I’m trying to be realistic here.” He stood with his arms at his sides. Didn’t even shift his feet. “I know what your body does to mine. I also know the mess between us and that if we hop into bed, you will be even more pissed at me tomorrow.”
His husky voice kicked something to life inside her. Something she wanted to ignore. “I said sleep.”
“And I said realistic.”
She nodded in the direction of his pillow. “It’s clear that’s a bad choice.”
“You get how much I want you, right?”
Her heart did a little bounce. “But tonight we both need sleep, a word I keep saying and you keep missing.”
“I still don’t think—”
“Last time, sleep.” She shot him a smile. “I trust you.”
He rolled his eyes as he let out a grumbling groan. “Ah, man. You know I can’t touch you after that.”
“You won’t un
til I say it’s okay, and tonight I won’t say it.” And it would kill her to hold back. He wasn’t the only one battling a big case of want.
His eyebrow lifted. “Until?”
Busted. Instead of cleaning it up or explaining, she let the word sit there in the silence.
The quiet ticked by as he stared at her. Finally, he spoke up in a rough voice. “On one condition.”
She dreaded whatever came next. “What?”
“If you decide to seduce me, you have my permission.” He sounded so serious. Then he winked.
Laughter bubbled up from her belly. It took her a good ten seconds to bring it under control again. “If I do, I promise to wake you up first.”
A light danced in his eyes at that. “Deal.”
In a few steps he stood in front of her. When his warm palm slid into hers, her heart took off on a wild race. She wanted to put her hand there and calm it down. She went with determined steps, concentrating on the line to the bedroom doorway rather than the hot male hovering right over her shoulder.
It felt like forever had passed by the time they got to their destination. She glanced in, seeing the double bed and the small table next to it. The room was cozy and the bed gobbled up almost every inch. She’d never noticed that until now.
He cleared his throat. “That’s a small bed.”
“Yep.”
He dropped her hand and put it at the small of her back to guide her inside. “I made you a promise. I know our personal relationship is in shreds and confusing, but you can count on me to keep my promises.”
“I know.” She walked to the closest side of the bed and picked up the cover.
His voice stopped her from crawling in. “But I sure as hell hope you decide to seduce me soon.”
That’s exactly what she was afraid of. Her control would snap before they resolved anything. “That’s enough of that. Get in.”
She usually stripped off her pajama bottoms. Something about having material tangle around her legs messed up her sleep. She had enough trouble between the rolling nausea and the hottie who was about to be pressed up beside her. No need to borrow more trouble.
She snuggled in and glanced at him on the other side of the mattress…getting naked. “What are you doing?”
The sound of the zipper being lowered screeched through the room. “Taking off my jeans.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t sleep in my jeans.”
“And I don’t sleep in my pants, but I’m gonna tonight.”
He looked at her with a smile made of pure naughtiness. “Don’t do it for me. I am very much in favor of you taking your clothes off.”
He yanked the jeans the whole way down, leaving only his white tee and a pair of gray boxer briefs. No one should look that good in boxer briefs. They hugged his thighs and cupped the rest of him, highlighting that impressive bulge.
It killed her to look away and give him eye contact again. “Come on, really?”
He slid between the sheets and his thigh touched hers. The firm muscle. The brush of his hair against her bare calf.
She sat up, balancing on her elbows. He lay flat and closed his eyes. From the small size of the bed and the large size of him, there wasn’t an inch of space between their bodies.
“Feel free to cuddle up against me.” He said the words but kept his eyes shut.
She scowled at him one more time then shut the light off and flopped back on the mattress. Her shoulder hugged his. To get a little breathing room and restore her common sense, she curled up on her side, facing away from him. His heat warmed her and his heavy breathing filled the room, soothing her like a white-noise machine.
She’d just settled into the pillows when the mattress shifted and dipped. All of a sudden his chest pressed against her back and an arm wrapped around her waist. His scent and his body surrounded her.
But it was the warm breath blowing across her neck that started a tingling inside of her. “What are you doing?”
“Sleeping.” The mumble vibrated against her hair.
“On my side of the bed.”
“It’s a small bed.”
She turned onto her back and stared up at him. Big mistake. His arm tightened until it felt as if he touched her everywhere. Even in the darkness she could see those shocking blue eyes.
“You promised.”
“To be fair, I was trying to sleep.” His finger slipped into her hair as he played with the curling ends. “You’re the one who flipped over.”
He made it sound so reasonable.
As if she’d fall for that. “Linc.”
“What I want to do is kiss you, but I’m refraining.”
Temptation swamped her. She should smile and turn back over. Look away…something. Instead she said the word that floated through her mind. “Don’t.”
“I’m not going to.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
He pulled his head back and studied her. “What?”
“You heard me.”
“Are you going to—”
“Blame you later? No.” She lifted a hand and speared it through the hair at the back of his neck. It only took a bit of pressure to get him to lean in. Almost none at all.
Then his mouth was on hers and the excitement whirling around inside her exploded into fireworks. Her arms wrapped around his neck and her hands skimmed his shoulders. The heat combined with a kick of need so strong it stole her breath. She felt him over her, around her. The memory of him inside her came rushing back.
Their mouths crossed and their tongues met. Her skin turned burny and every cell inside her jumped and danced. The deep well of want started in her stomach and flowed through her.
When he lifted his head, she kept her hands against his back and brought him in close. His erection pressed against her hip and energy pulsed off of him.
“That was quite a kiss,” she said in a soft whisper.
“And the promise still holds.”
She shifted her hips and his jaw clenched. It was the look of a man right on the edge of his control. Part of her wanted to push him over. She remembered the pleasure and wanted it back.
She bit her lower lip. “What if—”
“No.” He rubbed thumb over where she’d just nibbled. “Not tonight.”
“Why?”
“Because I need to know you can trust me.”
Chapter Twelve
The next morning Linc searched the cabinets for coffee. Real coffee. Not the decaf stuff. At least now he knew why she had it. Still, there had to be a scoop of the high-octane variety around here somewhere.
After his emotional implosion last night, he needed something. He’d never lost it like that before and rarely shared any piece of his upbringing with anyone but Chelsea, and that was only about sharing survivor stories.
Seeing Thea and hearing about the baby, it had all backed up on him. He experienced a moment of pure joy then he thought about becoming his father and anxiety crashed through the happiness.
He’d almost lost it. Not his finest moment but Thea handled it in stride, just like she handled everything.
Except coffee.
Cabinet doors banged and glasses clanked as he moved everything around in his search. He finally spied tea. Not even close in his book.
Footsteps thudded behind him. He spun around, hoping to catch a glimpse of Thea fresh from her shower. The water had just turned off. Somehow she’d managed to get the robe on and tightly closed with a belt before she came into view.
He saw peeks of skin around her knees and chest where the material gaped open. Wet hair fell over her shoulders and curled at the ends. Bare feet, complete with bright pink toenails finished off the sexy rumpled morning look.
The temperature in the room had him stripping down to his T-shirt but he figured toasty warm was better for her. She could not get sick. Though he wouldn’t mind her loosening the tie to the robe a bit.
He knew the smoking body she hid under there, had lain pr
essed against her all night. The closeness amounted to pure sexual torture. His brain screamed no and his pounding erection begged for more. He woke with a tightness in his balls even the cold shower couldn’t shake.
As far as self-denial went, he could wear the crown because there was no way he would go too far and break his promise. If she wanted him, and he could tell by the way she’d moaned when he kissed her that she did, fine, she just needed to spit it out and fast.
“We need to talk about the living arrangements,” she said.
Seemed they were not on the same page at all.
So soon after a night sharing the same bed, the comment still shouldn’t be a surprise. She’d made her position clear. He’d held her and listened to the rhythm of her breathing as she drifted off.
In her slumber he could touch her hair and trace a finger over her cheeks. All the touches he’d missed for nine weeks, he savored during the night. But none of that changed the messed-up state of their relationship.
When he said he missed her, it wasn’t a line. He did and in every way. On the work front, her loss was a body blow. He couldn’t find anything. He didn’t know a single phone number or any major contact by memory.
On a personal level, her leaving turned his dating life into a wasteland. He didn’t want anyone else. Not that he had a lot of time for relationships with the work schedule and his off-hours investigation into the stolen bid. He’d poured over every document and retraced her steps. He had so many questions for her, but the baby changed everything.
The points that mattered so much even a few days ago struck him as irrelevant now. There would be other jobs, and the company could get along fine without the one at the university, if needed. But he hated the idea that the only thing he might get out of the project bid was a separation from Thea.
If she really didn’t pass corporate secrets, he’d strangle the person who did. Forget the police.
She stepped up next to him. “Did you hear me?”
“Yes.” Heard and ignored. To keep her from asking again, he handed her a mug of tea.
She took it and sniffed it while the steam hit her face. “Nice.”
“How are you feeling?” He’d slept with his hand cradled over her stomach and was tempted to touch her there again now. It just stunned him that her thin waist protected a new life they’d created together.
Baby, It's Cold Outside: Men at Work, Book 1 Page 10
