Lovers by Christmas: (6 page)

Ashtyn’s husband Neil was right behind her, sliding a possessive arm around her stomach and smiling over her shoulder. “Did you guys just get here? It took us forever to find you.”

“No use in lying, Neil,” Jordana smiled. “Ashtyn already gave the lame excuse of being stuck in traffic.”

“Baby!” he jokingly admonished his beautiful wife. “Gotta
practice
on the lies some more.”

They all laughed, Thea included.

Just then, Meryl came over to her side. “Thea, there’s someone I must introduce you to,” she said. “He’s in
dire
need of an interior decorator of your talent. I hate to intrude, but my home has become your business card tonight.”

Thea smiled. “I’m more than happy to meet him.” She excused herself from the group of friends and joined Mrs. Mallory’s side while she ambled her way through the crowd.

“Now where did he go?” Meryl looked around the room. “Oh, there he is. By the fireplace.” She swept over to the left and patted the shoulder of a tall man with black hair. “Dear, I insist you meet Thea.”

As if in slow motion, he moved his profile first and Thea froze, stomach dropping to her feet. When he completely turned around, only a flash of shock registered in his brown eyes before it disappeared.

Meryl smiled. “Thea, this is Dr. Kenner Sutton.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

It was
him.

How could it be him? A riot erupted in her head while a rush of hot then cold swept over her entire body.

Should she pretend like they’d never met?

Seeming to sense her paralyzing indecision, Kenner took the lead and held out his hand. “Hello.”

An inaudible gasp escaped. She nearly melted at that one word. How could “hello” devastate her and ignite desire at the same time? Knowing she absolutely had to, she shook his hand. He enveloped hers gently, then increased in pressure, as though Kenner wanted to remind her of his touch. As if she could ever forget it.

“Hello,” she finally managed to say, a little too breathlessly.

To Thea’s relief, Meryl appeared oblivious to the mounting sexual tension. “Thea Martin is my interior decorator. You made a comment earlier and I just knew I had to introduce you two. Your apartment is a blank canvas and she has the artist’s eye like no other. She’s young, but she has an old soul. Did you see my palazzo ceiling?”

Kenner’s eyes had yet to leave Thea’s. “Yes, I saw it.”

“Mrs. Mallory! We need you!” Someone called from behind her.

“You two can acquaint yourselves. My work here is done. Coming, darling!” She rushed off, leaving Kenner and Thea alone.

Exhaling the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding, Thea was a mannequin of disbelief, face-to-face with the man who’d haunted her December nights.

“How are you?” he asked softly in that signature silken voice.

I was okay until this very moment.
“Fine.” She cleared the strangled catch in her throat. “You?”

“Fine.”

She nodded, folding her hands in front of her and unknotting her tongue. “So you’re a doctor. Not an ad exec.”

“Yes. And you’re an acclaimed interior decorator. Not an insurance agent.”

“Yes, well, at least we didn’t lie about our names. How do you know Bob and Meryl?” she asked, wondering if a doctor would be able to interpret her body temperature and language more than the average man. It was agony projecting this indifferent attitude in front of him.

“Bob is a good friend of my father’s. I grew up with his two sons,” he explained, watching her. “I can’t believe you’re really here. God, you look incredible.”

The intensity was still there. His behavior at The Dame & Dapper had not been an act, and he was more handsome than she remembered. Clean-shaven and in a suit this time, which only enhanced his appeal. She stared at his mouth, and a memory of how many places he used it had a heat rapidly coming up her chest, neck, and cheeks. No one knew the man standing in front of her had searched every inch of her body with his mouth and tongue. No one knew just weeks ago he’d made love to her with such erotic tenderness, she’d almost
wept.

Reliving the memory caused a tremor to run through her, and she was utterly embarrassed. The silence grew, and the fireplace crackled with embers. All other noises from the party seemed far away. Unable to bear much more, she took a small step back. “Well. It’s good to see you again. Excuse me,” she uttered before starting to turn away.

He caught her hand. “Oh no you don’t. Not again.”

She faced him, ignoring the fire he’d started in her hand. “Sorry. I don’t know how to act or what to say.”

“You’re not the only one.” He traced his thumb over her knuckles before he gently released her hand. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

She dropped her voice to a whisper. “That’s the point of a one-night stand.”

“Is that all I was to you? A good fuck for the night?”

She flinched at his words. “Yes. Isn’t that what I was to you?”

“Hardly.” He continued to stare at her, shaking his head. “Thea, I’ve been looking for you ever since.”

“You have?” she asked in a weak voice.

“I’ve been going to The Dame & Dapper every other night for the past month. I’m practically paying their rent.”

A voice in her head cheered at this knowledge, but she determined to remain skeptical. “And why would you do that?”she arched.

“I wanted to see you again,” he said as though it should’ve been blatantly obvious.

She lifted a brow. “You mean you thought you found yourself an easy lay and wanted a repeat.”

He frowned. “You’re not easy and that’s not why I kept going back.”

Yeah, right. She found herself deliberately cheapening their beautiful night together so the draw to him would wane. If that was even possible. “We spent one night together. That’s all.”

He paused long. Too long, tracing his gaze over her face as if he couldn’t determine what he should say next. “We didn’t use any protection the last time. Is there a chance you’re pregnant?”

The tender concern in his voice shot to her heart and bloomed warmth and appreciation. Even though it was a little too soon to test, she knew the likelihood she was carrying his child was very, very small. “A slim to none chance. I’m on birth control.”

He gave a single nod. “I see.”

Her heart hammered so loud in her ears, she could barely hear the fanciful holiday music playing in the background. It wouldn’t surprise her if he could hear her heartbeat at his nearness, or see it pound in her chest. All he had to do was stand there and
look
at her like that. A rapid blush flooded her face, and she shifted her gaze to his elbow and swallowed. She couldn’t handle his kind of intensity right now. At the bar? Yes. Here? No. “I don’t think there’s anything else we need to discuss. Now if you’ll excuse me. Again.” She started to move past him.

“How can you say that?” he asked softly.

She stopped in her tracks, attempting to keep her voice down. “I went back,” she confessed, keeping her volume low. “I went back two weeks ago looking for you, when the bartender enlightened me about your little tag team for the roof.”

“What?” he exclaimed.

“You heard me.” Seeing the blatant confusion in his face didn’t soothe her. “It’s all right, Kenner. I’m not upset. Really. You don’t have to pretend you’re someone you’re not.”

“Thea—”

“If you think for one second I want anything to do with you now, you’re hugely mistaken.”

He tucked his hands in his pockets, drawing in a breath and exhaling, leveling his gaze. “Listen to me. Please.”

The tone of his voice and the entreaty in his eyes were too powerful to ignore. Heart hammering, she waited. “I’m listening.”

“It’s true you weren’t the first woman I’ve taken to the roof,” he admitted with a sense of shame on his handsome face. “But until you, I’d never gone that far with anyone.”

If he thought that was going to help his case, then he was wrong. “Glad I set a new standard for future conquests. Good-bye, Dr. Sutton.” Humiliated all over again, she started to turn away, but he gently grasped her elbow. “I don’t have anything more to say to you.”

“Thea. Rory doesn’t know a damn thing about us. He likely assumed you were trying to track me down through him and thought he was doing me favor hedging you off.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me.”

“Why? Feeling bad I found out about your little scheme?”

He squeezed her elbow. “It wasn’t a scheme. Not that night. Not with you.”

“How am I supposed to believe that?”

His brown eyes bored into hers, and his deep voice dropped low. “I’ve never been close to anyone in my life. Whether it’s by choice or by chance, I don’t know. But I’m positive that night we were as close as two people who knew nothing about each other could be.” He took a step forward, startling her. “Give me a second chance. Look me in the eyes and say you don’t think about it every night like I do. Look at me and tell me you don’t feel a damn thing, and I’ll leave you alone.”

The words caught in her throat, but, too scared to tell him otherwise, she decide to lie to his face. He couldn’t be trusted, and this wasn’t the time or place to talk about the aftereffects of their one night of passion. “Kenner…” She cleared the hoarseness from her throat and steeled her spine. “I don’t think about it every night and I don’t feel a thing. Not anymore.”

His brown eyes briefly narrowed, and he waited, as though hoping she might blurt a renouncement. When she didn’t, the disappointment so clear in his eyes, he stepped back and raked his gaze over her entire body before meeting her lying eyes again. “That’s all I needed to know.” With that, he smoothly turned around and made his way through the bodies to another room.

She sucked in a shuddering breath, but found the air too hot to provide relief. She needed fresh, outside air in her lungs.

Finding an exit to the veranda, she snuck outside, closed the door, and turned right to hide in the corner and collect her thoughts. It was unseasonably warm this far in December, but even so, she didn’t need a jacket. If anything, she needed the cooler air to help calm her. She inhaled long, shaking, her knees knocking together.

She never thought she’d see him again, and here he was, at this very party.

Turned out he’d gone back to the lounge, too. Was what he said about Rory true? Was his friend just trying to deflect her in case Kenner didn’t want the woman from the roof bothering him again?

He’d confessed he felt something for her, but she’d thrown it back in his face. Hope had been in his eyes and she’d quickly and unthinkingly snuffed it out. Why? She thought she was just another conquest, but he insisted she had it wrong. In any case, he wasn’t the one who’d initiated sex on the roof, it’d been her.

And suddenly realizing she’d pined for someone who felt the same strong connection she did was a startling fact.

Just then, the door beside her opened and a couple rushed out, oblivious to Thea’s presence as the man pressed the woman against the wall on the left side of the door and kissed her.

Too embarrassed to let them know they were not alone, Thea stealthily shrank back in the shadowed corner, and waited for them to come up for air before she said anything, then realized she knew who they were.

It was Neil and Ashtyn Caenon.

Ashtyn pulled back and pressed her hands to her husband’s chest with a small laugh. “Neil, stop. We have to go back inside.”

“Five minutes, I beg you,” he complained. “I haven’t seen you all week. Spiked eggnog and Christmas songs be
damned.
”

He kissed his wife while she softly laughed.

Thea opened her mouth and raised a finger, then stopped, the moment too intimate to disrupt.

She’d had only met them once at Logan and Jordana’s house party, but the Caenons were just as kind and friendly as their good friends the Savants. Their love for one another was enviable, their interaction always playful and flirty and openly affectionate.

“Guess what Kate Wilkins said to me?” Ashtyn asked while her husband moved to her neck.

“Where is the zipper on this thing?” he murmured, hands roaming her back.

“She told me,” Ashtyn said ignoring his question, “that she wouldn’t be surprised if this time next year you show up with a different Mrs. Caenon. That you’ll be the new marrying man of San Francisco and to enjoy you while I can.”

“Kate Wilkins is a jealous bitch.”

“Neil!”

“Please tell me you didn’t let that bother you one bit.”

Ashtyn sighed. “Well, no, but it’s still not pleasant to hear—”

He grasped her face. “Baby. I love you. You want to know what I was thinking about this time last year? You. I was wondering where you and Cliff were, because you were and still are and forever will be the most incredible woman I’ve ever met.”

“You were thinking of me?” Ashtyn asked in a soft voice.