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More laughter was his only answer.
When they reached his bedroom and he'd shut the door on the rest of the world, Lysander shocked himself by saying, "My father paid for my schooling. He paid for our lifestyle, but the car she drove belonged to him. The house she raised me in was his. One of the first things I did when I reached my initial financial goal was to buy my mother a house and a car that were in her name."
"You wanted her to be independent."
"I wanted her to leave my father, but that didn't come until later." As had his mother's move into the house he'd bought for her.
"He must have loved her, in his way," Rowan said. "He stayed in a relationship with her for longer than a lot of marriages last."
"While remaining married to another woman."
"Yes, but I saw him after Iona broke up with him. I'm pretty sure it happened the night he announced his engagement to his current wife. He was all smiles at the engagement party, but the next morning he was haggard, like he'd aged ten years in a night."
Lysander had never thought his father would grieve the breakup. "It was probably something else."
"No, I don't think it was. He used to slip and call his new wife Iona. He did the same thing to my mother-in-law when she was alive. I don't know if he still does it as I haven't seen him with her in over a year."
Lysander shrugged. "I wouldn't know." He rarely saw his father and almost never in the company of his wife.
Still, something shifted in Lysander's chest at the knowledge that his mother breaking things off had affected his father so badly. Regardless, the man had been selfish and manipulative in his relationship with Lysander's mother and Lysander would never forget the pain she'd suffered because of it.
"Enough about my father," Lysander said. "It is you I'm focused on right now."
"Oh, yes?" Rowan walked across Lysander's sitting room and opened the doors leading to the balcony. She stopped only when she stood at the chest high wall surrounding the balcony and took in a deep breath. "I love the privacy here. We're outside but no one can see us."
"Only the birds," he agreed. It was one of the reasons the wall was so high, privacy and safety. "There are no good angles for the paparazzi no matter how good their camera's zoom lens."
"Not unless they can fly." She turned to face him, her hands on the hem of her top. "We can do anything we want and no one can see us," she repeated.
Then she pulled her top off over her head, leaving her in hip hugging jeans and a lacy bra that put her luscious curves on display.
All melancholy inevitably brought on by thoughts of his parents' relationship were swept away by the tsunami of lust that slammed through his body. He went painfully erect in a matter of seconds, which no matter what people wanted to believe was not the norm. Not even for a viral man in his prime like Lysander.
But she affected him as no other woman ever had.
Rowan's lips curved in a come-hither smile. "Like what you see?"
"I wouldn't mind seeing more," he said.
"Like this?" She reached behind herself and suddenly her bra was sliding down her arms and her generous breasts were spilling out.
Wanting to cup them in his hands he took an involuntary step forward. His mouth watered with the desire to suck on her nipples. The little noises of passion she made when he did were one of his new favorite things.
But he couldn't move any further than that half step. He was frozen into immobility by his reaction to her. He was so hard, it hurt to have himself confined in his slacks.
Rowan's beauty was Rubenesque, not conventional. Her tummy had a little curve he loved to caress, her thighs and butt were lush and he was addicted to every inch of her.
"It hardly seems fair for me to be the only one undressing," she teased pointedly.
He agreed, but his legs were still locked. Finally, Lysander managed to pull his polo style shirt over his head before tossing it to the floor.
The setting sun turned Rowan's body golden as she unzipped and wiggled out of her jeans, leaving her in only a pair of panties. Since she could have taken them off with the jeans, she'd left them on with a purpose.
To tease him.
And tease him, they did.
He wanted to see the copper curls nestled in the apex between her thighs. His mouth salivated with the desire to taste her there.
