“Let me guess… She gave you a sob story, didn’t she? Played the victim? Made some horrible accusations about the guy that would make one wonder why she wanted to marry him in the first place?”
“She did exactly that. And as for playing the victim? She still does that well. She’s never owned up to anything that would shine a bad light on her.”
“To me, it sounds like that guy decided to reexamine the red flags about Avery and when he did, he pulled the plug on everything.”
“I should’ve done the same thing. What about you and your past marriage? Looking back, do you recognize any red flags?”
“None at all. Graham and I were high school sweethearts, got married two years after graduation, got our careers going, and were really happy and doing so well until we lost Malcolm. It devastated our marriage. I totally shut down and threw myself into my work at the D.A.’s office. Graham and I became roommates for the most part and because of his own loneliness, he turned to my best friend, Emma, for love and affection.”
“The only similarity that I see between your situation and mine is the roommate part.”
“Not the loneliness part, too?” I asked.
“Are you asking me if Avery is lonely or if I’m lonely?”
“I don’t care about her. I wanna know about you.”
Zac swallowed hard. “I was lonely, Stevie.”
“Was?”
“Yes. Until I met you.”
I swallowed hard then. “I was lonely too, but didn’t realize how much until I met you. You made me start feeling thingsagain that a woman should feel and because of you, I’m not lonely anymore, either.”
Zac got up from his chair and walked over to mine, then knelt down beside me. I reached out and held his handsome face in my hand, and seconds after I did, he placed his hand on top of mine. The moment stood still between us and I didn’t want it to end because it was so honest and raw and vulnerable and real.
“We’re doing it again, Sinclair,” he whispered.
“Doing what?” I whispered back.
“Playing with this fire between us.”
“And what do you suggest we do about it this time?”
“Let it burn.”
“Neither one of us could afford the cost if we did.”
Zac searched my eyes, nodded once, and then stood up. I thought he was going to sit back down but he didn’t. Instead, he moved over and stood directly in front of me, then leaned down and placed his hands on the arms of my chair. His face and mine were only inches apart and he was staring straight at me.
“It doesn’t change the fact that I still wanna kiss you,” he said. “No—I wanna do more than that to you, Stevie.”
“And I want you to.”
Zac drew in a deep breath then closed the little bit of space between us by planting his lips on me—but not on my mouth. He kissed me on the cheek like he had this morning in the woods at the running trail. And just like then, he didn’t immediately pull back. His lips were still on my skin, and the warmth of them made me feel like turning my head and kissing Zac’s mouth despite the treacherous pathway it’d undoubtedly send us flying down. I could feel myself starting to give in to the overpowering temptation of this man when his son began stirring in my arms. Zac pulled his lips away from my cheek, looked down at Malcolm, and then looked back up at me.
“You just started to kiss me, didn’t you?” he quietly asked. “I felt you turning your head.”
“Yes… I did. I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about.”
“I don’t want you or anybody to get hurt,” I said, stealing a glance at Malcolm. He’d settled back into sleeping. “All three of us most assuredly will if you and I keep playing with this fire. So walk away from me this time, Zac, because I don’t have the willpower to walk away from you again.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
As soon as he finished whispering those words to me, he leaned all the way in and kissed me on the lips. I closed my eyes and breathed into Zac as he breathed into me. Then he began moving his lips across mine, slowly brushing them back and forth. Moments later, our tongues found one another’s. They gently touched, they tasted and they teased.