This shouldn’t be happening. Wanting another man was a betrayal of what she’d had with Steven, wasn’t it? Guilt ratcheted up another notch or two inside her.
She sighed and remembered that the morning after the wedding, she had found Sean sleeping on the too-short-for-him couch in the living room, his long legs hanging over the edge. He hadn’t looked at all comfortable, but every night since, that’s where he had slept.
“I’m not even sure if he’s punishing me or himself,” she mumbled.
But either way, it was working.
“Not exactly the picture of a happy bride.”
She gasped as a deep, familiar voice spoke up from behind her. As if she’d conjured him with her thoughts, Melinda turned to look up at Sean. He was tanned and relaxed and all too gorgeous. He wore a King Construction T-shirt, faded blue jeans that clung to his long, muscular legs and a pair of scuffed-up work boots that somehow just added to his appeal. His hair was wind-tossed and lying across his forehead and when he tipped his sunglasses down to look at her, his eyes were warm, but shadowed with fatigue.
If something didn’t break in their relationship soon, they’d both be in comas.
“You look like you’re thinking deep thoughts.” Sean watched her, and she was glad he couldn’t read her thoughts as easily as he could her expression.
“Not deep, just…thoughts.”
“Uh-huh.” Sean looked up and down the narrow coast road. They were three miles outside the village and the only other cars around were the few parked alongside Melinda’s. When he turned his gaze back on her, he pointed out, “You were talking to yourself. Never a good sign.”
Great. Now she had to try to remember if she’d said anything completely embarrassing. But looking into his eyes was making her mind go blank. Probably not a good thing.
“It’s only bad if you answer your own questions—or is that laugh at your own jokes?” Oh God, she was babbling. But her stomach was spinning and her mouth was dry. Sean had hardly spoken to her in more than a week, so why was he here now? And why couldn’t she calm down? She couldn’t stay nervous with him for the next two months.
He took the cloth bag from her hand and peeked inside. “Fruit?” He looked at her and his mouth curved in that half smile of his. “They run out of food at the hotel?”
“No.” She made a grab for the bag, but he swung it out of her reach. “I just like having fresh fruit in the house and it’s silly to call room service if I want an orange.”
“Good point.” He took her arm and steered her toward the rental car he had been driving since he got to the island. “You know, my brother Rafe used to live in a hotel. For years. He dug the maid service and the twenty-four-seven room service. But he hasn’t missed it at all since marrying Katie. They live in her little cottage down by the beach.”
She was hurrying her steps to keep up with his much longer strides. “Sounds nice—Sean—”
“It is, but Rafe never can leave things alone. He’s adding on to the cottage. Building a second story, punching out a wall into the backyard to add a family room, too. Adding all kinds of stuff. Making Katie nuts, of course.”
“Sean—”
“That’s how they met, actually,” he said with a laugh, “we redid her kitchen, and Rafe just never left. Good thing, too. She makes incredible cookies. I’ll get her to send us some—”
Melinda didn’t know what he was doing or where they were going so she dug her heels in until he stopped to look at her. “I don’t need a ride home. My car’s parked over there.”
“Yeah, I know.” He shrugged. “Saw it and you when I was driving past. Just leave the car. We’ll get someone from the hotel to come pick it up.”
Nothing from him for days and now he was practically kidnapping her. She threw a look behind her at the people and caught them staring after her fondly. No doubt the local gossips would be cooing over this, seeing it all as very romantic when in fact, Melinda had no idea at all what was going on.
“What are you doing, Sean?” she asked, walking beside him again, trying not to think about the heat of his hand on her bare skin. “Where are we going?”
He drew her around to the far side of the red convertible, opened the passenger door, ushered her inside, then dropped the bag of produce onto the backseat. Leaning both hands on the top of the door, he looked down at her and said, “Thought we could go out to the hotel site. You can show me around.”
She frowned and saw her expression reflected back at her in his sunglasses. “You’ve seen it already, haven’t you?”
“Not up close and personal,” he told her, going around to the driver’s side and getting in.
Melinda took a long look at him and that twist of longing inside her tightened a little in spite of her best efforts. But she squashed it a moment later. She should just accept his change in attitude. Just go with the flow here and pretend the last week of awkward silences had never happened. But she couldn’t. She wanted to know why he was suddenly acting more like the Sean she had first met than the man he’d been since the wedding.
“Sean, what’s going on?”
“Nothing.” He shrugged and started the engine.
Before he could put the car in gear though, she reached out and laid one hand over his. He stilled, pulled his hand free and slowly turned his head to look at her. Dark glasses hid his eyes though, so she had no idea what he might be thinking. After a long minute, he said simply, “I just decided to get over it, okay?”
“Get over it?”
His mouth worked as if he were choosing his words carefully before letting them out. “Look, things got out of hand on our wedding night. We both said some things, and I figure we should let it go. Start over. Spend some time together. Get past this—whatever it is between us. Make the next two months easier on both of us.”
She blew out a breath and smiled. “I’d like that. Until just now, I was actually thinking that maybe you were going to call the whole thing off,” she confessed. “Back out of our deal completely.”
He took off his glasses and looked directly into her eyes so she couldn’t help but see the insult written in his gaze. “If you knew me better, you’d know I don’t quit. I don’t go back on my word once it’s given.”
“Okay,” she said and watched as his expression softened. He might be quick to a temper, but it faded just as fast, she thought, and chalked it up as one more thing she’d discovered about her temporary husband.