I wasn't going to take off her shirt. Not with the door half-open, disguised as we were by the shadows cast in the fading sun. This wasn't high school, and I wouldn't run the risk of anyone catching us. Especially August.
It should have been a warning sign that even the thought of her kid didn't sidetrack me.
Pulling my mouth from hers, I slid up her shirt, baring one perfect breast. Only a few freckles here, ginger spots against the cream of her soft skin. I followed the trail, kissing one high on the inner curve of her breast. Another on the fullest curve, another just beside her hard, pink nipple. She swallowed a gasp at the nip of my teeth, couldn't silence her moan when I sucked hard, drawing her deep.
It should have been enough. It wasn't. I rolled, making enough room to slide my hands down her side, fingertips nudging her shorts—
Scarlett's body froze, one hand flying up to cover my mouth. In the dim light, I just caught her lips moving. Quiet.
Quiet? What did she hear? I caught it a second later. The shuffle of a footstep in the dark hallway outside the half-open door. The low thump of wood on wood. A door closing? Other than us, who was sneaking around the guest wing in the dark?
Chapter Nineteen
SCARLETT
I don't know how I heard him in the hallway. I was lost in Tenn, in the feel of him touching me, surrounding me. That man could kiss. All my resolve went out the window when his mouth met mine. I could kiss him forever.
And the worst thing was I felt like I had been kissing him forever. There wasn't any of that first-time awkwardness—not knowing how he liked to be touched or worrying that I wasn't doing it for him. All it took was his body, his mouth, and I was right there with him.
It was perfect. So perfect I shouldn't have heard the sound from the hall, but I did.
Furtive footsteps. A door creaking open. Closing. It took almost a minute for my brain to make sense of the subtle sounds. I was a lot more focused on Tenn, the rumble in his chest as he kissed me, the liquid slide of our lips, our tongues, the rustle of fabric as his hand slipped under my shirt.
It almost killed me to stop. I would have sworn it physically hurt to break our kiss and push him away. A totally different kind of tension swept through me as logic reasserted itself in my brain. No one should be out there. The guest wing was deserted. It was dark.
I pressed my palm over Tenn's mouth, registering the softness of his lips before I silently whispered, "Quiet."
He stilled. Tenn wasn't just the world's greatest kisser, he was also smart. Shifting gears along with me, he slowly pulled down my shirt—sending a stab of regret right to my heart—and shifted his attention to the sounds in the dark hall beyond the door.
Moving carefully, I rolled off the side of the bed, landing on the balls of my feet, my sneakers silent on the polished wood floor. Tenn followed, just as soundless, and we peeked through the half-open door, his head so close to mine his bristled jaw brushed my cheek.
A tall shadow left one room and slipped deeper into the hall, further from the main staircase, and disappeared into the room opposite ours. I recognized the blue dress shirt covering those broad shoulders.
Forrest. The CFO of the Inn.
And Sterling's new boyfriend.
There was no good reason Forrest should be sneaking around in the guest wing.
He could have gotten lost. It was possible, but I doubted it. Heartstone Manor is a ridiculously big house, but it's easy to navigate. At the top of the stairs from the main level, you could go either left or right. I was pretty sure Forrest already knew that the family wing—and Sterling's bedroom—were to the left.
While some of the light fixtures in the hallway of the family wing didn't work and the wallpaper had seen better days, the family wing was in far better shape than the guest wing. Even if Forrest had wandered down the wrong hall at the top of the stairs, he would have immediately known he wasn't in the right place.
In the guest wing hallway, half of the wallpaper had been stripped. Instead of sconces, there were holes with wires dangling out. Most of the bedrooms were missing furniture. There might be a bed frame but no mattress or dressers and an armchair but no bed.
My point is, I've used the whole 'I must have gotten turned around! How did I end up here?' excuse for being somewhere I wasn't supposed to be. But the room Tenn and I were in was at the far end of the hall. I could see Forrest making a wrong turn and getting halfway down, but this was no wrong turn. How many rooms had he already searched before we realized he was there?