Dare to Hold (Dare to Love 4)

Olivia caught up with Meg before she made it to the front door. “Are you okay?” Olivia asked.

“Why wouldn’t I be? I feel bad that your family isn’t all supportive of your mom, but I’m sure they’ll get there.”

Olivia smiled. “They will. The guys are … guys. But I’m talking about you.”

“Nothing to worry about,” Meg lied. No reason to involve his sister in her feelings for Scott.

“Okay, well, I wanted to know if you and Scott were up for dinner tomorrow night. You know, the four of us. I think it’d be fun.”

Meg blinked, surprised. “Oh, umm … I don’t know. Scott might be busy.” Not that he tended to go out at night, but a couple’s date when she and Scott weren’t really in a formal relationship?

“I’m not busy, and dinner sounds good to me,” Scott said, coming up behind her.

“Great!” Olivia said. “One of you call me in the morning, and we’ll pick a place and time. I’m going to check on Mom.”

Once they were in the truck headed home, Scott glanced at her, one hand resting on the steering wheel as he drove. “Any reason you were trying to avoid going out with them?” he asked, way too perceptive as usual.

She figured honesty was the best way to handle this. “For the same reason I’m trying to get you to see that I’m here for security reasons only. I know we’re sleeping together, but that’s because we can’t seem to keep our hands off each other.”

He grinned. “You’ve got that right.”

She shook her head. “I just don’t want to give your family the wrong impression,” she said.

“And what impression would that be?” he asked.

She wondered why he was deliberately being so dense. “That we’re a couple with any long-term potential,” she said.

“Well, thank you for being so blunt. Now I know you’re only in it for sex,” he said, sounding grumpy and put out, when he was the one, more than her, who didn’t believe in anything else.

She raised an eyebrow at that. “And you’re not? Or are you lining up for labor, delivery, and daddy duty?”

When he didn’t answer, she glanced out the passenger window and remained silent for the rest of the ride.

By the time they arrived at Scott’s, neither one of them was up for much in the way of conversation or anything else, for that matter. She washed up in his luxurious bathroom that was three times the size of her own and climbed into his bed.

Long after Scott p

ulled her into his arms and drifted off to sleep, Meg’s thoughts were churning around in her head. As was Olivia’s shouted question at Scott.

Are you saying you don’t believe in marriage anymore? his sister had asked.

Or are you lining up for labor, delivery, and daddy duty?

She squeezed her eyes shut tight, wishing she didn’t care about his refusal to answer either question.

Chapter Ten

Scott dressed for dinner, listening to the sound of Meg getting ready in his bathroom. The low hum of the blow-dryer and the small sounds of different jars and items being placed on the marble countertops. Sounds that were becoming all too familiar and comfortable. He hated how strained things were between them now. He missed the days when they could say and do anything without thought or consequence.

He buttoned his shirt, chosen because Emilio’s was a nice restaurant. No tee shirts there. It was located near his half brother Alex’s apartment in an out-of-the-way location. So as not to run into Alex and Madison and have them feel slighted, Scott had texted Alex and asked if the other couple wanted to join them, but they had other plans. Alex promised to get in touch, and they could do something another time. Scott refused to think about whether or not that time would come. Where Meg would be in a few short weeks.

She stepped out of the bathroom, and Scott sucked in a shallow breath at the sight of her. Her hair fell over one shoulder in soft waves, and her skin had burned slightly during her afternoon in the sun while he’d been holed up in his home office. Her cheeks were flushed pink, her brown eyes highlighted in a soft purple, her lips a lush shimmer he wanted to taste. Now.

She stared at him, her gaze hesitant after this afternoon’s distance, and he didn’t blame her.

“You look gorgeous,” he said, breaking the silence and, he hoped, any tension.

He couldn’t stop staring. She wore a one-piece white outfit that set off her tan, with flowing pants and a ruffled layer that cut straight across her lush chest. He didn’t miss the fact that her breasts were getting bigger … and more sensitive.