His heart gave an extra robust thump against his rib cage once her bikini was revealed. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. It was exactly what he imagined she might wear; a simple two-piece with solid brown bottoms accented with a belt that matched the teal print of the halter-top. Gavin had no desire to make her uncomfortable under his gaze. He moved instantly to help her into the hot tub and left very specific instructions that she wasn’t to get out until he returned, then hurried away.
Minutes later, Gavin found himself in his haven, the study, staring at his desk while he massaged his temples. He was disgusted…with himself. How quickly his desire for revenge had turned into lust. How quickly he forgot he wanted to cause her pain when he saw her suffering. How he wanted to spend every moment with her, unraveling all her little mysteries, and worse…making her happy.
Clearly, this revenge wasn’t going to work out as intended anyway. She could never ever return to his office. So now what was he going to do with her? Leaning back in his chair, Gavin gazed around the room. The place did need some sprucing up. As Hannah had indicated, it appeared that his decorator hated him. And Joe did give her a more than reasonable estimate to redecorate the entire house. And if worse came to worse, he was sure he could find a hundred little things that needed doing that had simply been pushed to the wayside, given his busy schedule.
Slowly, a smile spread across his face. At least he had a valid reason to keep her in his life. Just as quickly, it was replaced by a frown. When had he ever worked so hard to keep a woman in his life? When had he last felt so strongly about a woman period? He sighed. Hannah had been soaking for
nearly an hour. He had better go remove her before she wilted.
The hot tub had worked wonders. As soon as Gavin came to get her, Hannah was ready to leap out of it and get back to business. “Slow down,” he warned as she hastily reached for her robe.
Her cheeks were pink, she knew, but she hoped he’d think it was from the heated water she had been in and not his heated gaze. She felt her cheeks grow warmer at his chastising. “Sorry,” she mumbled.
“Do I make you uncomfortable?” He asked as he helped her into her robe, grazing her skin with the back of his hand.
Hannah tilted her head to the side a moment. Sometimes she thought he actually enjoyed making her uncomfortable, other times she felt guilty even considering it since she had thoroughly mucked up his life in the few short days since she’d been a part of it. “Sometimes,” she admitted.
Sometimes when I catch you staring at me,
she thought.
Sometimes when you touch me and I suddenly feel as though I could go up in flames
. Her eyes closed momentarily as she thought about him touching her, relishing the quiver in her abdomen.
She sighed. “Well, I’m ready to make dinner now.”
Gavin nearly growled. She was so stubborn. “Too late,” he said as evenly as he could manage.
“How can I be too late?” She asked, glancing about for a clock.
“Because I already ordered dinner, just like I told you I would.” He folded his arms across his chest and raised an eyebrow.
“And I told you that I was going to earn my keep around here.” Hannah folded her arms in an effort to match his stance. The entire time she soaked, she had pondered his words. He thought this was a mistake. She couldn’t be cut loose so quickly. Even with thirty days notice, the girls deserved some stability in their lives.
He stiffened. “We need to talk about that.”
Feeling around behind her, Hannah found the steps. She suddenly needed to sit down very badly. Swallowing her fear, she lowered herself to a seated position. “Go ahead,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper.
“I can’t have you working at the office as my personal assistant any more,” Gavin said evenly. He kept clenching and unclenching his fists at his sides. If he didn’t, he knew he’d be by her side, soothing away that frightened look. He closed his eyes as images of Hannah pressed against his chest assaulted him.
“So, this is my notice,” she said, as bravely as she could muster, yet instantly tears formed in her eyes.
At that, Gavin was completely undone. He had gathered Hannah in has arms almost as quickly as he had drawn breath. One arm was wrapped around her back, pulling her as close to him as their bodies would allow, the other hand was knotted in her hair. “No, you ridiculous, exasperating woman,” he muttered into her hair.
Relief seeped through her and Hannah pushed herself far enough away to look into his eyes questioningly. “Then what?” She asked.
And Gavin knew exactly what she meant. What was to become of her? He didn’t want to answer that question yet. He wanted her to answer some of his own. “Is this the kind of marriage you had, the kind of relationships you’ve had that you believe yourself to be so…disposable?” His voice was incredulous. How could any man not want her in his life? He’d known her for a few days and couldn’t imagine not having her around. That idea nearly knocked the air from his lungs.
“Yes,” Hannah responded, breathily, struggling to hold back tears that were a combination of relief and recognition of the damaged insecure woman she loathed to have become. Her throat hurt from holding back a symphony of sobs. Her body shuddered from the effort.
“Oh, Hannah,” Gavin moaned into her hair. “I couldn’t do that to you, or the girls.” He stroked her back, her shoulders, and gently lifted her onto the edge of the tub so that she was forced to look him in the eyes. He forced her chin up with his thumb, caressed his way up her jaw line until he held her face in his hands. “I think we’ll both be more productive with you working from home.” He gave her a tender smile.
He was teasing her, she realized suddenly. She perked up some and offered a hesitant smile in response. “Just what does that mean?” She playfully demanded.
Smiling more widely now, Gavin responded. “I won’t ever get anything accomplished if I spend every afternoon at the doctor with you.”
Laughing, Hannah swatted at him playfully. “Fine, you wretched man! We’ll discuss this further at dinner. Right now I want to get dressed.” And with that, she was lowered ever so gently to the patio before heading up the stairs to her room.
Gavin was still standing there on the patio with a silly smile on his face when the squealing began. Without hesitation, he flew up the stairs, taking two at a time. Panting and out of breath, he found himself standing inside his old bedroom. Recouping his senses, he quickly backed out of the room, grabbing at his heart.
Hannah was twirling around the room, squealing happily. Her bathrobe had come undone and was radiating out about her as she moved, exposing her entire bathing suit clad body. Realizing she was no longer alone, she stopped, cinched the belt, and rushed over to grab Gavin’s hand. “Look!” She tried to draw him into the room to see the miraculous transformation that had taken place while she was at work.
The walls were a silvery blue, just like she had originally imagined. The carpet was a plush contemporary shag in a light cream that she couldn’t stop running her toes through. New brushed nickel curtain rods had been installed over the windows and held gauzy cream crushed crepe curtains. On the bed was a silvery blue comforter piled high with pillows.
“I can see from here,” Gavin said shifting uncomfortably. His hand had unconsciously tightened around hers, but still he couldn’t be compelled to enter the room.
Seeing he wouldn’t budge, Hannah walked closer to him, head cocked to the side, radiating joy. She eyed him for an instant, as if measuring him, his mood, his height, and then with a moment’s hesitation, stood on tiptoes to plant a kiss on his nose. He wrinkled it in response, earning a giggle. “Thank you,” she said, as if in explanation. And without taking her eyes off him, she backed up three paces, released his hand, and slowly shut the door.
As soon as the door closed, Hannah’s cheeks were ablaze. How did this man inspire such responses from her? She kissed his
nose
! It was so uncharacteristic. She lay back on the bed for a moment and gazed up at her tray ceiling. Maybe he was simply inspiring her to be more like the woman she wanted to be. Maybe she had been tense and uptight for far too long. Maybe it was time to relinquish the reigns some and let someone else in. She shuddered at the thought, until she remembered his eyes. They had seemed a cold, distant, even icy blue, until today. Today, his eyes seemed warmer, cheerier, and beckoning.
Beaming, Hannah laid out paper plates around the coffee table in the hearth room. She giggled a moment later when she caught herself humming. From where had that bubbled up? In the center of the large square wooden table she opened the takeout containers, pleasantly surprised. There were three different varieties of chicken wings, boneless wings with ranch, buffalo, and honey mustard style dipping sauces. And it appeared he had purchased every side on the menu at Wing Stop. They had the homemade fries, potato sal
ad, coleslaw, and baked beans. Hannah shook her head, imagining that most of the food would go to waste.
That was where he found her, staring down at the spread of food, hands on hips, frowning. He paused, trying to understand her reaction. “You disapprove?” His brow knit together as he tried to decide how to remedy the situation.
Startled, Hannah looked up and carefully masked the emotion of her overly expressive face. “It’s not that,” she attempted to explain. “I just hate seeing food go to waste.”
Instantly he understood. She had spent the majority of her life carefully watching her spending, the last few months being the worst, with no extravagances, nothing to spare. He studied the table, seeing it for the first time through her eyes. Though he had meant only to have all his bases covered since he still had no idea what everyone liked and disliked, to her it would look excessive. He sighed. Then as though he suddenly realized his surroundings, he scowled.
“Why are we eating on the floor?” He folded his arms across his chest and raised an eyebrow in challenge.
“We’re not eating on the floor.” Hannah explained patiently, her eyes twinkling.
“We’re not?” He challenged, pointing to the lack of seating.
Giggling, she replied, “Nope. We’re having a picnic.” She tugged at her chin and frowned. “A rather high end picnic, apparently.” She could feel his eyes boring into her, compelling her to explain. Sighing, she collapsed on the overstuffed sofa that was fast becoming her favorite piece of furniture in the room.
“I always tried to make mealtimes fun after Brett left,” Hannah said quietly. “The food wasn’t always much to look at, so I at least wanted to provide some atmosphere.” She offered him a half smile before continuing. “I would lay the table cloth on the floor that I used to camouflage the card table which doubled as a dining room table and then we would have picnics. The food looked better by candlelight.” She chuckled. Motioning around, she added, “We never had so much food to share or such a nice way to picnic.”
Gavin stood silently staring first at her, then at the coffee table loaded with fast food. He could hardly bear to hear the stories of her past. Every time it sparked a fury in him that someone could desert her, desert the girls, and leave them destitute. Then he felt something else. It was pride. His Hannah had persevered. He swallowed and did a mental head slap.
His Hannah?
Eyeing him suspiciously, she asked, “Have you ever had a picnic?”
“Of course,” he replied indignantly. “Mother would have us eat out on the patio quite often growing up.”
Shaking her head, she said, “Your childhood makes me sad.”
“What?” He spluttered.
“That’s not a picnic.” She glanced outdoors. He had this lovely yard, perfectly manicured, an abundance of flowering trees and plants that he never took the time to appreciate. “When it gets warmer,” she assured him, “we’ll remedy that.”
The girls were utterly charming at dinner. Their past had not allowed them to try all the various sides offered, so Hannah encouraged them to branch out and try new things. The results were hilarious. Neither of them liked baked beans, complaining both of the texture and flavor.
“It feels like when I ate chalk that time,” Zoe mourned.
And as she feared, entirely too much food remained to be squirreled away into the refrigerator. As she picked up, Hannah hummed happily to herself while the girls spent their last few minutes before the evening ritual began in their room.