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She frowned and stared at her coffee.
“Lucy, talk to me.”
“He’s my brother.”
“Really? And he’s my partner.”
“Exactly.”
“Exactly…what?”
She leaned forward and put her mug on the table, then turned around and straddled Sean’s lap. She kissed him passionately, her hands on his chest. He responded by pulling her close to him, his hands moving up the back of her pajama top, his rough palms on her bare skin.
She broke the kiss a minute later, flushed and smiling. “That’s what.”
It took Sean a minute, but then he got it. Sort of. “You don’t want your brother to know we’re sleeping together?”
“I think that’ll be hard to hide, considering that Dillon and Kate know that I spent all week here. It’s just that—I really want to do this right.”
“I thought I was doing it right,” Sean said with a sexy grin, his hands moving down her pajama bottoms.
She rolled her eyes, then laughed when he tickled her.
“I love to hear you laugh, Lucy. You don’t do it enough.”
“Then you’ll have something to shoot for, won’t you?”
“You want to go slow. I understand.”
“Not too slow. But I can’t just move in here, and not only because Patrick is living here. Though that is one reason. You’re getting your new office off the ground, and already you’re delayed because the last two weeks you were handling my mess.”
Sean frowned. “That wasn’t your mess. If you think for a minute that I didn’t want—”
She shook her head. “No, that’s not what I meant. I know this business is important to you. To prove to your brother you can do it, but even more to prove it to yourself. I not only respect that, I understand it. I feel like I have to constantly prove to my family that I’ve grown up, that I am capable of making my own decisions, that I am stronger than they give me credit for. They’ve been shielding me for a long time, trying to protect me, and I love them for it, but I am finally getting my own life. I have the FBI interview in three weeks. That’s about me, not Dillon or Patrick or any of my family. I have to succeed or fail on my own merits.”
“You’ll succeed.” Sean ran his fingers along her cheek.
She kissed him, her chest swelling with his confidence in her. “So I want you to focus on your business, and I’m going to focus on my interview. If everything goes as planned, I’ll be at Quantico before the end of the year. That’s twenty-one weeks of training, and—”
“Shh.” He put a finger to her lips. “I understand. Lucy, I’m not going anywhere. You’re the best thing that has happened to me. You make me a better person. I want you in my life, but I understand about taking it a step at a time. Step one.” He kissed her. “We learned that we like each other.” He smiled. “Step two.” He unbuttoned the top button of her pajamas. “We discovered that we are attracted to each other.” He unbuttoned the next button. “Very attracted.”
His fingers skimmed down her bare chest to the third button, which he undid.
“Step three.” He undid the fourth and final button. “We have fun together. You have a life important to you. I have a life important to me. Those lives are compatible.” He kissed first one breast, then the other. Lucy drew in her breath and held it.
“Step four,” Sean said, his voice gruff, “we are extremely compatible in bed.”
“We’re not in bed,” Lucy whispered.
“No, we’re not. We need to go to step five.”
“Which is?”
“How compatible are we on the couch?” He smiled and kissed her, and she leaned against him, her now-bare chest pressed firmly against his.
“I hope we pass,” she whispered in his ear.
“I believe in second chances.” He held her face in his hands and she stared at him, feeling the deep affection pouring from him to her. Her heart skipped a beat.
