“It’s so beautiful,” she said.
“Yes, most beautiful.”
She looked sideways to find him staring at her rather than the sunset. Their eyes locked and his gaze crackled with heat.
Silence hung in the balance, but Anna could feel currents move frenetically between them. Undertows. Riptides. Dangerous forces that could so easily sweep them up in a sea of emotion hovered within her reach.
Matt suddenly hauled her up against him. In a desperate kiss, hunger fed hunger. Pent up emotions exploded between them. A heat thrummed through Anna’s limbs as breathing roughened and their bodies pressed closer yet. Matt dug his fingers into her hair and kissed a line from her throat, to her earlobe.
“Anna, what have you done to me?” he groaned against her lips before he claimed them yet again.
A ripple of delight ran up her spine, and a warm knot settled in her stomach. He loves me, of that I’m sure, but how does Tamara fit into the picture?
Nothing made sense. When he was touching her like he was, she couldn’t think.
His mouth left hers with a deliberate slowness as he pulled her head to rest on his chest. She heard the buck of his heart against her ear as he gently rubbed his hands up and down her spine. A delicious but dangerous electricity danced between them.
His thumb slid up her jaw to brush lightly over her lips before he touched hers with the lightest of kisses. An aching gentleness replaced the previous fervor.
When he stepped out of her reach, she felt undone like she was part of him, the way salt is part of the sea. She longed to draw him back into her embrace and never let go. Her emotions vacillated wildly. One moment she was in heaven and the next, she was stone-cold terrified. He had the power in which to hurt her like none other.
“Matt?”
“Give me a moment,” he said, as he turned and walked indoors.
Anna followed Matt back inside and scooped up Melody from the playpen. She grabbed the diaper bag and pulled out a jar of baby food. Melody gurgled in delight. She stretched out dimpled hands determined to help herself.
Anna busied herself feeding the baby while Matt sat silently on the kitchen barstool gazing into thin air. She decided to wait for him to speak.
Matt stood and began pacing. “I can’t tell you how difficult these past few weeks have been. I’ve had every emotion in the book, from wanting to kiss you into submission, to wanting to hurt you like you’ve hurt me.
“Matt, I—”
“Please, let me finish.”
Anna nodded.
“Disillusionment and disappointment don’t sum it up. Desperation comes close … and anger—oh, man!” He shook his head in disbelief. “I possessed anger I never thought I was capable of. The fact you didn’t trust me enough to allow an explanation crushed me. The one thing I thought came easy besides our obvious attraction for each other is the fact we were best friends and could talk about anything. What happened there?”
Anna looked away as guilt flooded in. “I was angry and hurt too,” she admitted.
She filled another scoop of food for Melody and tried to feed her. Melody decided it was playtime and grabbed the spoon. She sent it flying with a giggle.
Matt jumped to the rescue and pulled the sticky Melody from the highchair. He grabbed the kitchen cloth to wipe her down and offered, “How about we see if Lorena can watch this monkey, and we’ll go for supper? I think neutral ground where I don’t feel like making love to you on the spot may be more conducive to conversation.” Matt’s eyes held a familiar twinkle.
Hope, albeit small, trickled across Anna’s soul like a stream in a drought. The words of the Lord echoed in her mind. Do not let your heart be troubled, trust in me.
She offered him a shaky smile and nodded her head in agreement. “Sure.”
“Hey, do you want to try that new steak house, Toberta’s” Matt asked, as they wheeled away from her sister’s house?
Anna couldn’t believe her ears. He was really going to take her to the same place he had just taken Tamara?
“Not a chance!” Her words sounded clipped and uptight even to her ears.
“Why do you answer like that?” Matt asked. “No problem if you don’t want steak, there’s Italian too—”
“Tamara told me you took her to dinner there.”
“I see you bought into everything she said, but you’ll have to believe me when I say, I didn’t take her to Toberta’s. I’ve heard the restaurant is great, but I’ve never been there.”
Anna’s stomach dropped like she was on a flight with severe turbulence. What other lies had Tamara told her?
“In fact, Anna, we’re going to go there, because I know the owner and you can ask him to order up what I had last time, just to see his reaction. I’ll stay with you the whole time to remove any doubt of me having a conversation with him ahead of time.” He fished in his pocket, pulled out his phone and lobbed it into her lap. “You can have that, too, just so there’s no question in your mind about me texting him, because obviously you don’t trust me.”
Anna could feel the heat rush to her cheeks at the sting of that truth. “Matt, I’m sorry … we don’t have to go to that restaurant.”
“Yes, Anna, I think we do, because if nothing else, I need you to trust the rest of what I have to tell you.” A muscle in his jaw clenched.
An uncomfortable tension permeated the silence that filled the car. Anna was relieved to see the restaurant straight ahead.
A skip of hope leaped within her when Matt parked the car and turned to
