But what was really throwing him off was not her, it was more his reaction to her. He’d never had a problem with impulse control. His entire life, Austin had made decisions based on logic. Emotion, want, and desire were never qualifying factors in his actions. Everything he did was measured and thought out. He attributed his excellent, and highly decorated, marksmanship as a scout sniper to those very personality traits. He didn’t react based on feelings. He saw things clearly, no matter what was happening around him. He never took his eye off the target and he instinctively knew when to pull the trigger.
Those instincts were always something he trusted. But now they were telling him to press his lips to Sara’s, and he knew there was no way in hell he should act on them.
Austin watched the blush on her cheeks and the rise and fall of her chest as her breathing grew more and more labored. He found himself in very unfamiliar waters, and he was afraid he might be drowning in them. To complicate things even further, the thing that was pulling him under was the very thing he sensed would be his lifeline…Sara.
She broke their stare and looked out the front window. “Where are we?”
Austin paused, not sure it was a great idea to tell her what the kids had called the area they were parked at. That was a can of worms that was better left unopened. But she asked, so he did. “It’s called True Love’s Kiss.”
“Oh.” Her eyes widened and he watched as her chest began moving up and down in shallow breaths. She licked her lips, which only served to stoke the flame of his fiery need to kiss her.
Trying to get his mind off of what he wanted to do, he somehow managed to speak, although his voice was husky with need, “Have you heard about Stone Castle?”
“I heard that it’s haunted,” Sara said breathlessly.
“The story is that an English Duke, William Stone, no relation to me, built the castle when he was banished to America in the late 1800s for refusing to marry the woman that his family had chosen for him because he’d been in love with a chambermaid.
“He smuggled Emilia, the young girl he’d fallen in love with in a crate on the cargo ship he’d sailed over in. Once they got to America, they traveled for months until finding a suitable area to settle in. It’s said that this exact spot was where William asked Emilia to marry him and the two shared their first kiss.”
“Their first kiss?” That was a lot to go through before there’d even been a kiss.
Austin grinned at her reaction. “It was a different time.”
“I guess.” She still wasn’t sure she was buying it. It made for a nice story, but no way had they not kissed.
“Anyway, she said yes. They got married and he had the castle built where they lived happily for over a decade. Until one day, a day like any other, he was out hunting and returned home to find the gruesome discovery that his wife, Emilia, his one true love, had been brutally murdered.
“Legend has it that William Stone, mad with grief, searched the woods, the town, and the lake surrounding the castle day and night, looking for her killer, until he finally dropped dead from malnutrition and exposure.
“When news made it back across the pond to his mother, she felt guilty for having sent William into exile. So she bought the land and the castle in order to keep the last piece of her only son. And no one had lived in it since, except the ghosts of William and Emilia, who roamed the halls searching for each other in the afterlife.”
“Wow.” Sara breathed, then looked out over the lake that was shimmering as moonlight danced over its surface. “It’s so beautiful.”
Unable to stop himself, he rasped, “You’re so beautiful.”
“You don’t have to say that.” She immediately dismissed his compliment, her gaze still focused out over the town.
“I know I don’t.” Austin had no idea how this woman had gone through life not knowing how extraordinary she was when he saw it clear as day after knowing her for just a few hours. He wondered if Jack had been the one who’d put the blinders on her, or if she’d never seen it. “Didn’t your ex tell you how beautiful you are?”
A small sigh fell from her lips. “We didn’t really have that kind of a relationship.”
“What kind of relationship did you have?” It had been hard for Austin to imagine any man walking away from Sara and the kids, but the thought someone could be married to Sara and not tell her how fucking gorgeous she was blew his mind.
She glanced over her shoulder in the back seat, and Austin checked the rearview mirror. Trevor’s head was tilted back, his breathing was even, and his mouth was open with a tiny bit of drool in the corner. Charlotte was snuggled up with a stuffed animal, snoring softly.
After seeing they were both sound asleep, Sara twisted slightly in the seat so she was facing Austin. “Our marriage was less about romance and more about practicality. We were never in love. When I found out I was pregnant with Trevor, Jack said we should get married. I agreed. We went to the courthouse, on a Tuesday, before he deployed on Wednesday for a nine-month tour. When he came home, Trevor was four months old, and he left again when Trevor was nine months. That time he was gone eighteen months.”
Turning her head, she stared out the windshield. “When Jack got out, we tried to make it work. Really tried. It just didn’t…we just didn’t…
“When he got a job offer across the country, I was relieved. It never even crossed my mind that the kids and I should go with him. He left and things felt normal again.
“A few months ago, he called and told me he’d met someone. Nothing had happened between the two of them, but he knew he cared about her. That he was falling for her.
“He asked if I wanted him to move back or if I wanted to go there, to try to work it out. Maybe go to counseling again. I said no. When he brought up getting a divorce, I thought it made sense.
“Jack’s a good guy. He didn’t cheat. He was willing to try, but I knew the truth—there wasn’t anything to try to fight for.”
Austin sat silently, trying to process the information that Sara had just shared with him. It was all perfectly logical. Reasonable. But everything she’d told him had just brought up more questions. He still didn’t know how a man could walk away from his family. She’d mentioned they’d never been in love. Had she ever been in love? Had there ever been any passion in her life?