If she offered herself to him, he wouldn’t be able to resist. Even knowing what he did now, the temptation would be too sweet.
To his chagrin, he actually felt a spike of panic when her uncle stood, tossed back the last of his drink and said, “Jonathon, I appreciate the hospitality—and the scotch—but I know I’ll regret it tomorrow if I drink any more.”
Wendy’s dad stood as well. “Marian is gonna have my hide tomorrow as it is.”
Jonathon held up the decanter toward Wendy’s father. “Are you sure I can’t offer you another?”
“Well…”
But Hank slapped his brother on the arm in a jovial way. “We’re keeping him from his bride.”
“Don’t remind me,” her father grumbled.
“No man should have to entertain a couple of old blowhards when he has a lovely new wife to warm his bed.”
Jonathon nearly smiled at that, despite himself. He liked Wendy’s family far more than he wanted to admit. He knew she found them overbearing and pretentious, but there was something about their combination of good-ol'-boy charm and keen intelligence that appealed to him.
Besides, the longer he kept them here, shooting bull until all hours of the night, the greater the chance that Wendy would be fast asleep by the time he got up to the bedroom.
However, before he could even offer them yet another drink, Wendy’s father and uncle were stumbling arm in arm up the stairs to the guest bedrooms where they were staying. He winced as they banged into the antique sideboard his decorator had foolishly put outside his office. And then cringed as her father cursed loudly at the thing. Maybe he should consider himself lucky that all of their fumbling didn’t wake Mema.
He waited until they vanished down the upstairs hall before he followed, turning off lights as he went. That afternoon, he and Wendy’s father had moved Peyton’s crib from the nursery to the master bedroom. Ironic, since it had only just arrived in the past week. They’d moved the spare mattress up from the garage and now the guest-bedroom-turned-nursery was once again a guest bedroom. Throughout the process, Wendy kept insisting that her family should just book rooms at one of the many hotels in town. Mema had looked scandalized. Marian had looked offended. And Wendy had eventually caved.
And so, after thirteen years of living completely by himself, he now had six additional people under the roof. Maybe he should buy a bigger house. One with more bedrooms. Though a dozen bedrooms wouldn’t have saved him from this. When the family of your new wife was visiting, they all expected you to share a room with her. There was just no way around that.
After putting it off as long as he could, he finally bit the bullet and let himself into the master bedroom. The room he’d be sharing with Wendy. His wife.
Despite his numerous prayers, she wasn’t asleep.
She sat up in the bed, her back propped against the enormous square pillows his decorator had purchased—personally he’d never been able to stand the damn things and wasn’t entirely sure why he continued to pile them on the bed every morning.
Peyton was asleep on Wendy’s chest, her tiny fist curled near her face so that she sucked on one knuckle. Wendy was on his side of the bed. The bedside lamp was on and in her other hand, she held a Kindle.
He glanced at the bedside table. Scratch that, she held his
Kindle.
She looked up as he closed the door behind him. Try as he might, he couldn’t force himself to walk into the room more than a step or two.
Wendy smiled sheepishly. “Sorry to steal your Kindle,” she whispered. “She fell asleep here and I didn’t want to risk waking her by digging around for my own book.”
She was dressed in a white tank top and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle boxer shorts. Her legs were stretched out in front of her. How a woman as short as she was had ended up with legs that long was a mystery, but damn, they seemed to stretch for miles.
Her skin was creamy white, her legs lightly muscled, ending in perfect, petite feet. And her toenails were painted a sassy iridescent purple. He had to force his attention away from her bare legs, but couldn’t make his gaze move all the way up to her face. He got caught on her arms, which were just as bare as her legs and somehow nearly as erotic.
In all those years that they’d worked together, he hadn’t
ever seen her in something sleeveless. Her upper arms were just like the rest of her. Small and lean, but lightly muscled. Unexpectedly strong.
There was something so intimate about the sight of her holding Peyton on her chest, dressed for bed. In his bed.
His muscles practically twitched with the need to cross the room and pull her into his arms. To do all kinds of wicked things to her body. Or maybe to just sit on the bed next to her and watch her sleep.
That thought—the idea that he’d be content without even touching her—that was the thought that scared the crap out of him. Physically wanting her, he could handle that. He’d been fighting his desire for her for years. He always won that battle. But this new urge to just be with her. He didn’t even want to know what the hell that was about.
Suddenly his master bedroom seemed way too small.
That new house he was going to buy—the one with a dozen guest bedrooms—apparently the master would need to be four times bigger. He was going to have to move out to Portola Valley to find a house big enough.
“You’re mad, aren’t you?” Wendy asked.
He dragged his gaze up to her face. She was frowning in that cute way she did, biting down on her lower lip in a half frown, half sheepish grin. He walked closer so that he didn’t have to speak louder than a whisper. “Why?” he asked.
“You’re mad that I borrowed your Kindle.” She flicked the button on the side to turn it off. “I didn’t even think. That was a horrible invasion of your privacy.”
He wanted to stand here watching her sleep and she was worried that reading from his Kindle was an invasion of his privacy. She had no idea.
“It’s okay. No big deal.”
“Are you sure?” Despite the whisper, her voice sounded high and nervous. “Because you look really annoyed.” If anything, he probably looked as though he was trying not to kiss her. Good to know she interpreted that as annoyed. “It’s just a Kindle. Not a big deal.”
Then he crossed automatically to his side of the bed. The side she was sitting on. He took off his watch and set it on the valet tray on the bedside table. The familiarity of the action calmed his nerves. Of course, normally there wasn’t an empty baby bottle beside the lamp, but still…
“Did you have trouble getting her to fall sleep?” he asked as he pulled off his college ring and dropped it beside the watch. Then he hesitated at the simple gold band on his left hand. Since he’d slept in Peyton’s nursery last night, he’d had both rings and the watch on all night. This was the first time he’d taken off the wedding ring.
“No.” Wendy rubbed at her eyes a little before arching her back into a stretch. “I think she’s finally getting used to the new feeding schedule. I woke her at eleven for that bottle and she went right back to sleep…”
Jonathon looked up when he heard her voice trail off. Like him, she was staring at the ring on his hand. Her gaze darted to his and held it for a second. He watched, entranced, as she nervously licked her lips. Something hot and unspoken passed between them, once again stirring that need to kiss her. To mark her as his own. To bend her back over the bed and plow into her.
Thank God, Peyton was asleep on her chest, keeping him from doing anything too stupid.
He yanked the ring off his finger and dropped it onto the tray beside his