Temperance tensed up. She wanted his kiss. If his lips touched hers, she was gone. She couldn’t deny him anything.
As she licked her dry lips, he groaned and stepped back. “I’m going to be the gentleman now. I’ll be back here, seven o’clock on Saturday, waiting for you.”
She smiled. “I’ll be waiting.”
“Don’t let Catherine get you down. You’re better than her. Remember your worth.”
She stood in the garden, watching him walk away. He hadn’t spoken about Timothy, but something was different about him. He’d changed. She saw the man she’d discovered in that villa in Italy, the man he seemed to hide from everyone else.
When she entered the Thompsons’ house, Robert was waiting.
“I’m going to guess that you may not be staying with us all that long.”
“I don’t know what’s going on. If you’d like me to find a suitable replacement for when I leave, I could do that.”
He nodded. “It was my biggest regret, firing you. Catherine and I, we argued constantly. She wanted a chance to prove that she could run the house and the kids. Work wasn’t coming her way, and for all of her faults, she likes to keep busy. I saw the papers, the stories, and with his appearance, I’m guessing they were all true. You know, in the past three weeks, I’ve seen him a couple of times, and not once has he ever been as happy as he was when he saw you.”
“What are you trying to do?” Robert was her boss, and she didn’t like discussing her personal life with anyone.
“You’ve always come across as a selfless being. You don’t think of yourself. Do you love Wayne?”
“It’s none of your business.”
He held his hands up. “I know. Wayne can be a dick of mega proportions, but I’ve never seen him call for a woman, and he’s never taken a woman away with him. He’s genuine, Temperance.”
Robert walked away, and she leaned against the door.
She’d hoped already in Italy.
A second chance, she only hoped this time she’d be able to survive it.
****
On Saturday night, dressed in a pair of jeans and a shirt, Wayne knocked on Temperance’s apartment door. She’d texted him to let him know that she now stayed at her apartment every weekend.
The past few days he’d found out that Timothy hadn’t been placed in a home, and was in fact a concern to the foster mom who looked after a house full of boys. He stayed in a corner, never speaking, not doing anything.
With Frances’s help, along with his lawyer’s, he began the process of adoption. He moved fast, but that was the way he liked it. Tonight, he intended to take Temperance to the home, and he wanted her to see that he had every intention of putting their family back together.
She opened the door, and he saw her dressed in a very sexy black dress. The signed cast didn’t exactly finish it off.
“Too much?” she asked.
“To me you’re more than fine, but I think I’m going to be pulling all the men off you with that sexy thing.” He patted her leg, and she burst out laughing. “I miss that.”
“What?”
“That voice. That laugh, it’s so fucking sexy.”
Her cheeks heated. “I’m feeling a little overdressed.”
He shook his head. “It’s not even a problem.” He took her hand. The crutches rested underneath her arms. Brian already said her cast would be coming off in another week.
“I have to say the sexual tension is filling the doorway and spilling into the room,” Lilah yelled from the living room.
Temperance rolled her eyes and opened the door.
“Oh, hello, Wayne, I didn’t see you there.”
“Hi, Lilah, I saw your commercial the other day. I’ll never look at toothpaste the same way again.”
She laughed, and he returned his attention to Temperance.
“I expect her back home by twelve,” Lilah said.
“Enough.”
He helped Temperance out of the apartment and shot a glare at Lilah, who winked at him. “Be nice to her.”
“I will.”
Wayne didn’t really get Lilah and Temperance’s friendship, but it was clearly there.
The elevator took forever to ride, and he hated seeing her on the crutches. It reminded him that he’d not been there for her.
Reaching out, he placed a hand on her back, and all he wanted to do was take her in his arms and kiss her. He wanted her body against his, underneath him, and to taste the luscious cream between her thighs.
Once they were out of the elevator, he helped her into his car and hoped that she could forgive his mistakes.
He’d made a mess of everything, and he needed to fix what he’d done.
“Where are we going to eat?” she asked.
“Somewhere special, but first I want to show you something.” He started up the car and began driving toward the foster home where he knew Timothy was waiting for them. Wayne had seen the young boy the day before, and he’d been so damn happy when he’d run into his arms and held him.