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My mother would like her.
I shouldn’t be having thoughts like that. Thoughts like those were dangerous. And I was the one who was going to get hurt.
“Yes,” I said. “That’s all she ever seems to talk about. I know Vanessa keeps talking about having some, but there’s never been a convenient time for them to start.”
“Oh, no.” Lyndsey rolled her eyes. “My cousins are too career-oriented to really be invested in parenting. I wouldn’t put it past them to ship the kid off to boarding school, even if your mother was willing to watch them.”
I laughed. “You joke, but she has mentioned that a few times.”
“No.” Her eyes widened.
“I kid you not.”
“You can’t let her.”
I shrugged. “You were the one who said I have no control over what she does.”
A smirk spread across her lips.
She was so close. Just a matter of inches away. I could lean in and kiss her. But she had already made it quite clear that was the last thing she wanted to happen. I wasn’t about to force a woman to kiss me. Though I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to give up on Lyndsey Saunders either.
“What about you?” I asked.
“What, children?” Her nose curled up. One would have thought I’d asked her which torture device she preferred instead. “I’ve never really thought about it much.”
“You’ve never thought about a family of your own?” Now, wasn’t that a new one? Here, I thought most women thought about starting their own family, at least at some point in their lives.
“No, I…” She paused and rested her head back against the booth. “I never had what you’d call a loving relationship with my parents. They were always working, and I kinda thought that’s what marriage and family was all about for the longest time. I didn’t want that. I wanted what my grandparents had.”
“These are Kyle’s grandparents?” I stared down at her, the top of her head just below my chin.
She looked up at me. A dreamy-like haze filled her gaze. “Yeah. They were the best. Now, that was a love for the ages. I thought that kind of love only happened once you were older. You know, you travel the world, find yourself, then settle down once there’s nothing left to do.”
“But when you got older, you didn’t still think that.”
“No.” Lyndsey smiled up at me, a bitter sort of sweetness coating her features. “Instead, I realized how rare a love like that really was.”
“You don’t mean that,” I said, a finger stretching out to stroke her cheek.
She shuddered beneath my touch. Her lips parted against a soft gasp, and I struggled to remember what kept me from kissing her all this time.
“Not everyone is meant to live a great love story,” she said.
“I think those people are just too afraid to search for it.”
Her eyes examined mine, looking for any semblance of something she didn’t like among them. I’d seen it all too often before. Someone too afraid to let go of the past. A woman burned too many times by the wrong man, so she assumed every one of us was the same. But, there was no deception in the way I felt about Lyndsey, no ulterior motive. I wanted her—only her.
No one else would do anymore.
“And if we enjoy hiding away in our little caves, what then?” she asked, her eyes whispering a different sort of plea.
I tipped a finger under her chin, tilting her mouth closer to mine. “Then it simply takes someone determined enough to go in after them.”
I had every intention of kissing her. But, before I had the chance, she raised her face up to mine and beat me to it. Her plush lips met with mine, leading me in a dance we had denied ourselves for too long.
She tasted every bit as delicious as I could have imagined, like warm whiskey and sugar all wrapped in a tantalizing package. I leaned into her, slanting my lips over her mouth. Our tongues swept into an erotic whirlwind, each stroke sending a signal to my growing erection. A gentle moan spilled out from beneath her, and all restraints holding me back fell away.
I was ten seconds away from making love to her right here in the almost empty cafe. Who could blame me?
