Page 61 of Summer on Sunshine Bay

“The odds of you getting pregnant by me are next to impossible.” He smiled. “I’ve had a vasectomy, and I haven’t been with anyone for more than three years.”

She caressed the side of his face. He hadn’t been with anyone since Grace, and some of her desire ebbed away at the reminder.

He turned his face and nipped her palm. “So, are we good?” he asked, then rested his forehead against hers. “Please say we’re good, baby.”

She nodded. “We’re good.” And they were very, very good. In fact, they were exceptional.

Afterward, she lay boneless beside James, resting her cheek on his chest, stroking his rock-solid abs with the tips of her fingers. Their bodies had changed—hers more than his—but making love with James had felt the same as it had that summer in London. They couldn’t get enough of each other, then or now. Their chemistry, their passion, was off the charts. She hadn’t had sex this incredible before or after him. Maybe it was because she’d never been in love with her romantic partners. James was the only man who’d gotten past the wall she’d built around her heart.

But she was older and wiser. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, let him sneak past her defenses again.

“What are we going to do now?” she asked, tipping back her head to look at him.

He smiled, trailing his fingers down her side. “As much as I want to make love to you again, and I really, really do, it might take a while. I’m not twenty-three.”

She snorted. “I wasn’t talking about sex.” It hadn’t been sex. It had been as close to an out-of-body experience as she’d ever had.

“Well, that’s a little disappointing. It mustn’t have been as mind blowing for you as it was for me because doing it again is all I can think about.”

“Trust me, that’s not something you have to worry about. You were always an incredible lover, and that hasn’t changed. If anything, you’ve improved with age.” She noted the tiny frown line at the corner of his brow and raised herself up to kiss it away. Something she’d said must’ve bothered him. Then again, maybe not, she thought when he took her face between his hands and brought her mouth to his, kissing her with an intensity that said he wanted nothing more than to prove her right. But as much as she wanted to make love with him again, she wasn’t sure if she should take the risk. Besides that, they had to talk about Lila and David.

Eva was breathless by the time she finally managed to drag her mouth from his. As important as talking about Lila was, she’d found herself unable to stop kissing him. It was as if her body had decided, now that it had gotten him back, it didn’t want to let him go. The thought was almost as terrifying as that of her daughter going through with a wedding to a man she didn’t love.

She leaned back, pushing her damp hair from her face. “We need to talk about Lila.”

“No, we don’t,” James said, drawing her against him. He kissed her neck just below her earlobe and then made his way slowly down to just above her collarbone.

She shivered. “Yes, we do.” She groaned when he nuzzled her neck. “James, you weren’t there. You didn’t hear her. We have to talk about our daughter.” She was desperate to make him stop and just as desperate not to.

He nipped her shoulder and then rolled onto his back, tucking his muscled arm behind his head. “Okay, talk.”

She stared at him, shocked. “Why did you say it like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you’re not as upset about this as I am.”

“You were and are an amazing mother, and I like to think I was and am a pretty great dad. We both love Lila, and we never gave her any reason to doubt our love. Did we screw up sometimes? Of course we did. It wasn’t easy for either of us not having her with us full-time. But life isn’t always easy or perfect. We did the best we could under the circumstances.”

“I don’t think Lila feels that way. And as much as I appreciate you not blaming me for this, I know it’s mostly my fault. I didn’t do a very good job hiding my feelings when Lila would leave for her summers with you.”

“Or when she decided to go to school in London and then work for me full-time? I think you accused me of stealing her from you,” he said with what sounded like amusement.

She leaned back to look at him. “Are you laughing at me?”

His mouth kicked up at the corner. “Maybe a little, but trust me, there were times when I wanted to throttle you.”

“Is that right?”

“Yeah, it is.”

“So I guess you missed the part about Lila trying to protect your feelings too. She felt torn between the two of us, James. You played a role in this too.”

He sighed. “There’s nothing we can do to change things, Eva. We can talk to Lila about it, apologize, but we can’t change how she feels. All we can do is tell her how much we love her and assure her that we’ll support her no matter what decision she makes.”

“James! We can’t let her marry David now. She doesn’t love him!”

He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Did she say she didn’t love him?”

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