Southern Seducer (North Carolina Highlands 1)

It helps a lot.

Maisie yawns and rubs her eyes. Bel stands, grabbing our empty plates from the coffee table. “I’ll clean up. Maisie and I need to get going. I’d blame it on her bedtime, but I’ll be honest, it’s almost my bedtime, too.”

I get up with a grunt. My hamstrings are tight as hell after sitting for the better part of the day. I try to grab the plates from Bel. “I got it.”

“Let me—”

“Absolutely not. You’ve already done plenty today.”

“Like let you touch my butt?”

I let out a bark of laughter, then lean in and kiss her nose. “I did more than touch it, honey.”

“We’re gonna have to try that again.” She’s biting her lip, and Lord help me, I feel my cock getting hard in my sweats.

“You’re gonna stay, right? Please stay.”

Because I’m in love with her and I want to touch her ass again and I don’t want to wake up alone.

“Stay?”

“Stay here. Stay over. You and Maisie, every night until you have to go back. We have everything y’all need, right? You brought the Pack ’n Play from Sugarhill Cottage, diapers, and her sleep sack. Extra clothes. Anything else, I can just call up to the main house, and they’ll bring it down.”

Bel looks at me, eyes moving back and forth between mine.

“You really want me to sleep over with a baby who doesn’t actually sleep?”

“Maybe she’ll surprise us.”

“Maybe she won’t.”

“I don’t sleep all that much anyway.” I glance over her head in the direction of my bedroom door. “I’ll get shameless. I will.”

Bel taps a finger to my chest. “How shameless, exactly?”

“For starters, I’ll offer to put the baby down for you. Then I’ll run a bath in that gigantic tub I have in there. I’ll pour you a mocktail. We get in that tub together, you see, and I’ll touch your butt until your toes curl.”

“I’m listening.”

“More? Okay.” I scratch my head, pretending to think. “Then I’ll tuck you in beside me in my bed, and I’ll read to you. Something classic.”

“Like?”

“Wolf Hall has pride of place on my nightstand. As does a bunch of World War II stuff. I remember you saying you loved The Nightingale.”

“You read it.”

“I did. Loved it.”

Bel scoffs. Only she doesn’t look like she’s laughing.

She looks as if she’s about to cry.

“What?” I ask.

“That sounds perfect, Beau.” The words come out sounding like an accusation.

I don’t mean to seduce her. It’s not my intention to get her hopes up.

But I can’t fucking help it.

I step back. “I’m sorry.”

“How did we get here? You apologizing for being wonderful?”

I swallow. “I’m not wonderful.”

“But you are.” She flattens her palm against my chest. “I’d love to go to Sunday supper, and I’d love to stay.”

I can see the things she doesn’t say hover in her eyes. I’d love to go to every supper. Stay every night.

I’d love to be yours.

I can’t make her mine for good. But until she leaves? I’ll make her mine every night until then.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Annabel

“So Larry,” I say. “Mom tells me you’re from Tennessee.”

He grins his Robert Redford grin, and it’s all I can do not to giggle.

I get why Mom is suddenly interested in fly-fishing.

I really, really get it.

“Yes, ma’am, I am. I was born in Knoxville but went to school in Nashville. I’ll always love it there, but I wanted to try something new and see the world a bit. So I did my residency out west in Washington—”

“Residency?” I’m a little breathless on account of the hill we’re climbing. It doesn’t help that I have how many pounds of baby strapped to my front in a carrier, Maisie’s chubby little legs bouncing in time to my labored steps. “I didn’t know you’re a doctor.”

“Larry was a urologist in his prior life,” Mom says. She wraps her other hand—the one Larry isn’t holding—around his bicep and gives it a squeeze. “Just like I was a lawyer in mine.”

“I enjoyed some aspects of medicine. The ability to help people, mostly. But I got burned out. So, I saved my pennies, retired early, and headed back to my happy place.” He nods at the sunset on the horizon. “The Appalachians.”

I get that, too.

The weather has really started to warm up since we’ve been here. North Carolina spring at its finest: warm but not humid, a gentle breeze rustling the new leaves on the trees around us. Cloudless sky for days that burns to orange at the edge, where the sun sets over mountains brushed blue by dusk.

The air is so clean up here. Crisp. I take in lungfuls of it, my heart rate evening out as we crest the hill. Beau’s house comes into view. There are several golf carts parked out front, plus Samuel’s shiny blue pickup truck.

I can already hear voices, raised in argument.

I smile and take a mental snapshot of this moment. Baby is content. Cocktail hour is imminent. I’m about to share a delicious meal with my favorite people on earth, in one of the most beautiful places on that earth.