David frowned, not easily sold. “Can I see your dogs?”
Landon didn’t seem to know what to say. He kept staring down at her son with a mixture of confusion and pain.
Beth blurted, “You can ride them like ponies if you’d like to!”
That did it. Her son’s entire face changed from wariness to full adoration. “Okay.”
And he lifted his balled little hand and bumped it against Landon’s big one.
“Thank you.”
Minutes after leaving David, Beth’s excitement had dimmed and morphed into a fuzzy, warm flutter as Thomas drove them home. She felt like hugging Landon but instead fidgeted with the pearl button on the lapel of her shirt. David’s drawing was neatly stashed inside her purse. David’s scent, his smiles, every word he’d said, had been tucked away inside her, too. Her heart threatened to burst.
“He seemed happy to see you,” Landon said, his eyes glimmering with pride.
“Yes.” Beth felt her chest contract, remembering how David’s face had lit like a sunbeam when she’d told him they’d be together soon. When? he’d asked, again and again. When…
A lump gathered in her throat. Even after such a wonderful day, tonight there would still be an injustice in the fact that someone else would be tucking her son into bed.
Beth realized with a start that Landon’s thigh and her own pressed together, that they were sitting too close, and that it would be rude to slide away. So she tried not to notice how thick his thigh was. How hard.
She felt she needed to say something but didn’t know where to begin, or how to organize her thoughts. Her armor had been stripped away; she trembled with emotion, excitement and something else. He smelled so good up close, like the wind. Like a man.
Landon gazed out the window. He looked terribly big and terribly lonely. All her walls against him, all her reservations, seemed to have morphed fully into all these awed and inspired feelings of admiration and respect and desire. God, what was she supposed to do with these?
“Your son…” she began.
“Nathan,” he corrected.
“Nathan. He’d be around David’s age?”
He nodded.
Should she have brought up this subject? It seemed to be the one on his mind, but speaking of the boy without telling Landon what she knew proved difficult. “This must’ve been hard for you.”
He signaled at her, and let his eyes sweep meaningfully over her. “Not particularly. You seem very happy, Bethany.”
Her cheeks heated up, and she averted her face. “It’s not easy being a parent. You never imagine you could care so much.”
He made a sound, like a snort. “And yet the instant you hear that wail and stare into their eyes, they’ve got you.”
“They do!” she agreed.
They shared smiles, and the comfortable quiet between them morphed into something smoldering and sensual.
“You know,” Landon said, so softly she felt the whisper in the interior of the car like a tangible caress. “I still don’t know when you got me, Beth.” He cocked his head and regarded her with the eyes of a man who knew too much. “Maybe when you came spitting fire—asking for my help. Or maybe when I see you looking at me the way you do.”
Flooded with mortification, Beth raised a halting hand and lowered her face. “Landon, don’t.”
He reached out and cupped her shoulder, grazing her arm with his thumb. “Don’t what?”
The heat radiating from his body made her squirm. The ache inside her continued opening, like a ravenous animal, turning her desire into pain. “Don’t talk to me like this.” Yes, please do, tell me if you care, too.
No, he mustn’t!
He leaned back negligently and studied her with impressive calm. The sunlight streaming through the window cast playful shadows on his profile. “But you like it when I talk to you like this.”
She struggled against a barrage of emotion. She did like it, she loved it, but she shook her head fast, still not ready to admit anything.