He’d been partly serious, though. Slowing down his hectic lifeand enjoying the calm of Weldon had unknotted some of his tension. He’d been running too fast to take in the blurry images of his life. Everything was quieter, slower here.
Then there was Tara. Being with her made everything around him too clear, too bright. It was bringing into focus his deliberately hazy life. He was having trouble ignoring his increasing need to reassess his life. His mind was clamoring to conjure up what-ifs that would include Tara. But he wasn’t going there. The shortcut to heartbreak lay that way.
Wiping her eyes, Aria continued to arrange the ingredients on the kitchen island, while sticking others in the fridge. “So how’s Tara doing?”
“She misses Aubrey.” He cleared his throat. He didn’t know if he could sound casual talking about Tara. He wanted to shout to the world how amazing she was. “But otherwise, it’s business as usual. She mentioned something about getting started on a new seasonal brew.”
“So you guys keep in touch?” Lucien asked, handing Seth a glass of red he’d just poured.
Seth cleared his throat again. When that didn’t work, he took a sip of his wine. “Well, she is the only person I know in Weldon. Besides, she’s been helping me with the restaurant’s website. Did you know she has a BA in graphic design?”
Now he was just blabbering.Shit.If Tara saw him bumbling around like this, she’d probably kill him. She was absolutely adamant about keeping their dating a secret.
“Really? So she didn’t always want to be a brewer?” Aria said, cocking her head to one side. “She seems like she was born for the job.”
Seth was this close to blurting that she’d originally started out as a viticulture and enology major, but that had been a private storythat Tara had shared with him. And it didn’t seem like a lot people knew about her asshole ex.
He was acting like a nervous wreck just talking about her. How was he going to be when she showed up? Could he make it any less obvious that he was interested in Tara? But the truth was, he was more than interested. He was downright infatuated with her.
That was not good. Not good at all.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Thank you so much, oppa.” Tara kissed Jack on the cheek for covering for her. Sometimes the perks of being the baby sister came in handy.
She couldn’t wait to hang out with Aria and Lucien, but she was dying to see Seth. She felt a bit shy about spending time with him after that night in Mammoth, but then again, maybe that was why her heart was racing to see him again.Good gracious, that was hot.
Her mind flooded with heated thoughts as she slid into her car and pulled out of the parking lot. Her phone dinged with a text from Roger, and she impatiently deleted it. There was only one man she hungered for right now.
Tara got to Aubrey and Landon’s house in record time and sprinted up the porch steps, unable to tame her desperation to be with Seth. Before she could knock, the front door swung open, and she was wrapped in a pair of strong arms.
“You’ve stayed away too long,” Seth growled before his lips crushed against hers.
Tara welcomed his hard, hungry kiss, because she was starving, too. She pushed him back against the door and proceeded to showhim how much she’d missed him. He moaned against her sensual onslaught, and she growled like a wild thing, rejoicing in her conquest. She actually wanted to laugh triumphantly when she felt the evidence of his desire pushing persistently into her stomach. The validation that he wanted her as much as she wanted him was heady, and she didn’t want the kiss to end.
“Tara, wait.” Seth tried to avert her next kiss by turning his head but she grabbed his hair in her fists and turned him to face her again. “Baby, we really need to stop.”
“Not going to happen,” she said against his lips.
“If you kiss me one more time, I’m going to throw you over my shoulder, take you upstairs to my room, and make love to you until you can’t see straight,” Seth warned in a low, sexy voice. “Aria and Lucien might think it very strange that we’re not coming out of the room to join them for dinner.”
“Shit. I completely forgot that Aria and Lucien are here. I’m a horrible friend.”
“Not a horrible friend but maybe a horny one.”
“Shut up,” she said, punching him lightly on his shoulder. With her breathing slowing down to a semi-pant, she waved her hands in the general direction of his nether region. “Do you have all that under control?”
“Give me a minute.” He walked to one end of the porch and took deep breaths. They sounded unsteady at first, but slowly evened out. After a few more breaths, he returned to her side. “All right. Let’s see how long it takes for Aria to figure out what’s happening between us.”
“No, no. We can’t let her figure anything out. Quite honestly, even I don’t have us figured out. We need to be very careful. Don’t smile at me too much. Anddo notgive me that look.”
“What look?”
“That look you’re giving me right now. Like you want to throw me down on your bed and have your way with me.”
“I can’t help it because that’s exactly what I want to do.”
“Well, stop it for just a few hours. Okay?” Her whole body flushed with desire, but they had to hold it together. “You promised to keep our dating a secret.”
