Page 162 of Into These Eyes
Letting my gaze drift lower, I study his broad shoulders and the muscles defined by the t-shirt twisted tight across his back.
I want to roll against him, wake him up, feel his weight on me and make lazy love with him. Unfortunately, it’s not to be. Not yet. Because Anika doesn’t want to hear hermotherthat way.
Grinning, I slip out from under his arm, grab my robe and head to the kitchen, shocked to find Anika already up and sipping from a mug at the breakfast bar.
“Hey,” I mumble as I make a beeline for the coffee machine. After I get it going, I turn back to my sister. “I can’t believe they assigned you to Gosford. That’s two hours away. I’m hardly ever going to see you.”
Anika waves a dismissive hand at me. “I have a feeling you can keep yourself occupied. Soooo … how was it?”
I grab my coffee and take a sip. “How was what?”
She rolls her eyes as if I’m the stupidest person in the world. “Sleeping with him, of course.”
“Oh. It was nice.”
“Nice?”she barks. “Well, fuck. That’s a letdown.”
I frown. “Why would sleeping beside Gavin be a letdown?”
“Besidehim?”
“What are you on about? You’re the one who sent him in to hold me. And thank you for that, by the way. It was exactly what I needed.”
She comes around the breakfast bar and stands right in front of me, her face a mask of confusion. “Are you saying you didn’t fuck?”
I flinch at how crude that sounds coming from her mouth. When Gavin says it, somehow it has me melting. Then the implication of what she’s saying hits me. “We promised we wouldn’t.”
“Yeah, and last night, when I told him you needed him, I said he could forget about the no-sex rule.”
I blink at her, astonished. Gavin could have had sex with me last night, but chose not to. He’d done something else instead. Something more profound. He’d shown me love and support when I was in a vulnerable place. And even though his body clearly wanted to, he hadn’t taken advantage of my emotional state. He’d soothed it.
Can he get any more perfect?
Anika studies me a moment before rolling her eyes. Again. “So, you’re telling me, I put headphones on and blasted my ears for hours for no reason?”
“He just held me, and we went to sleep.”
“Wow,” she says, shaking her head, a surprisingly wistful look on her face. “Well, he’s either not that into you … or he loves the fuck out of you. No telling which one it is, of course.”
I smile at her. And she grins back, her eyes shining. Taking the mug, she places it on the counter, then hugs me.
“I’m so happy for you,” she says. “He really is a pretty great guy.”
“Yeah,” I murmur. “He really is.”
Chapter 41
Gavin
After the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had, I wake up thoroughly refreshed. A little disappointed that Jamie isn’t beside me, I roll onto my back and stare at the ceiling. I could’ve made love to her last night, but there are more important things to a relationship than sex. What she needed was comfort, so that’s what I gave her. And I don’t regret it for a second.
When the sound of the sisters’ chatter reaches my ears, my mouth curves into a smile. Yesterday when I woke, I was a family of one. Me. Alone. For sixteen years. Now I have a new addition.
With a sense of hope, my mood light, I decide I’ll go with the girls—mygirls—today. I’ll keep my distance, observe, and make a decision about my father when I feel ready.
Before I know it, Jamie’s driving and Anika’s in the back seat, straining against her seatbelt the whole way as we head to the park where my sister will meet her father for the first time.
Surprising myself, and hoping it’ll give Anika a more rounded picture of the man, I recount some amusing stories from my childhood that include my father. When the memories remind me of the pretty great dad he’d been until that fateful night, I hide the hurt they stir up.
