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“Condom,” she whispered.
He had about four seconds to produce it. An accidental pregnancy would tie her to this man for life, and, besides, she didn’t want children. Well, she didn’t want to cause herself heartache, which was practically the same thing.
“Right here. I was warned I’d need it.”
Fabric bunched around her waist an instant later, and her panties hit the ground. He lifted her effortlessly, squashing her against the door and spreading her legs, wrapping them around him.
The second he entered her—buried so deep, every pulse of his hard length nudging her womb—she threw her head back and rode the wave to a mind-draining climax.
Yes. Brainless and blistering. Perfect.
When she came down and met the glowing eyes of her husband, a charged, momentous crackle passed between them.
She’d keep right on pretending she hadn’t noticed.
* * *
Warm sunlight poured through the window of Lucas’s office. He swiveled his chair away from it and forced his attention back to the sales contract on his laptop screen. Property—dirt, buildings, concrete or any combination—lived in his DNA and he’d dedicated his entire adulthood to it. It shouldn’t be so difficult to concentrate on his lifeblood.
It was.
His imagination seemed bent on inventing ways to get out of the office and go home. In the past few weeks, he’d met a sprinkler repairman, an attic radiant barrier consultant and a decorator. A decorator. Flimsy, he had to admit.
A couple of times after showings, he’d swung by the house, which was mostly on the way back to the office. Through absolutely no fault of his own, Cia had been home all those times, as well, and it would have been a crime against nature not to take advantage of the totally coincidental timing.
Ironic how a marriage created to rescue his business was the very thing stealing his attention from business.
Moore had signed. Walsh had signed. Both men were enthusiastic about the purchases they’d committed to, and Lucas intended to ensure they stayed that way. Cia’s interactions with them had been the clincher; he was convinced.
His dad had gone out of his way to tell Lucas how good this marriage was for him, how happy he seemed. And why wouldn’t he be? Cia was amazing, and he got to wake up with her long hair tangled in his fingers every morning.
The past few weeks had been the best of his life. The next few could be even better as long as he kept ignoring how Cia had bled into his everyday existence. Every time they made love, the hooks dug in a little deeper. Her shadows rarely appeared now, and he enjoyed keeping them away for her. He liked that she needed him.
If he ignored it all, it wasn’t really happening.
Matthew knocked on the open door, his frame taut and face blank. “Dad called. Grandpa’s in the hospital,” he said. “Heart attack. It’s not good. Dad wants us to come and sit with Mama.”
Heart attack? Not Grandpa. That heavy weight settled back into place on his chest, a weight that hadn’t been there since the night he met Cia.
Lucas rose on unsteady legs. “What? No way. Grandpa’s healthier than you and me put together. He beat me at golf a month ago.”
Protesting. Like it would change facts. His grandfather was a vibrant man. Seventy-five years old, sure, but he kept his finger on the pulse of Texas real estate and still acted as a full partner in the firm.
When Lucas had graduated from college, Grandpa had handed him an envelope with the papers granting Lucas a quarter ownership in Wheeler Family Partners. A careworn copy lined the inner pocket of his workbag and always would.
“I’ll drive.” Matthew turned and stalked away without waiting for Lucas.
Lucas threw his laptop in his bag and shouldered it, then texted Helena to reschedule his appointments for the day as he walked out. Once seated in Matthew’s SUV, he texted Cia. His wife would be expected at the hospital.
The Cityplace building loomed on the right as Matthew drove north out of downtown. They didn’t talk. They never talked anymore except about work or baseball. But nothing of substance, by Matthew’s choice.
They’d been indivisible before Amber. She’d come along, and Matthew had happily become half of a couple. Lucas observed from a distance with respect and maybe a small amount of envy. Of course his relationship with Matthew had shifted, as it should, but then Amber died and his brother disappeared entirely.
Lucas sat with his family in the waiting room, tapped out a few emails on his phone and exchanged strained small talk with Mama. His dad paced and barked at hospital personnel until a dour doctor appeared with the bad news.
Lucas watched his dad embrace Mama, and she sobbed on his shirt. In that moment, they were not his parents, but two people who turned to each other, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.
