For the Sake of Their Son (The Alpha Brotherhood #5)(13)
Author: Catherine Mann

Could those words have made her wary of telling him? There had been a time when they shared everything with each other.

He reminded her, “You always insisted that you didn’t want children, either.”

“I didn’t want to risk putting any child in my mother’s path.” She rubbed her hand along her collarbone, the one she’d cracked as a child. “I’m an adult now and my mother’s passed away. But we’re talking about you and your insistence that you didn’t want kids.”

“I didn’t. Then.” If things hadn’t changed, he still might have said the same, but one look in Eli’s wide brown eyes and his world had altered in an instant. “I don’t run away from responsibilities.”

“You ran away before—” She stopped short, cursing softly. “Forget I said that.”

Halting, he pulled his hands from the stroller, the baby sleeping and the carriage tucked protectively between them and the railing.

Elliot took her by the shoulders. Her soft bare shoulders. So vulnerable. So…her. “Say it outright, Lucy Ann. I left you behind when I left Columbia behind, when I let myself get sloppy and caught, when I risked jail because anything seemed better than staying with my father. For a selfish instant, I forgot about what that would mean for you. And I’ve regretted that every day of my life.”

The admission was ripped from his throat; deeper still, torn all the way from his gut. Except there was no one but Lucy Ann to hear him on the deserted walkway. Stone houses dotted the bluff, quarters for guests and staff, all structures up on the bluff with a few lights winking in the night. Most people still partied on at the reception.

“I understand that you feel guilty. Like you have to make up for things. But you need to stop thinking that way. I’m responsible for my own life.” She cupped his face, her eyes softening. “Besides, if you’d stayed, you wouldn’t have this amazing career that also gave me a chance to break free. So I guess it all worked out in the end.”

“Yet you ended up returning home when you left me.” Hell, he should be honest now while he had the chance. He didn’t want to waste an instant or risk the baby waking up and interrupting them. “When I stupidly pushed you away.”

Her arm dropped away again. “I returned with a degree and the ability to support myself and my child. That’s significant and I appreciate it.” Her hands fisted at her sides. “I don’t want to be your obligation.”

“You want a life of your own, other than being my assistant. I understand that.” He kept his voice low, which brought her closer to listen over the crash of waves below the boardwalk. He liked having her close again. “Let’s talk it through, like we would have in the old days.”

“You’re being so―” she scowled “―so reasonable.”

“You say that like it’s a dirty word. Why is that a bad thing?” Because God help him, he was feeling anything but reasonable. If she wanted passion and emotion, he was more than willing to pour all of that into seducing her. He just had to be sure before he made a move.

A wrong step could set back his cause.

“Don’t try to manipulate me with all the logical reasons why I should stay. I want you to be honest about what you’re thinking. What you want for your future.”

“When it comes to the future, I don’t know what I want, Lucy Ann, beyond making sure you and Eli are safe, provided for, never afraid. I’m flying by the seat of my pants here, trying my best to figure out how to get through this being-a-father thing.” Honesty was ripping a hole in him. He wanted to go back to logic.

Or passion.

Her chest rose and fell faster with emotion, a flush spreading across her skin in the moon’s glow. “How would things have been different if I had come to you, back when I found out I was pregnant?”

“I would have proposed right away,” he said without hesitation.

“I would have said no,” she answered just as quickly.

He stepped closer. “I would have been persistent in trying to wear you down.”

“How would you have managed that?”

The wind tore at her dress, whipping the skirt forward to tangle in his legs, all but binding them together with silken bands.

He angled his face closer to hers, his mouth so close he could claim her if he moved even a whisker closer. “I would have tried to romance you with flowers, candy and jewels.” He watched the way her pupils widened with awareness as his words heated her cheek. “Then I would have realized you’re unconventional and I would have changed tactics.”

“Such as?” she whispered, the scent of fruit juice on her breath, dampening her lips. “Be honest.”

“Hell, Lucy Ann, if you want honesty, here it is.” His hand slid up her bare arm, along her shoulder, under her hair, to cup the back of her neck, and God, it felt good to touch her after so long apart. It felt right. “I just want to kiss you again.”

Five

Lucy Ann gripped Elliot’s shoulders, her fingers digging in deep by instinct even as her brain shouted “bad idea.”

Her body melted into his, the hard planes of his muscular chest absorbing the curves of her, her br**sts hypersensitive to the feel of him. And his hands… A sigh floated from her into him. His hands were gentle and warm and sure along her neck and into her hair, massaging her scalp. Her knees went weak, and he slid an arm down to band around her waist, securing her to him.

How could he crumble her defenses with just one touch of his mouth to hers? But she couldn’t deny it. A moonlight stroll, a starlight kiss along the shore had her dreaming romantic notions. Made her want more.

Want him.

His tongue stroked along the seam of her mouth, and she opened without hesitation, taking him every bit as much as he took her. Stroking and tasting. There was a certain safety in the moment, out here in the open, since there was no way things could go further. Distant guest houses, the echoes of the reception carrying on the wind and of course the baby with them kept her from being totally swept away.

Her hands glided down his sides to tuck into his back pockets, to cup the taut muscles that she’d admired on more than one occasion. Hell, the whole female population had admired that butt thanks to a modeling gig he’d taken early in his career to help fund his racing. She’d ribbed him about those underwear ads, even knowing he was blindingly hot. She’d deluded herself into believing she was objective, immune to his sensuality, which went beyond mere good looks.