“Your seduction sounds suspiciously sophisticated for an eleven-year-old.”
“Tammy never complained,” Christian deadpanned. But he could only hold the expression for a second before he grinned hugely.
Megan laughed in earnest. His grin seemed to falter at the sound.
Emily protested loudly when he gently set her on her feet.
“I should be going.”
Megan took a step forward in unconscious protest at the obvious alteration in his mood. One second, he had been laughing, silly, charming and the next, he was making a polite but cool exit. When she realized that she couldn’t prevent him—a practical stranger—from doing whatever he wished, Megan hurried toward the door to say goodbye.
“Thank you for carrying the bag and Emily. They were really heavy. I don’t think I would have made it without—”
Christian turned around and lowered his face close to hers.
“Why didn’t your husband help you?”
“My husband?” Megan asked thickly. His eyes were like twin lasers. She was momentarily too stunned to speak. Any possibility of being able to utter coherent speech was squashed out of her when Christian slowly lowered his head even nearer to her upturned face.
“Aunt Meg, can I have a juice box?”
Christian’s eyes flashed. “Aunt Meg?” he repeated Emily’s question.
Megan blinked once. Twice. Why had he sounded so stunned?
“Uh…okay, Em. In a second. Say goodbye to Christian first.”
Christian didn’t miss a beat when the rambunctious little girl ran into his arms. He lifted her up high above his head until she was shrieking with excitement.
“It was nice meeting you, Emily. I’ll see you sometime soon, okay?”
“When?” Emily asked enthusiastically. “Tomorrow?”
Christian swung her around once before he lowered her to the floor. Megan noticed with bewilderment that his expression easily matched the carefree happiness in Emily’s face. His moods shifted so quickly that Megan felt disoriented.
“Maybe. That’ll be up to your aunt. Now I’ll bet that you’re big enough to get a juice box out of the fridge yourself, aren’t you?” His eyes swung to Megan’s for confirmation and Megan gave a tense nod. Emily scampered off toward the kitchen.
Megan swallowed uncomfortably when Christian raised himself to his full height. She tried to read his expression, but it was impenetrable once again.
“Thank you again. I hope that…”
Her inane words stilled in her throat when she realized he was coming toward her. His gait was predatory, his eyes were a barely banked flame. A muffled sound of uncertain surprise rose in her throat and she slowly began to back away from him until she bumped up against the wall behind her. He didn’t still his forward motion until she was trapped between the wall against her back and the almost equally hard wall of his body at her front. He placed his hands on the wall next to her head. His thumbs gently levered her face upward.
“You could have let me know, Megan,” he admonished in a low, gruff voice.
“Know what?” Unlike her breath, which was caught painfully in her lungs, Christian’s exhalation
softly fanned her face, fragrant and warm.
“That you weren’t married. That Mr. SUV wasn’t your husband.”
The air finally released from her aching lungs as understanding dawned. “That’s Terry, my sister Hilary’s husband…Emily’s father. Emily’s been staying with me a lot while Hilary is at a sales conference.”
Christian nodded. His voice had sounded matter-of-fact, conversational, but the way he pressed his hips gently into the softness of her flesh felt anything but run of the mill. The tiny part of her that was still capable of rational thought wondered why she didn’t feel alarmed. He felt hard against her, very male…indescribably good.
“Do you know I’m going to be thirty-four years old in a few months and I’ve never once in my life been with a married woman…at least never intentionally. Maybe it’s because of my Catholic upbringing or maybe it’s just because the hassle was never worth it, but I’ve never broken that code. I’ve never even been tempted. Until just now.”
The sight of his lowering mouth mesmerized Megan. “But I’m not married,” she mumbled almost incoherently.