“Nothing.”
She came back into the living room and studied him intently. He was sprawled in an easy chair she’d found in a thrift store the day before. Even with paint spattered on his T-shirt, jeans and even on the tip of his nose and eyelashes, he made quite an enticing picture.
If only there weren’t that dark scowl on his face, she thought, barely containing a sigh.
“Okay, that’s it,” she announced, standing over him, hands on hips. “What’s going on with you? You’ve been acting weird all day.”
He seemed vaguely startled that she was calling him on it. He straightened up and looked as if he might claim that everything was just fine, but she cut him off.
“Did something happen before you and Ryan got here?” she demanded. “I know he’s been searching for Michael. Has there been some news?”
“He has a lead,” he admitted.
Deanna frowned. He’d answered a little too quickly, almost as if he were relieved that she’d asked about the search for his family. “That’s good news, right?”
“Yeah, of course it is,” he said, though without much enthusiasm. “I’m going to see if a friend in the department can help us follow up on it.”
“So it’s not that,” she concluded. “Come on, Sean. Talk to me. I thought we were friends.”
To her shock, his expression turned even darker. “Yeah, that was the plan, all right.”
Her heart began to thud dully. She ran a mental movie of everything that had gone on while they were painting, but nothing out of the ordinary struck her. “And something’s happened today to change that?” she probed. “Did I do something to upset you?”
The corners of his mouth twitched. “You could say that, though probably not in the way you mean.”
“Tell me.”
He faced her with an anguished expression. “Okay, since you asked and I don’t want to lie to you, here it is. I’m in love with you.”
Something that felt a whole lot like heady exhilaration swept through her. Still, she noticed that he didn’t look all that happy about the discovery that his feelings ran that deep.
“But?” she asked cautiously.
His gaze held hers. “That’s it. I know you aren’t interested in having a relationship, and I’m not convinced I’m any good at them, and here I go changing the rules.”
Despite his somber tone, she couldn’t contain the rush of pure joy. Until she’d heard the words leave his lips, she hadn’t realized just how desperately she’d been wanting to hear them. She laughed and launched herself into his arms. “It’s about time, Sean Devaney. The wait was getting on my nerves.”
He caught her and clasped her to his chest, then leaned back to scan her face. “You’re not furious?”
She was almost as stunned by that as he seemed to be, but there it was. She was ecstatic, not angry.
“Furious?” she echoed, not even attempting to disguise her own amazement. “I guess not.” To prove it, she kissed him, not pulling back until their breathing was ragged.
A grin tugged at his lips. “Do you have any idea how much I want to make love to you, Deanna Blackwell?”
She wriggled against him. “As a matter of fact I think I do,” she teased.
“Well?”
“The bed’s made. There’s nobody around to interrupt. I’d say we have all the time in the world.”
Sean’s expression turned serious. He reached out with fingers that trembled slightly and brushed a stray curl away from her cheek. “You’re absolutely certain this is something you want?”
She touched a finger to his lips. “Not if you intend to talk it to death.”
He laughed. “No more talking?”
“Nope. I think all the important stuff has already been said.”
“Not all of it,” he said. “You haven’t said how you feel about me, about us.”
“Haven’t I? I thought I had,” she said, kissing him thoroughly. “Not clear enough? I love you, Sean Devaney. I never thought I would say that to another person, but it’s true. Not even I could be stubborn enough to go on denying it, when it’s staring me in the face. I love you.”
His expression brightened. Before she could guess what he had in mind, he rose to his feet, still holding her in his arms, and headed for the freshly painted bedroom. At the doorway he hesitated.
“Shower first,” he said. “Of course, I won’t have any fresh clothes to change into afterward.”
Deanna grinned. “I don’t think clothes are going to be a necessity for the rest of the night.”
“You going to join me in the shower? Or do you want to go first?”
Normally she would have wanted to go first, maybe use the time to steady her nerves before she took this next step, but right this moment she couldn’t imagine being separated from him even for a second. Despite his claim to love her, there was still a chance he could change his mind about making love. Obviously, he knew, as she did, that they were about to cross a line from which there would be no turning back.
“I’ll scrub your back if you’ll scrub mine,” she said lightly.
His eyes darkened. “Deal,” he said, his voice suddenly hoarse.
The bathroom was fairly large, with an old-fashioned claw-footed tub with a showerhead installed above. The tile floor was cool beneath her bare feet. Deanna suddenly shivered, overcome with an attack of jitters.
Sean studied her. “Change your mind?”
“No,” she said staunchly. But the transition from fully clothed to buck naked intimidated her.
Sean seemed to guess what was going on in her head. Eyes locked with hers, he reached for the faucets and turned on the water, then faced her and reached for the hem of her T-shirt. Ever so slowly, his gaze never leaving her face, he lifted it over her head.
Then he skimmed his knuckles across her bare skin, avoiding her breasts, on his way to releasing the snap on her cutoff jeans. A leisurely push had the shorts skimming over her hips and sliding down her legs.
Then she was standing before him in bra and panties, watching
