Gia blinked. Somehow, her words sounded more significant than she had meant them to be. She had meant it generally, but also specifically. Seth’s mother was the artist of Gia’s sculpture. Seth didn’t respond immediately. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat.
“Do you still have it?” he asked after a moment, his casualness sounding a little forced.
Her heart leapt at his quiet question. She didn’t need to ask him what he meant. Somehow, they both had been thinking about her favorite sculpture that had bizarrely been modeled after Seth himself.
“Yes,” she replied in a hushed tone. She felt too vulnerable to tell him it still sat in a prime space on her mantel. “I thought about getting rid of it after that night.”
“Why didn’t you?” he asked, his profile rigid, his gaze never wavering off the road.
“Your mother’s sculpture didn’t do anything to me.”
She’d said it matter-of-factly, but realized he might have thought she was being petulant. She shifted in her seat again restlessly, scratching under the wig.
“Is it starting to bug you?” he asked her, noticing her scratching.
She nodded.
He swiftly checked behind them, but the empty road disappeared into the blackness of a desert night. He pulled over to the side of the road and put on the hazards.
“We can take it off for now. Do you want me to take off the cap too?” he asked, leaning toward her and peeling off the wig. She heaved a sigh of relief. He placed the wig carefully in the backseat.
“No,” she said, touching the brown skullcap that closely bound her hair to her head. “It’s not bothering me. It’s the hair that was hot and scratchy. The binder is uncomfortable though. Can I take it off?” she asked, waving at her torso.
“You don’t want to go inside somewhere and eat soon?”
“I’m not that hungry,” she said honestly. “But maybe you are? You only had a salad at lunch.”
He shook his head. “We’ll stop somewhere in a couple hours and get a snack for the road. I’d just as soon get there as quickly as possible.”
She nodded in agreement. He didn’t move.
“Do you want help?” he asked, nodding at her bound torso.
“No, I can do it,” she said, glad the dim dashboard lights were the only source of light in the vehicle. Heat had rushed into her cheeks when she recalled that, while she might be able to get the zipper down on the stiff garment, getting it back up would require Seth’s help. She probably shouldn’t loosen the binder in order to prevent that agitating scenario again, but it was so uncomfortable.
“Do you want me to drive?” she asked as he shifted the SUV out of park and glanced into the mirrors in preparation to return to the road.
“No. I’m fine. You can rest if you want to.”
“All I’ve done is rest,” she said ruefully. “I haven’t slept this much during the day since . . . forever.”
“You must have needed it. Sometimes, you’ve just got to let your body tell you what’s right.”
His words seemed to hang in the air and vibrate in her ears. She thought maybe he noticed the charged, potential double meaning of his statement because he inhaled sharply and shifted in his seat as he got the SUV up to speed on the highway.
Sometimes, you’ve just got to let your body tell you what’s right.
The image of his long body stretching and flexing as he’d pumped off those pull-ups jumped into her head. His body was telling him something. So was hers. Seth didn’t want to hear the message. She wasn’t sure she was comfortable giving in to that primal mandate either. Indulging in desire with Seth Hightower might set her off-track. It might make her waver from what had once been a well-planned life and career. She longed to have her orderly life back, not to send it into further chaos.
Despite her cautionary thoughts, she reclined the seat and reached beneath the T-shirt. Seth glanced sideways at her, then quickly returned his gaze to the road. Her breasts felt achy, her nipples chafed and sensitive from the stiff restraint. She found the tab on the zipper and exhaled. They hadn’t turned the radio on when they returned after their short stop. The metallic sound of the zipper lowering sounded far too loud and illicit in her ears.
She finally got it all the way down to her belly and inhaled a full breath of air. Seth opened his mouth as if he were going to say something, but then pressed his lips together, his jaw rigid. She turned on her side toward him, crossing her arms beneath her breasts. He didn’t fully look at her, but she sensed he was very aware of her watching his profile.
For a moment, the silence seemed to pulse with unsaid words. Gia longed to voice some of them, but dread mingled with the urge. Still . . . maybe loosening the binder had released more than the constriction on her lungs.
“I didn’t keep the truth from you that night because I’m a liar by nature,” she finally dared softly. “I wanted you to like me because I thought you were the most attractive man I’d ever met.”
He looked over at her.