God, how did this happen?
Tessa pulled out of the kiss but couldn’t find the will to pull away when his lips traveled down her neck.
“I need…to bring Sophia some water.” But the tingles burning over her skin made her forget all about what she should do. Which was why she was supposed to be putting up barriers.
She pressed the hand holding the cup to his chest and eased him back. He let her go, but it was too late. Tessa’s whole body already ached to feel him. Her soul needed the relief she found when she was in his arms.
Tessa pushed the door open wider but paused when she found Sophia sound asleep. She felt Zach before she heard him. He stood close behind her, his heat and presence overwhelming Tessa’s resolve. With his hand on the doorjamb over her head, he murmured, “I think she was overtired.” His words tingled over her neck. “You were right. Between the sun and the surf, she was one toasted little marshmallow.”
That made Tessa chuckle. “I see a lot of you in her.”
“You do?”
Tessa nodded. “When you two were asleep, your profiles aligned. I used to only see Corrine, but now that I know you…”
Now that she knew him, all her plans had been shot to hell, and her future looked like the aftermath of a tornado.
She sighed and lowered the cup. Zach’s hand slid down her arm. God, how she wanted to turn into his arms.
“I didn’t,” she told him, returning to the Pegasus topic, “…do it on purpose, I mean. But I’ll admit that when I saw it in the backseat, I did waffle on whether or not to bring it back.”
His hand slipped around her waist and pulled her into a familiar and exciting fit against him. “What made you decide to keep it?”
“Time, really,” she only partially lied. “I looked at the clock and realized I had to choose between getting it back to her or making my meeting on time.”
He chuckled. “Life’s un
relenting way of making us choose between the things we love.”
She tilted her head and looked over her shoulder at him, trying to decide if that had been an authentic musing or a deliberate cut. His gaze was on Sophia, and the flicker of pain Tessa saw provided her answer.
“Tonight was an eye-opener for me,” he said, his voice soft. “For the first hour, I was in a panic with no idea how to help her. The second hour, I was exhausted over my inability to cope. But the last hour…” He drifted for a moment. “The last hour was…powerful.”
She leaned her head against his shoulder. “What do you mean?”
“I didn’t think I could handle it, you know? Thought Kerry and Candy were right about me having a kid. I mean, hell…”
Tessa’s stomach pinched with guilt. She might not have purposely set him up to fail, but she hadn’t gone out of her way to make sure he’d succeed either. And didn’t that make her just as bad as the women on the beach—discounting his ability to care for his own child just because he didn’t have the experience?
That wasn’t looking out for Sophia’s best interest.
“What changed?” she asked.
He sighed, shrugged. “I guess my stubbornness just won out because her energy stores were low. I tried everything I could imagine. I asked her what she wanted. I googled shit on my phone. Damn.” He chuckled, “I’m lucky the kid can talk. I just kept reading and reading. I never want to hear about a pigeon again.”
That made Tessa laugh. She stroked her hand over his forearm wrapped around her waist. “All parents are inexperienced the first time around. And this situation is more challenging than most.” She sighed and closed her eyes against the desire throbbing at the center of her body. “In so many ways. Too many ways.”
He groaned, wrapped his other arm around her, and pressed his face against her neck, kissing her there. “How’d your meeting go?”
She sighed and leaned into him. “We’re running up against some opposition.” She hadn’t had someone to talk about work with for a long time. Not since her last boyfriend, two years before. And she was warmed by his interest. “I knew we would. There’s never a bill that pleases everyone. I just wish it hadn’t happened now, while I’m away. Or when we’re so close to introducing it.”
He kissed her again, closer to her ear and shooting tingles across her skin. “I have a surefire way to eradicate stress.”
She laughed, but the sound came out husky and lust laced. “That you do.”
Tessa forced herself to pull out of his grasp and rubbed her eyes as she wandered into the living room. God, she was tired. But beyond just sleepy, Tessa was worn out. She rounded the sofa, putting the furniture between them, as if that would help her self-control. Pressing her hands to the edge of the couch, she looked out at the night through the windows.
“I know this thing between us is just sex and it’s no big deal,” Tessa told him. At least that was how Corinne and her friends had always seen it. And how Zach had always lived his life. He wandered toward her, all muscled bare chest and tight abs. She swallowed and looked away again. “But it doesn’t make sense to let it go on. We have a good thing here—you and Sophia, me and Sophia. It’s important to hold on to that. Especially now that we’ll be—”