There was still a raw pain echoing in her; Finn could feel it as if it were a tangible thing in the room with them. He felt his earlier assumptions about Tamsyn Masters begin to crumble.
It can’t have been easy for a little girl to grow up with a distant father and no mother, no matter how efficient her nannies must have been and no matter what other family she had around her. Kids needed their parents, both of them. He’d been lucky, at least for the first twelve years of his life and then, subsequently, with the love and support given to him by Lorenzo and Ellen.
“Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want for anything at all growing up. Ethan and I were close, he’s always been so protective of me, Dad loved me in his way and I’ve always been tight with my cousins. I just want to know why she left us. Why we were so unimportant to her that she could just walk away.”
Finn ached to tell her there was so much more to Ellen’s story than that, but it wasn’t his information to share.
“I hope you get to find your answers,” he said softly, at a loss as to what else to say.
“Yeah, me, too.” Tamsyn gave him a wobbly smile.
“So, about dessert,” Finn said, injecting a lighter note into his voice. “Are you ready for some?”
“Sure, bring it on. I’ve already eaten way too much this evening, what’re a few more calories. The seniors at the center are probably going to work it all off me tomorrow anyway.”
He reached out and took her plate. From what he could tell, she’d eaten hardly enough to keep going. Still, it wasn’t his place to harangue her into stuffing herself. Instead, he retrieved the container of hokey-pokey ice cream from the freezer and dished it up into two bowls. Putting them on a tray and reaching for a container of chocolate sauce, he carried them over to the table.
“Ooh, ice cream!” Tamsyn exclaimed.
“Not just any ice cream,” Finn said with a mock-stern expression on his face. “New Zealand’s finest.”
Tamsyn lifted her spoon and scooped up the tiniest mouthful. “Oh, is that toffee inside it?”
Finn smiled at the expression of sheer delight on her face. “You haven’t lived until you’ve tried it. It’s better in a cone, but I thought we should be civilized for our first dinner together. Here,” he said, extending the chocolate sauce to her. “Try this on top.”
She tried the new combination, the chocolate sauce freezing to a hard crust as it drizzled over the ice cream. A deep sound of appreciation hummed from her throat, sending a jolt of lightning-hot desire straight to his groin. He’d been able to hold it together most of tonight, to keep her at arm’s length. But right now he wanted to do nothing more than lay her on the table and eat dessert right off of her. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
“Oh, that’s good,” she said, taking another spoonful. “I can’t believe I’ve lived this long and never tried it.”
Finn scooped up a generous mouthful and shoved it in his mouth. Maybe the icy concoction would chill his fiery libido. Difficult to achieve success on that score, he noted, while watching Tamsyn savor every mouthful of her own. Her tongue swept out and traced her upper lip, seeking and finding a tiny trace of chocolate that had lodged there. He closed his eyes briefly, trying to rid himself of the urge to find out what that dainty tongue would feel like on his body. Jeez, he needed to get a grip here.
It wasn’t until Tamsyn’s spoon fell with a clatter in her bowl that he realized she’d finished. Heaving a sigh of relief, Finn reached for her plate.
“Here, let me take that for you,” he said, pushing his chair back.
“Oh, I can do that,” Tamsyn insisted, taking both his bowl and hers out of his reach and rising also. “You’ve already done so much for me this evening. Can I do the dishes before I head off?”
“That would be a definite no,” Finn said, following her into the kitchen. “Besides, that’s what dishwashers are for, right?”
“If you’re sure…”
“I am,” he said, taking her hand and leading her away from the kitchen. “Can I offer you some coffee? My machine isn’t as flash as yours, but it makes a good brew.”
Tamsyn shook her head. “No, I’d better get going. I want to be fresh for tomorrow. Thank you for tonight. It was really lovely.”
“You’re welcome, I enjoyed it.” I enjoyed you, his mind reiterated. He lifted her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “I’m glad you came.”
“I—um, me, too,” she said, suddenly flustered.
As disconcerted as she was, she made no effort to pull away, so Finn did what naturally came next. He leaned forward and kissed her. The instant their lips touched he forgot everything he’d ever thought about her—all the nastiness, all the subtle envy he hadn’t even realized he’d allowed to build up over the years. In their place, he allowed himself to be lost in her softness.