Page 115 of The Best Thing He Never Wanted

He nodded. He hadn’t meant there to be anything more in the words than what he’d said, but somehow, standing there looking at her, it felt as though there was.

By the time they got back to the house, they were both drenched and happy. Bea grabbed a towel and started rubbing it through her hair while Blane peeled off his wet shirt.

“You might want to think about getting yourself a dryer, you know.”

She turned to look at him.

He chuckled. “Between the rain and the goat, you might want another option for getting things dry.”

“You might have a point there.” She came to him and ran both hands over his chest. “But I’m afraid I can’t focus on it.”

His hands settled on her hips as he drew her closer. “Can’t say I blame you. Don’t know why I’m going on about dryers anyway.”

She smiled up at him, and for a few seconds he forgot what they’d been talking about completely. He lowered his head, and Bea looped her arms around his neck, pulling him down into a kiss.

Damn, he loved the way this woman kissed him. Even from the beginning she hadn’t been shy about it, but over the last few weeks they’d found a familiarity with each other, a level of comfort he couldn’t remember ever having with anyone before. Her kisses still woke up his body in a way he’d almost forgotten was possible, but it was more than that now. It wasn’t only the physical response or how badly he wanted her. It was the way being with her felt. He tightened his arms around her as the word came to him—she felt like home.

That didn’t make a whole lot of sense. He’d never wanted one of those, not in the way other people seemed to mean it. He’d had places to live, places where he kept his stuff and slept when he wasn’t working, and that had always been enough. He’d never understood the appeal of building his life around a house or another person. But standing there in Bea’s kitchen, both of them still wet from walking in the rain, with her arms around his neck and her mouth warm against his, he understood something about it now. Before he’d had much chance to examine that thought, his hand slid down over her ass and another possibility took its place. Maybe the rain was all the excuse they needed to go back upstairs and spend some time getting as close as two people could get. He tried not to think about the fact that Bea had been right earlier—they only had a few days left, and every time his mind went there lately, he had to drag it back again.

He started walking her backward toward the stairs, without lifting his head, then froze at the sound of her phone ringing.

Her shoulders sagged as she broke the kiss, and he gave her a rueful smile. “Better get that.”

She went to the counter where her phone was charging and made a face when she looked at the screen. “It’s Rosalind.”

“You gonna answer?”

She hesitated, then shook her head. “No. It’s all right. She’ll leave me a message, and I’ll probably need to prepare my defenses before I talk to her anyway.”

“You sure?”

Bea looked at the phone for another moment. “Yes. We haven’t spoken in a while. Another few days won’t make any difference, and unless there’s something urgent in the message, I can call her back next week.”

He opened his mouth, then closed it again. He didn’t need to ask why next week. Instead, he ran his hand over her damp hair. “You call her whenever you want to.”

She gave him a sad smile. “That’s what I plan to do, Blane, and not a moment before.”

He smiled, but that look in her eyes stayed with him.

She glanced around the kitchen. “Well, since it appears my sister has killed the moment, what would you like to do?”

“Anything, as long as it’s with you.”

The smile she gave him hit him right in the chest.

“I feel the same way. We could go somewhere, I suppose.”

He shook his head. “Not unless you want to. I’d rather hang out here.”

There was that sad little smile again. “I would too.”

“Okay, so what do you want to do? I can bring those plant trays in if you want to mess around with them, or we could find something else that needs doing.”

She considered it for a moment. “Actually, I’ve been wanting to try making moussaka.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve eaten it often enough since we’ve been here, and since I live here now, I should probably learn how to make it, shouldn’t I?”