“It’s okay to love him,” she murmured, damn near reading his mind. Her voice vibrated through him, and he shivered in her embrace. “A part of me still does. For the memory of the man I initially fell in love with, for the father of my son. With time and distance, and loving Aiden, who is a part of Gage, I can’t hate him. He was a man with faults, with issues and weaknesses. But he was also everything you remember him to be. A great, loyal friend. A loving son. A brother who would literally lay down his life for you. You can love those parts of him and dislike the parts that made him a horrible husband. There’s no guilt or betrayal in that, Darius.”
He pushed off the desk, spun around and grabbed her close, closing his arms around her. Crushing her to him. As if she were his lifeline. His absolution.
She clung to him just as tightly.
“I have a confession,” she whispered against his chest.
“Yes?” he asked, the word scratching his raw throat.
“I never betrayed Gage, but...” She hesitated, tilted her head back. He lifted his gaze, meeting hers. She studied him for several long moments before dipping her head in a slight nod. “I noticed you, admired you. Somehow I instinctively knew you would never mistreat a woman. You were too honorable. And you’ve always been beautiful to me.”
The soft admission reverberated in the room like a shout. He stared into her eyes—eyes that had captured his imagination and attention from the first glance.
“Sweetheart,” he growled. It was all he got out before he cupped her face and crashed his mouth to hers. He couldn’t stop, couldn’t rein himself in if he’d wanted to.
And he didn’t want to.
The avalanche of emotion that had eddied inside him burst free in a storm of passion and need so sharp, so hungry that fighting it would’ve been futile.
Her fingers curled around his wrists, holding on to him. Maybe designating him as her anchor as she, too, dove into the tempest. She leaned her head back, angled it and opened wider for him. Granting him permission to conquer, to claim more. More. Always more with her.
He dragged his mouth from hers, and turning with Isobel clasped to him, swiped an arm across the surface of his desk, sending books, folders, the cell and his home phone tumbling to the floor. After grabbing her by the waist, he hiked her onto the desk, follow ing her down. Covering her. Impatient, with a desperation he didn’t want to acknowledge racing through him, he jerked her pants and underwear down her legs, baring her. Her trembling fingers already attacked his pants, undoing them while he removed his wallet and jerked a condom free. Within seconds, he sheathed himself and thrust inside her. His groan and her cry mingled, entwined together as tightly as their bodies.
And as they lost themselves in each other, as he buried himself in her over and over, he forgot about everything but the pleasure of this woman.
Of Isobel.
And for those moments, it was enough.
Thirteen
Isobel leaned closer to the vanity mirror, applying mascara to her lashes. When the doorbell rang, echoing through the house, she almost stabbed herself in the eye.
“Damn,” she whispered, replacing the makeup wand.
It was Thanksgiving Day. Who could that possibly be?
She glanced at the clock on her dresser. One o’clock. A loud holiday meal with her mother, brothers and plethora of aunts, uncles and cousins was set for three o’clock at her mom’s house. They were supposed to leave as soon as Darius returned from the store after a last-minute errand. For someone to show up uninvited on their doorstep on a holiday, it must be important.
Quickly rushing down the hall to Aiden’s room, she leaned inside the doorway. “Ms. Jacobs, I’m going to get the door. But we should be ready to go in just a few.”
The older woman smiled from where she played blocks with Aiden. “We’re fine until then, Ms. Hughes.”
“Isobel,” she corrected, but the nanny just smiled and returned her attention to Aiden. Shaking her head and chuckling, she descended the steps. She’d been waging the war of getting Ms. Jacobs to call her Isobel, but to no avail. In the short time she’d known the woman, they had grown fond of each other. So much so, Ms. Jacobs was spending Thanksgiving with them since she didn’t have children of her own.
It’d been Darius who had thought of that kindness.
Darius.
A spiral of warmth swirled through Isobel’s chest, landing in her belly.
Ever since that evening a week ago, when he’d come home to find her with Ken and heard her full admission about Gage, a...connection had forged between them. One that, while tenuous, had her heart trembling with a cautious hope that what had started out as a marriage bargain between them might evolve into a real relationship. A relationship based on respect, admiration...trust.
Love.
The nervous snarls in her stomach loosened, bursting into flutters.
There’d been a time—not too long ago—when she wouldn’t have believed herself capable of falling for another person. She hadn’t thought she could ever take the risk of trusting someone with not just her heart, but with Aiden’s.
