Sean: A Stepbrother Romance (Coded for Love 3)

“Not if you take off at any given chance.”

“I won’t, not without telling you first.”

“So you are going to take off?”

“Not as such. I need to think about what to do. In the short term, and the long term. Rory has offered me a decent job at the workshop, a share in the business, and somewhere to live. There’s a spare room in this house that came with the bike workshop.”

“Of course,” she murmured, and looked at the sand, sifting it through her fingers. Her chest locked and she experienced a sinking feeling. It was a silly reaction, so she quickly nodded, hoping he hadn’t noticed. It wasn’t as if it was a revelation. It made sense. Rory had a going business now, of course he’d make room for Sean, and he’d probably been waiting for the extra help.

“Don’t pull away. We can make this work. I need a job, but if you don’t like the look of London, I’ll come back to you on weekends.”

She sighed. “Got it all worked out?”

“We can make this work. Have you thought about joining Sky in London?”

“Not really. It was bad enough getting back into education, and I have a heap of help here. Gladys and Nan are good to me.”

“They are. We’ll figure it out…I want us to belong to each other again. Even when we’re apart.” He wrapped his arm around her waist, easing her closer to him.

The efforts he’d gone to—with both her and Pixie—and his attempts to put her at ease, were undoing her resolve, melting her resistance. “It’s going to take a while for me to trust...”

The breeze lifted.

He brushed her hair free from face with his free hand. “I don’t have to leave for a few days. I told Rory I needed some time out. He understood. He knew why. “

A few days? It would make it worse than if he’d never been there at all.

He leaned in and kissed her.

Reluctantly, she allowed her eyes to close and breathed him in, savoring the rough graze of his stubble on her face, the harsh, possessive kiss. His mouth owned her, turning her to sheer electricity, making her mind muddle and her body turn to putty in his grasp. She wanted him. More than anything else in the world, she wanted it to be true.

Grasping his head in her hands as they drew apart, she locked his gaze. “Don’t you dare let me down again!”

He laughed. It was soft and gentle sound, but it unsettled her.

“Don’t laugh!”

“I’m not laughing, I’m relieved, and really, really happy.” He stroked her cheek. “I premise I won’t let you down.”

He glanced at Pixie. Rowan looked too. She’d curled up on the corner of the rug and was asleep.

He moved closer, kissing her again, pushing her onto her back.

Rowan laughed too, and she did feel joy. As if it had been there all along, under lock and key. At some point it had got out and was seeping through her unchecked. And boy, did it feel good. Finally allowing herself to let go, she sunk into his embrace, and let the doubts and mistrust to float away on the breeze.

Chapter Ten

Someone was watching, had been for a while. Sean knew it.

It was like being in jail made you develop an extra sense, the sense of when you were being studied by someone who had a problem or a demand. He’d tried to shake it off earlier, assuming it a hangover from his time inside, but it only grew larger.

Rowan had gone for the ice cream some time ago, but even from here they could see it would take a little while. There was a queue. Perhaps she was on her way back now.

Scanning the vicinity, he tried to pinpoint the source of attention. Was he imagining it?

No sign of Rowan.

He rose to his feet, dusting the sand off his clothing. Checking on Pixie, he made sure her seatbelt was secure. Rowan had put her back in the buggy before she’d left, insisting it was safest. The child hadn’t woken, safe in her mother’s arms as she transferred her. Sean watched and marveled at the innocence of youth, trying to imagine the luxury of complete security, the ability to ignore sensory information. After being in jail, it was a tough call.