There were no words to describe the capricious winds of fate that had put her with this man in this room today. He’d stripped his dress shirt off, then faced her. The shirt now lay over the bin from which he’d removed one folded black TEAM polo shirt. It hung off the ends of his long, elegant but manly fingers. Trim cuticles and neatly trimmed nails led to strong, tanned arms covered with dark hairs that lay in one direction, as if they’d been combed. Purpled veins that declared this man worked out, ran over his hands and inside his arms. From there, her eyes strayed to his sharply defined biceps, relaxed now, but obviously capable of more than just lying beneath a dress shirt.
A neat trail of dark hairs trailed from his navel to a simple square belt buckle, and for some crazy reason, Maddie licked her lips at the way his slacks fit his thighs, his long legs. She couldn’t have quit looking if the earth ended. He was too much. So much. Smooth, tanned muscular shoulders. Matching collarbones that came together in a sexy hollow that begged for her nose or her lips or her—
“Tags?” he asked, his head cocked again in that endearing way she was beginning to like.
For the first time, Maddie wondered if he was listening to the wild thrumming throughout her body. Could he feel her temperature rising from all her deliciously wicked thoughts? Did he know what she was thinking? What he was doing to her? What she wanted to do to him?
Heated waves coursed up her neck and over her cheeks. “N-n-no price tags,” she breathed, her voice gone as wispy and limp as a spring breeze.
“Well, then…” He stood there stock still. His magnificent chest as unmoving and solid as stone. Warm stone. Granite she wanted to touch.
He’d done it again. He was studying her in his quiet, psychic way.
Just reach out.
I’m not that kind of girl.
But you want to be…
Shut up.
That terse mental command should’ve put an end to this crazy, tempting moment. Good grief! She wanted to kiss this man. Jameson was funny and handsome, and he smelled sinfully clean, the kind of clean she wanted to get dirty. Carnally. Primitively. Really dirty.
“I come with a warning label,” he murmured. “Should’ve told you before. Guess I didn’t think I’d ever feel this way again.”
“Feel w-w-what way?”
“Like kissing a beautiful woman.”
OhGodOhGodOhGod.
“But you need to know…”
She could hear his throat muscles work as he swallowed. All that hung between them was that shirt, that darned TEAM shirt. “I’m blind,” he murmured.
“S-s-so?” she had to ask. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“The blind develop senses they never knew they had, Maddie. Like I can hear your blood hammering in your veins, and I know your heart’s racing. I know when you’re looking at me, and I’m pretty sure I can guess what you’re thinking.”
“Ah, err, umm… I’m thinking that shirt will fit you per-per-perfectly.”
“And you’re purring.”
“I’m married,” she blurted.
His head canted to the other side. “Married? That’s too bad,” he said quietly, yet so quickly she was sure he knew she’d lied.
In seconds, he dragged that TEAM shirt over his shoulders and the peep show was over.
So was Maddie.
Fanning her overheated cheeks, she turned to the door, her body jacked up on hormones and every last one of her lost dreams. Here was a man worth living for.
If only she could.
Chapter Five
“He’s not who you think he is, sweetheart,” Alex told Kelsey again. “The only reason Mel’s here today is because he wants something. You saw how quickly he asked about that whisky. Bastard forgot all about you and Bradley the second he thought he could get some booze.”
Bradley had just nursed and was sound asleep in the bassinet at Kelsey’s bedside. For now, she and Alex were seated at the window bench overlooking the Potomac. It was late afternoon. She should be sleeping, but she wanted to talk.
“I get that. He’s got problems. I just hate letting him leave without doing something for him. He looked so—”
“Conniving?”
“He is that, yes. He’s not fooling me.” Kelsey leaned toward Alex, resting her elbows on her thighs as she clasped her hands together. “But I can’t help thinking that he’s sad, too. Maybe he’s had a change of heart. We might never see him again. Don’t you think everyone deserves a second chance?”
“Not after what he did to Mom, Gramps, and Gram.” Alex didn’t dare tell her what a blessing never seeing Mel again would mean to him. Saying that would make him sound cold, which he was where Mel was concerned. But he couldn’t hurt Kelsey’s feelings. So he kept his mouth shut.
“And you,” she added softly. “Mel hurt you, too. That’s why you’ve never talked about your past much. I haven’t been exactly forthcoming, either. Maybe it’s time we were honest with ourselves and each other about those old ghosts. I’ll start by telling you about my Uncle Rafe.”
Alex’s chest heaved with a full intake of air. Mel had spoiled a day that should’ve been only about Bradley, and now Kelsey was defending him. “I don’t want to do this. Not today.”
“Then just listen. Please, sweetheart. I need to get this out in the open. I’ve wanted to talk with you about it for years, just never knew how to start.”
Alex licked the corner of his mouth, resigned, willing to do anything for his wife. “Okay. I’m listening.”
She’d slipped into the plush royal-blue robe he’d brought from home. Her chocolate brown hair lay soft and shiny on her shoulders. She’d had it trimmed into a blunt cut that bounced more, and that bounce somehow made her look younger. Kelsey had the purest brown eyes of any person he’d ever known. Her cheeks were a healthy, glowing pink, and he couldn’t wait for the day she’d be able to
