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“Obviously we have more to talk about. But this isn’t the time. You should get back to Ruby,” he said as he gestured for her to go out ahead of him. “And I should return to my bar.”
Hope didn’t hesitate, she fled down the hall to Ruby’s room, where she quietly opened the door and found the six-year-old asleep on top of her covers, surrounded by books. Her face was serene in sleep, like a carefree doll.
With a sigh of relief, Hope sagged against the wall. Ruby hadn’t heard them.
Heard me,she amended.
But it still didn’t erase the fact that whatever was happening between her and Gabe had to end immediately. It might have felt right, like it was the most comfortable and natural thing in the world to be in his arms. But she couldn’t risk this kind of recklessness. It was completely inappropriate. A child’s trust was at stake. She couldn’t mess with that, not when she knew first-hand what it felt like to have adults in her life who had been careless with their child’s trust and faith in them.
If she was going to care for the man’s daughter, there was no way she could be in his arms at the same time. No matter how good and right it felt.
CHAPTERTEN
“Well, why the hell not?” Ivy demanded.
Hope was lying on an exercise mat panting after a particularly brutal set of crunches, while Ivy hovered nearby untangling resistance bands. They were in the section of Sean’s gym that Ivy had set up as her physical therapy clinic, and Hope had just finished announcing that there was no way there could ever be a repeat of what happened between her and Gabe last night.
She’d gotten back to her apartment at 2:30 that morning. Gabe had come home from the bar, looking exhausted and more than a little wary. He also looked more tempting than sin, but instead of jumping him like her body was begging her to do, she bolted like the coward she was.
She proceeded to toss and turn the rest of the night until she gave up on the prospect of sleep and got up early to follow Ivy into work. At the gym, she exercised herself into exhaustion by running on the treadmill until her legs gave out from under her.
Now, collapsed on the mat, drenched in sweat, and reliving every hot and humiliating moment of last night, Hope lifted her hands to cover her face, shame seeping back into her cheeks. Her body still tingled when she remembered what it felt like having his hands on her.
“Because,” she reiterated as if Ivy was slow on the uptake, “there was a little girl a bedroom down the hall.” She sat up abruptly, her eyes wide with panic. “What if she’d heard us? What if she’d come looking for us!?” Horrified all over again, she dropped her head to her knees and wrapped her arms around them, trying to escape into her self-made ball.
“Jesus Christ, Hope, will you get a fucking grip?”
Hope peeked out of her ball in time to see Ivy toss the knotted mass of rubber strip bands aside with a frustrated sigh.
“What do you think other couples who have kids do?” Ivy crossed her arms. “I mean, for chrissake, do you honestly think your parents never had sex again after they had kids in the house?”
From the safety of her human ball, she said, “Yes!”
Ivy let out an exasperated sigh. “And I thought I was the prude.”
“Who’s a prude?” Sean’s deep voice boomed from somewhere above Hope’s head.
“Hope is. She’s refusing to have sex with our hot landlord because he has a kid.”
Hope came out of her ball and gasped. “Ivy!”
Her so-called best friend shrugged. “It’s not like Sean isn’t going to hear about it from Gabe sooner or later. They gossip more than a bunch of teenagers at a slumber party.”
“Actually,” Sean said, leaning his towering, dark, and muscled frame against a pillar. “Getting Gabe to talk about anything remotely personal is like pulling teeth. With tweezers.”
Ivy blinked at Sean, then swiveled her head to Hope. “Oops.”
Hope groaned and flopped back down to her mat.
Sean’s face appeared above her, grinning. “You and Gabe are sleeping together?”
At the same time, Hope said, “No!” and Ivy said, “Pretty much.”
Hope covered her face with her hands and groaned again.
“She’s in denial,” Ivy said to Sean. “They kissed in his apartment while Ruby was sleeping, and now she has it in her head that it was some dirty, shameful thing that can never happen again.” Ivy gave Hope a meaningful once over when she dropped her hands from her face. “I’m trying to convince her otherwise.”
Sean nodded in sympathetic understanding, then offered his hand to Hope, which she took, and he hauled her up in one swift pull. When she tumbled forward, he caught her shoulders gently. With his imposing height, chiseled muscles, and immense strength, he should have come across as imposing, even dangerous, but Sean’s eyes gave him away every time. A few shades lighter than his coffee-colored skin they were always alight with kindness and genuine warmth.
