After a long moment, Miranda regarded Jeremiah. “What now?” she asked as her heart rate slowly returned to normal and the sweat dried on her skin. She tried not to sink into sadness but reality was fast stomping on the euphoria of their reckless abandon and there was no stopping its intrusion on the moment.
“I don’t know.”
“Me, either,” she murmured, sighing. “We can keep saying we’re not going to do this again but somehow we always end up right where we started.”
“You’re irresistible,” he said with a short grin that she found adorable. She appreciated the compliment but it didn’t solve their problem. She rose up on her elbow and he tweaked her nipple with a half smile. “Any solution that pops into my head sounds unrealistic. I’m open to suggestions.”
“I was afraid you were going to say that. I don’t have the answers, either. All I know is I could spend a lifetime in your arms and I don’t have a lifetime to spare. I’m not going to suddenly stop being a mother and you’re not going to suddenly stop being traumatized by your son’s death.”
His expression dimmed and he agreed. “Stuart Olly would have a fit if he knew about us. Even if we didn’t suffer from the tragedies in our past, we work together and that’s against the rules. I would never jeopardize our jobs for something that we don’t even understand.”
She nodded and settled against him. “So...we’re back to square one.”
“Yeah.”
Great. “So are we going to sneak around? Clandestine meetings in hourly-rate motels like two dirty cheaters trying to hide their extracurricular activities?”
“They wouldn’t have to be dirty motels,” he said mildly. “I’d spring for a nice place to have my way with you.”
She gasped, then realized he was joking and laughed. “Such a gentleman...”
He shrugged. “At times.”
The laughter subsided and they simply held each other, naked and sated, until it was time for Miranda to pick up Talen. They shared one last lingering kiss inside the safety of his apartment, and then Miranda left with more questions in her head, a troubled heart, but a body that felt deliciously loose and satisfied.
She supposed two out of three wasn’t bad, right?
Yeah...right.
* * *
OTTER’S HEART TOOK an uncomfortable lurch as he saw Miranda leaving the studio apartment he rented to Jeremiah Burke. It could be work-related, he thought, but even as he wanted to justify why Miranda would legitimately be seen leaving her boss’s place on a Saturday he couldn’t deny that she had the look of a woman who was doing the walk of shame. Her glorious dark hair was tousled and her movements were swift and furtive as she ducked into her Range Rover and drove away.
Immediate and visceral rage bubbled from an unknown place and he wanted to shove his fist into Jeremiah’s face for being so lucky as to have garnered Miranda’s interest but he held it back by the thinnest margin. What a jerk, coming into town and setting his sights on Miranda. What made Jeremiah so special? And he’d been the idiot who’d offered Jeremiah a place to live. The irony was sickening.
Otter stared until Miranda’s Range Rover disappeared down the street. Disappointment mixed with sharp pain welled in his chest. He’d hoped maybe with time Miranda might see him as more than a friend. More than that goofy kid who had tried to impress her with his fancy car or his business sense. It was bad enough he’d had to suffer through her brief relationship with that criminal Johnny but now he was supposed to patiently wait for this new terrible idea to run its course? When was it going to be his turn with Miranda? If she’d just give him a chance, he’d show her that he was the best man for her.
“You’re a great friend, Otter,” Miranda had always said to him whenever he’d tried to broach the subject of a date. In other words: you’re not good enough for me, so stop dreaming.
Well, if Miranda was too busy screwing up her life with her boss, maybe he had to help the situation.
Maybe if he wasn’t always playing the good guy then Miranda might respect him. It was apparent she liked a little edge, a little danger in her relationships. He could give her danger. He could be a bad boy.
He could be very bad.
But first, he had to remove the distraction. Miranda couldn’t possibly see what was right in front of her face with Jeremiah constantly in her sights.
Why did it have to go this way? He’d actually liked the guy—he’d seemed like a decent fellow, someone who might be fun to spend some time with tipping back a beer at The Rusty Anchor.
Otter sure as hell wasn’t going to share a beer with the man now.