“I can’t believe how far ahead you are, and how you can furnish a place when it’s still under construction.” She scribbled in her notebook as she spoke. “I should’ve known Justine wouldn’t go for chintz and gingham.”
“She wants a jewel, every facet sharp and shiny. We’re going to give it to her.”
Struck, Clare looked up. “It’s nice, the way you are. All of you. It’s what I want for me and my boys. The affection, the teamwork, the understanding.”
“I’ve seen you with your boys. I’d say you already have what you want.”
“Some days I feel like the ringmaster in a three-ring circus inhabited by demons. I imagine your mother felt the same.”
“I think if you asked her, she’d say she still does.”
“Comforting and scary at the same time.”
Yes, he looked busy, distracted—and flat-out sexy on top of it. But she’d been wrong about the confused. He knew every sharp and shiny facet of the jewel they were creating.
She remembered she’d dreamed about him one night not long ago, and, flustered, turned away.
“What’s down there?”
“The ADA room and the front entrance to the dining room.”
“Which one’s the ADA room?”
“Marguerite and Percy.”
“
“You can try. It’s got material stacked in it, too. It’s the smallest,” he said as he led her down the short hall. “We had to work with the footprint of the building, and the ADA code. Going with two full-sized beds, night table between, with this great old ornate lamp that was my grandmother’s.”
“You’re putting family things in here?”
“Here and there when they work. Mom wants to.”
“I think that’s lovely, and special. The beds go in front of the windows?”
“Right. Cane headboards, and we’ll dress up behind them with treatments—for style and privacy. Cane benches with fancy fabric pads at the feet, fancy bedskirts. Some sort of big, ornate mirror for this wall as you come in. Cream walls and crown molding, soft blue ceiling.”
“A blue ceiling.” For some reason it struck her wonderfully romantic. She wondered why she’d never thought of painting her ceilings anything other than flat white.
She supposed she’d forgotten how to be romantic.
“It sounds very French. I never asked what you’re doing as far as dressing the beds.”
“After considerable, occasionally heated debate, we’re going with high-end sheets—white or what is it, ecru, depending on the room. Down alternative, all-weather duvet—covered by another sheet rather than spread or quilts or whatever. Lots of pillows, with neutral-tone linen shams, possibly a bedroll, and cashmere throw things.”
“Cashmere throws? I’m so booking a room. Peacock feathers.”
“Is that some sort of curse?”
“There should be peacock feathers somewhere. I know they’re supposed to be bad luck, but they just feel French, and opulent.”
“Note to self. Peacock feathers. It’s the most problematic space, but I think it’s going to turn out.”
“I love it already. Where’s the bath?” She managed to step in, over buckets, some lumber.
“Watch your step,” he warned, taking her arm. “No tub, but a big luxury shower. We’ll do the rain head, the body jets—ORB.”
“Orb?”
“Sorry. Oil-rubbed bronze. All the public areas have that accent. Crystal vessel bowl sink on an iron bracket. It’s big and it’s beautiful. Cream and pale gold tiles, fleur-de-lis accents.”
“I found some iron wall shelves, scrolled. The code and the space equal some limitations.”
“That is not good copy. Something more like ‘special needs meet spectacular comfort. The grandeur of a bygone age with all the comforts—no, pleasures. All the pleasures of today.’ ”
She started to make more notes, backed up a step, rapped into a stack of paint cans.
“Careful.” He wrapped an arm around her waist to steady her as she grabbed his arm to keep from overbalancing.
For the second time that day they stood close, bodies brushing, eyes locked. But this time the light was dim, filtered through the blue tarp. Something near to moonlight.
Being held, she thought, a little dazed. She was being held by a man, by Beckett, and in a way that didn’t feel friendly or helpful. In a way that made something coil inside her, a long, slow wind.
Something that felt exactly like lust.
It spread in a swamping wave as she watched his gaze slide down to her mouth, hold there. She smelled honeysuckle. Moonlight and honeysuckle.
Yearning, she eased closer, imagining that first touch, that first taste, that first—
His gaze snapped back to hers, jolted her out of what seemed like some strange dream.
My God, she’d nearly—
“I need to get back.” She didn’t squeak it out, but she knew it was damn close. “I have the . . . the thing to do.”
“Me, too.” He stepped back like a man moving cautiously away from a live wire. “I have the thing.”
“Okay, well.” She got out, out of the room with its false moonlight and air that had so suddenly smelled of wild summer vines. “So.”
“So.” He slid his hands into his pockets.
Safer there, she imagined, or she might jump him again.
“I’ll play around with some ideas for the rooms I’ve seen.”
“That’d be great. Listen, I can let you have the binder. We have a binder with cut sheets and photos of lighting and furniture, bath fixtures, like that. The one here has to stay on-site, but I have one at my place you could borrow for a couple days.”
“Okay.” She took a breath, settled a bit more. “I’d love to look through it.”
“I can drop it off at the bookstore, or by your place sometime.”
“Either’s fine.”
“And you can come back, when you’ve got time, if you want to go through more of the space. If I’m not around, Owen or Ry could take you through.”
“Good, that’s good. Well, I’d better go. My mother’s going to drop the boys off at the store in a little while, and I still have . . . things.”
“I’ll see you.”
“Yeah.”
He watched her go, waited for the door to close behind her with his hands still in his pockets, and balled into fists. “Idiot,” he muttered. “You’re a goddamn idiot.”
He’d scared her so she could barely look at him, so she couldn’t wait to get away from him. All because he’d wanted—just wanted.
His mother liked to say, to him, to his brothers, they were old enough so their wants wouldn’t hurt them.
But they did. This kind of want left a jagged hole in the gut.
He’d stay away from her for a few days, until those jags smoothed out. And until she felt easier around him again. He’d have one of the men run the binder over to her—keep clear.
His wants might hurt, but he was old enough to control them.
He caught the scent of honeysuckle again and, he swore, the faintest whisper of a woman’s laugh.
“Don’t you start on me.”
Annoyed, he clomped upstairs to harass the crew.
Not ready to face the bookstore and her staff, Clare bolted to Vesta. Behind the counter, layering cheese on a pie, Franny, Avery’s second in command, shot her a smile.
