The two groups wound up shoving tables together to accommodate everyone and had a very pleasant evening.
During dinner, Meghan would sometimes look in Leo’s direction at the other end of the table, find his gaze on her and feel that now-familiar tingling on her skin. His piercing eyes seemed to see into the depths of her soul. That look inflamed her passions. She drank the ice water in front of her, but that didn’t help.
She fanned her face with a napkin.
Desiree, sitting beside her, asked, “Is it too warm in here for you?”
“No,” Meghan said and lowered her gaze from Leo’s.
Keen-eyed Desiree had followed her line of sight, though. “I think there’s something you’re not telling me. But that’s okay. I think we should compare notes.”
Meghan immediately understood what Desiree was alluding to. Or rather, whom.
“Decker Riley?” she asked.
“He’s getting to me,” Desiree admitted. “He keeps sending flowers and I keep sending them back to him. He’s relentless.”
“And sexy as hell,” Meghan said.
“That, too.”
“Well, at least he lets you know how he feels about you,” Meghan said. “I know you think he’s a player and not worth your time and possible heartache, but you’ll never know until you get to know him better.”
“I realize that,” Desiree said, a little sadly. “I don’t think I’m ready to risk my heart again. Love hurts.”
“No kidding,” Meghan said, her gaze drifting back to Leo.
He was laughing at something and his profile was to her, but, oh, what a profile. Formerly, she hadn’t been a big fan of beards, but his made him look ultramasculine. She wouldn’t mind him rubbing that beard all over her body.
“Maybe you ought to step outside to cool off,” Desiree suggested.
Meghan looked down at the napkin in her right hand. She’d been fanning herself with it so furiously that it was falling apart. She dropped it onto the table. “No, what I need is a tall drink of water.”
Desiree chuckled softly because her sister was looking at Leo Wolfe when she said that.
* * *
The wedding took place right there in the lodge. Keeping it simple, Mina descended the staircase on the arm of Alphonse, who handed her off to Jake with the words “Be happy, you two.”
Her sisters stood behind her for support, and Leo stood next to Jake as best man. A young female violinist played “La Vie en Rose” as the processional song. The notes floated on the air so beautifully, the wedding criers had already been in full force before Mina took one step on the staircase with her dad. There were around one hundred guests in attendance, all in formal wedding finery: the out-of-towners whom Mina and Jake had welcomed last night, plus guests who’d driven a shorter distance to get there.
Later, at the reception, Meghan was chatting with her mother when Leo walked up to her table.
“Excuse me,” he said in his gentlemanly fashion. “Would you like to dance?”
Her mother started to open her mouth, but clamped it shut, her eyes on Meghan. Meghan breathed a sigh of relief and got to her feet. She was surprised by his gesture, but tried not to show it as she took his offered hand.
“I’d love to,” she said and reminded herself to breathe.
Eyes locked, they moved onto the dance floor. “I’ve been admiring you in that dress,” Leo told her.
“Thank you. I’ve been admiring you in that tux,” she said, reveling in the moment.
The dress was made of a thick cotton fabric in off-white. A raised jacquard design was woven into the material, and the dress itself was sleeveless and A-line with a scoop neck that revealed just enough cleavage, which Meghan had been abundantly blessed with. The hem fell three inches above her knees.
Leo was wearing a traditional black tuxedo that fitted his muscular, fit body wonderfully well. He’d taken off the jacket, and Meghan could see his biceps and chest muscles straining against the long-sleeve shirt. He must have left his black silk bow tie with his jacket because she knew she’d seen him wearing it during the ceremony.
The song playing was “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran. Leo gently pulled her into his arms and they began to move to the music. Meghan could tell by the way his hand caressed the small of her back that he knew what he was doing. Some of her partners in the past had been unsure of exactly where their hands should go for any given dance.
Meghan relaxed after the first couple of minutes, realizing that something monumental was happening to her. Ever since she was a little girl, taking dance lessons that Virginia insisted she needed in order to become a well-rounded young lady, she had envisioned her dream dance partner. Someone who would simply take her in his arms and with whom she would instantaneously begin dancing as though they’d been dancing together all their lives.
And it had finally happened to her.
Leo swept her around the dance floor like Prince Charming twirled Cinderella the night of the ball. Meghan felt light as a feather.
“Where did you learn to dance like this?” Meghan asked, astonished.
“Where did you learn to dance like this?” Leo countered.
“I took dance for nine years,” Meghan divulged. “Momma forced me, at first, but then I got hooked on it. I took ballet, jazz and ballroom. But I gave it up when I realized I was never going to find a partner who actually loved it as much as I do.”
“I do,” Leo said, smiling at her. “I got ridiculed because I took ballroom dance lessons. I admit, I took them because I wanted to impress a girl I knew who loved to dance. But I kept going even after she broke up with me.”
“Was it for your high school prom?” Meghan asked.
“Yes,” Leo laughed. “She broke up with me before the prom, so I never got to show her my skills.”
“Well, she missed out big-time,” Meghan said. “Dip me, Mr. Darcy.”
So he did, elegantly and with sensual intensity. Meghan thought she might have an orgasm right there on the dance floor. His strength as he held her was formidable.
The DJ changed up the music then and put on an upbeat Bruno Mars song, and she and Leo smoothly transitioned to a salsa. The syncopated beat encouraged complicated footwork and swift movement topped off with a hot sexuality that Meghan found exhilarating. Leo moved with the assured confidence that the movements required, his body’s lines on point. She’d known he was in good shape, but, Lord, in formal clothing, his muscles flexing sensually, he owned the dance floor.
* * *
Leo was grinning. Did she know how hot she was? She killed in that dress. She was flinging her hair with abandon, her hips in sync with the music and her legs so long and shapely.
Where he led, she followed. It was as if theirs was a dance partnership made in heaven.
Several dances later, they were so wrapped up in each other they didn’t notice when the other guests surrounded them and started clapping, cheering them on. All they knew was that it felt like a miracle that they matched each other’s passion for dance.
After about the sixth song ended Meghan and Leo stopped dancing and finally noticed the other people in the room. They were greeted with thunderous applause.
They gave exaggerated bows and walked off the dance floor hand in hand, heading in the direction of their table. “Would you like to go somewhere a bit more private than this?” Leo asked softly.
“We can go to my cabin,” Meghan suggested, matching his tone. “Everyone I’m sharing it with is in this room, so we should be alone, for a while, at least.”
They collected their coats and walked outside into the blisteringly cold night. Meghan gazed up at the starlit sky.
It was in the low thirties, but there was no accompanying breeze, so the cold was manageable.
When they got to the cabin, which had a living room, a kitchen, two bedro
oms and two baths, they were leaped on by Chauncey, who was lonely. Meghan knelt on the pinewood floor of the living room and playfully ruffled the fur on the dog’s head. “Wanna go outside?” In response, Chauncey wagged her tail. Meghan let her out the back door into the fenced area behind the cabin.
Coming back inside, she faced Leo, who was standing in the middle of the living room, watching her every move.
Meghan took off her coat and hung it on the coat rack next to the door. She went to Leo and helped him out of his jacket, then hung it next to hers.
“Leo, is there something you want to say to me?” she prompted him, hoping that, at last, he was going to declare that he wanted her. Declare something! Anything other than continuing to leave her in the dark the way he’d been doing.
When she was with him, she felt as if he were almost bursting with the need to talk to her about something important. She hadn’t been able to fathom what he needed to tell her, but she knew in her gut that he was holding something back. Whatever that something was, she was sure it was the reason he devoured her with his eyes but kept his hands to himself.
Meghan stood in front of him and gazed deeply into his eyes. She went and placed both hands on his hard chest. Leo blinked, his face a mask of contradictory emotions. His translucent brown eyes were at once soft, then cold, then determined. “I wish I had the courage to ignore all the things about us that tell me pursuing you would be a big mistake, especially for you, my darling Meghan. You deserve someone who can make all of your dreams come true. You don’t know how much I wish I were that man. I’d give anything to be.”
Meghan stood on tiptoe and tilted her head back, inviting him to kiss her. When he didn’t take her up on her offer, just stood there like some flesh-covered robot, she sighed and said, “What’s her name? I told you about Chauncey, the human who was a dog. My Chauncey is more loving than he ever was. So now I want you to tell me about the person who broke your heart, Leo. At least give me that much, because I’m about to give up on you.”
Leo clasped her hands in his and held on tightly. Meghan waited patiently for him to answer. But after a few minutes, when it was evident he wasn’t going to say anything, she closed her eyes and tried to pull her hands free of his grasp.
“Her name is Natalie,” Leo told her. “I asked her to marry me and she turned me down.”
“Why?”
“I can’t tell you why.”
“What do you mean you can’t tell me why?” Meghan asked, her tone fierce. Her first impulse was to fight for what she wanted, and she wanted Leo.
“Go ahead and give up on me, Meghan, because this isn’t going to work.”
He let go of her hands and started walking toward the front door. He turned around and faced her again. “I’m sorry I got your hopes up. I’m sorry I got my hopes up. But if I told you, you wouldn’t want to see me anymore, either.”
“Is it AIDS?” Meghan asked sorrowfully. “Are you sick?” She sounded like she was about to cry. Her eyes were wet with unshed tears.
“No, baby girl, it’s not AIDS,” Leo told her. “It’s something worse.” He looked away. The last thing he wanted was her pity. “I should go.”
With that, he grabbed his coat from the rack by the door, opened it and was about to walk out when Meghan caught his arm and held on tightly.
“You can go,” Meghan said, walking around and standing in front of him. “But this doesn’t change anything between us, Leo Wolfe. I’m falling in love with you. There, I said it. Although, God knows, you’ve tried to dissuade me to the best of your abilities! Whew, talk about hard to get.”
She was confident he’d changed his mind about bolting because she felt the muscles in his arm relax. She let go, her eyes on his. “I know you’re not gay.”
Leo laughed, “Not even a little.”
“And you’re not impotent,” Meghan continued. “We were really close on the dance floor.”
Leo’s body was at that moment responding to the delectable scent of her, the sensory pleasure that her touch ignited deep inside of him. It wasn’t just that he got hard. It was almost spiritual in nature. Her soul called his. He wasn’t impotent.
“There’s nothing wrong with my sex drive, which has been in high gear since I met you,” he told her. “Given my situation, it would be unfair to you to have a love affair with you, that’s all.”
Meghan cocked her head and looked at him sideways, her hand on her hip. “That’s all?” She narrowed her eyes. “Sometimes it does feel as if we’re stuck in a Regency novel. You can’t tell me something that’s too harsh for my delicate female ears to hear? We look at each other like all we want to do is rip off each other’s clothes and make love all night long, but you won’t act on those feelings because it’s not proper?”
Leo was standing there, drinking her in with his eyes, his mind half in a panic because he figured this was it. She was never going to be alone with him again. She’d run out of patience. This had been unforgivable. Asking her to go somewhere private. With the intention to do what? His enthusiasm had canceled out his normal protective instincts. A few turns around the dance floor and he’d gone nuts. He was so tired of having to keep his guard up.
Was it so wrong of him to simply want to kiss a beautiful woman whom he cared deeply for?
When they’d gotten to the cabin, he’d remembered who she was now. His in-law. Related by marriage. In each other’s lives from now on unless, God forbid, Mina and Jake broke up or one of them died. It was complicated. And life was already complicated enough without adding a sexual relationship with Meghan.
That was why he hadn’t kissed her. It had hurt like hell to have to deny her a kiss. Every particle of his being had been anticipating that kiss. But until he was ready to come clean and tell her why a romantic relationship between them was a bad idea, he wasn’t going to kiss her. If he did, he’d be all hers, and he knew it. She would own his heart and soul.
Ever since the day they had met, she’d been reeling him in.
It wasn’t her beauty that drew him like a magnet. It was her kindness, her sense of humor, how she loved everyone in her life, how she adored Chauncey.
They’d been gazing into each other’s eyes for a while when Meghan laughed softly and said, “It’s obvious we aren’t going to get anywhere tonight.” She sighed. “I’m sorry you don’t feel confident enough in our relationship to tell me what’s going on with you. But I do understand. You don’t know me well enough yet. I’m not going anywhere.” She rose up and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m patient and we’re family now. Like it or not, we’re going to see each other. Plus, there’s Malcolm and Chauncey’s playdates to consider. You and I may not be on the best of terms, but those two love each other. I don’t want to deny them time together, do you?”
“No,” Leo said with a gentle smile.
Meghan walked him to the door. “Good night. Thank you for the dances. I had a wonderful time. You’re my best dance partner ever!”
“Ditto,” Leo said. He gave her a regretful smile, then turned and stepped out into the chilly night. And that was how he felt, too, cold. Cut off from the warmth of the love that Meghan had offered him tonight.
Chapter 8
“Lauren, slow down!” Meghan called to her fleet-footed sister. Not that she couldn’t keep up with her, but Lauren had to learn to relax. Being a new mother, Meghan noticed, had turned her sister into a multitasking dynamo who stayed busy practically 24/7.
No sane person could maintain a schedule like that without eventually experiencing burnout, and Meghan wasn’t going to let her sister go out like that.
“I don’t have the patience to jog,” Lauren said, running in place so that Meghan could catch up with her. “Lately, I feel like I have to hurry through everything. I know endurance running is your thing, but I just can’t do it.”
They were running in Lauren’s neighborhood
while Colton took care of CJ. It was the middle of February, so they were dressed for the below-thirty-degree weather.
“Endurance is good when you want to go the distance,” Meghan said. “Lauren, your body has been through a lot lately. You should exercise, yes, but in moderation until you’re fully healed. You can get back to running like Florence Griffith-Joyner in the near future.”
“I don’t have time for anything anymore,” Lauren complained. “I’m sleep-deprived. I miss work. I never knew how much I loved designing buildings and homes for people to live and work in. I loved dreaming up a design concept and seeing it come to life from beginning to end. It made me feel powerful, indestructible!”
“Oh, my God, you sound like Donald Trump. You are sleep-deprived!” Meghan joked. “But now you’ve got to shove all of that aside and concentrate on the big change in your life, my dear sister. Namely, a husky fellow by the name of Colton, Jr. I hear you don’t get any do-overs where watching your children grow up is concerned. Time goes by so quickly, you have to relish every minute. Relax and enjoy him. Don’t worry about work. Work will be there when you get back to it.”
Lauren slowed her pace further. She sighed. “We women are so caught up trying to do everything, trying to be everything to everybody. It’s a vicious cycle. I know what I should be doing now. I’m just not sure I can stop being Superwoman. I’ve worn the cape for too long.”
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