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Devon smiled. “And it’s my pleasure to be that someone.”
It was a fun meal. Brent, Devon soon discovered, was possessed of a droll sense of humor. He told stories about life in Kentucky that made her wish she were there.
“Is the grass really blue?”
He chuckled. “It’s definitely lush and definitely green, but it’s not even native to America. It grows all over Europe and North Africa.”
She sighed dramatically. “Another myth destroyed.”
Taking a different route back to the hotel after dinner, they came upon a toy shop that featured old-fashioned porcelain dolls. The girls were fascinated by their painted faces and period costumes. They begged their father to bring them back the following day.
“Tomorrow’s Saturday,” he pointed out. “They probably won’t be open.”
Devon could tell he was teasing, but the twins apparently didn’t realize it. Rhea screwed up her mouth with annoyance and Katie stared stoically, her eyes teary.
“I believe they’re open until noon,” Devon informed them.
“Please, can we come back?” Rhea begged. “Please?”
He turned to Devon. “If you’ll join us.”
She hadn’t anticipated that. Or had she subconsciously been angling all along for another excuse to see him?
“If you really want me to.”
“We really want you to,” Brent said quietly. His lips said “we,” but his eyes said “I.” Awareness set off little flutters in her belly.
At the hotel, he invited her up to their suite. Since the inn was nearly empty he’d been able to book their best and biggest accommodations.
She hesitated.
“Will you help tuck us into bed?” Rhea asked eagerly.
It was an unusual request, one she’d not received before, and the intimacy it implied made her slightly uncomfortable. She glanced at Brent. All evening long they had been catching each other’s eye, then looking away. Heather had been right, Devon realized. He was interested.
Were it not for her concern about Charles, she would have accepted the invitation with alacrity. She enjoyed this man’s—and his daughters’—company and would very much like to share more of it.
But Charles—
If she was surrounded by spies for the duke, as she suspected, he would know she’d been in Brent’s company. Not going up to his room wouldn’t make any difference, regardless of his young daughters being with them. Charles had made it clear he didn’t want any other man to enjoy her companionship in public or in private.
Then she took another look at Brent and couldn’t imagine him being intimidated by anyone, even a man like Charles. Besides, in a few days Brent Preston would be on his way back to the United States. Charles wasn’t likely to pick a fight with him across the Atlantic.
“Just for a few minutes,” she said to the girls, then added to Brent, “if that’s all right with you.”
All right? Brent felt his blood racing, long-dormant sensations tingling. Thoughts and desires he’d managed to bury since Marti died were resurfacing with brutal vengeance.
He and Devon had spent the evening like two old friends, exchanging ideas, asking each other questions, sharing laughter. Twice he’d spontaneously reached for her hand, found it and squeezed. Twice she’d willingly returned the casual caresses. More than like friends.
Guilt rampaged through him. If Marti were here, he would never…
But she wasn’t, and the renewed realization that she was gone forever produced an ache so acute it could have brought him to tears. Then he raised his head—till then unaware he’d been staring at the ground—and saw Devon, and a different kind of ache possessed him. For a fate-changing instant he prayed that Marti would understand, and if he was making a mistake, forgive him.
There was such warmth in Devon’s smile that he had to believe that Marti would approve.
They took the stairs up one flight to what the British and Europeans insisted on calling the first floor, as if the ground floor didn’t count. The suite comprised two modest bedrooms, a private bath and a sitting room with a small marble fireplace.
“Change into your jammies,” Brent told the girls, “and brush your teeth, then I’ll come and tuck you in.”
“We want Devon to tuck us in, too,” Rhea reminded him.
“She will. Now, go get ready for bed.”
The twins danced into their bedroom. After a few seconds he and Devon could hear water running in the bathroom.
“I like them, Brent. Very much. They’re wonderful children.”
“I guess I’ll keep them then,” he replied, more aware of her and the effect she was having on him than the lighthearted words tumbling out. “You’ve made quite a hit with them, too.”
“We’re ready,” Rhea called out a minute later.
“Come on,” Brent said, and put his hand on the small of Devon’s back as he guided her toward the girls’ bedroom.
Brent hugged the twins, gave them each a kiss. Devon could remember her father sending her to bed, but she couldn’t recall him ever kissing her good-night, much less tucking her in. How lucky these girls were to have a father who loved them. She expected to simply say good-night and leave, but they insisted on giving her a hug and kiss, as well.
“Pleasant dreams,” she said in a voice choked to a whisper as she watched them snuggle contentedly under the covers.
What a wonderful experience it was to hold the children in her arms and kiss them good-night. She had no siblings other than Nolan, who was so much older that he hardly counted. She had a few cousins, but they, too, were his age, so she had been brought up virtually as an only child and never experienced the kind of intimacies this family, incomplete as it was, engaged in as a matter of routine. She envied them.
Family dynamics in her life had been keeping track of how much her father was drinking, and if necessary, avoiding him. Her mother, who had been over forty when Devon was born—an unplanned, if not unwanted child—had been frail for as long as Devon could remember, owing to a wonky ticker, as her father had invariably phrased it. At one stage Devon had wondered if Sarah Hunter wasn’t faking feebleness to gain attention, but entertaining such a doubt had only made her feel guilty.
The warmth of this encounter with the Prestons, father and daughters, filled her with a longing she’d never felt before. If this was what it was like to have a normal family, she decided, she wanted it. She’d thought of family before, many times, but somehow the image had never included moments like this.
Brent stood behind her in the doorway to say their final good-night, his body’s warmth enveloping her, as his arm reached around her and pulled the door closed.
“They’ll be sound asleep in no time,” he assured her with a smile, and the love she saw in his eyes made her all but cry out with the pain of her own loneliness. “They run at top speed all day, then it’s like turning off a light switch, and they sleep the sleep of the dead.”
She didn’t like the metaphor, but she smiled nonetheless and shivered a little.
“You’re cold.” As if it were the most natural thing in the world, he wrapped an arm across her shoulders.
The tremor that flowed through her now had nothing to do with the room’s chill but everything to do with the heat his touch generated. His body was solid, his contact firm and reassuring, and she wanted to burrow into it.
She tried to tell herself she was reacting like an adolescent. In truth, his embrace reinforced her awareness of the two years she’d spent alone, untouched, a woman apart.
“Let me light the fire,” he said, “then I’ll pour us a glass of something.”
She wanted to cry out “no,” when he released her. Instead she stood where she was and watched him bend down and reach for the propane starter to ignite the gas log.
He stood up, smiling at her, then walked over to the drinks table in the corner. “Let’s see. Scotch, of course. Brandy. Cream sherry. There’s red wine. What can I get you?”
Another hug, please, she wanted to say. “Sherry, I think.”
“Sherry, it is. I’ll have Scotch. I’m a Bourbon man at home.”
“Kentucky is famous for its Bourbon whisky, isn’t it?”
“We make the best. I’ve heard Tennessee produces some passable stuff, too, but I’m partial to the home spirits.”
“Naturally.”
He caught the humor in her voice, looked over and grinned.
“I have to thank you for a wonderful day,” he said, pouring a couple of ounces of sherry into a wineglass.
“Your girls are enchanting.” What she really felt like saying was that she didn’t want the day to end. “You must be very proud of them.”
“I am.” He decanted even less whisky into a short tumbler for himself. “You have to understand, though, they’ve been on their best behavior the last couple of days, for which I’m enormously grateful. But they can also be holy terrors, I assure you.”
She smiled as he handed her the sweet wine.
“Thanks for inspiring them,” he said.
“It’s I who should be thanking you for today,” she replied, standing in front of the fire. “You’ve given me a special gift, sharing your family and allowing me to see the world ’round me with fresh eyes. I shan’t forget that.”
He loved listening to her speak, the crisp accent that was so clear and precise, the unaccustomed words. Meeting her eyes, he held up his glass. “To special gifts.”
She raised hers, never breaking eye contact. The intimacy of the moment lingered even after they’d sipped their drinks.
Taking her hand, he led her over to the love seat in front of the fireplace. Yellow and blue flames licked around the simulated logs. The fire wasn’t giving off much heat yet, but that wasn’t important. There was already enough between them.
“You must be tired,” she said softly. “This has been a long day for you, too.”
“All I feel right now is contentment. It’s been a wonderful two days,” he murmured. “I met you.”
She looked up at him then, her eyes searching his. He brought his lips down to hers, and suddenly the heat of the fireplace was nothing compared to the heat between them.
It was all happening so fast, she thought, yet not quickly enough. She closed her eyes, let her senses float. A furor of needs and desires raged inside her. Was it this man who was setting her free? Or would any man touching her have provoked the same response?
She sensed, too, the desperation in the kiss. Were they no more than two lonely people starved for contact?
They broke off. He didn’t look at her but bowed his head. Had she disappointed him? Did he feel regret?
Another long moment elapsed before she was aware of a sound coming from the other room, a muffled sob.
Six
He was on his feet so quickly she almost fell into the void he left. She regained her balance and stood up as he darted to his daughters’ bedroom and shot inside. Devon went as far as the door but didn’t enter.
Rhea was sleeping soundly, her face turned away from the light coming in through the open doorway. It was Katie who was crying.
Brent sat at her side and ran his hand gently along her hair and down her neck.
“What’s the matter, pumpkin? Having a bad dream?”
“I miss Mommy.”
He gathered her in his arms. “I know, honey. I do, too. But you know she’s here with you. You just can’t see her.”
Katie cried harder against his chest. “Daddy…”
“What is it, baby?”
“Are you going to take us back to that school and leave us there?”
“What?” He held her gently away so he could look into her tear-drenched eyes. “What are you talking about, honey?”
“The other kids…they told us their parents brought them there and left them. They don’t see them anymore, except on visitors’ day. They don’t go home anymore, except maybe on holidays. Are you going to leave us there, too?”
He thought he’d known pain before, but nothing compared with the agony he felt at that moment. For his girls to think he would abandon them…
He hugged her so tightly he was afraid he was going to hurt her.
“I would never do that, sweetheart. I love you so much, I could never leave you with other people. We’re only visiting here. When our vacation is over we’re going home again. All of us. Together.”
She sobbed. “I was afraid you didn’t want us with you anymore.”
“Shh,” he soothed. “That’s not true, honey. It’ll never be true.”
He rocked her in his arms and felt his own tears roll down his face.
“We’re going to have a good time while we’re here,” he said, “then we’re going home. Okay?”
She nodded and hiccupped and clung to him all the tighter.
“I promise.” He brushed away her tears with the pad of his thumb and kissed her cheek softly.
He urged her to lie down again, pulled up her covers and sat on the edge of the bed until she had fallen asleep. Only then did he tiptoe from the room.
Devon watched him pick up his whisky glass with a shaky hand and swallow its meager contents. She waited for him to go to the drinks table and refill it. Wasn’t that what men did when things went wrong or they didn’t get their way? Take another drink? To her amazement and relief, he didn’t.
“What’s going on, Brent?” she asked in a quiet but determined tone.
He spun around, as if he had forgotten she was there. “I should have realized something was bothering her,” he said morosely. “Rhea is the chatterbox, but Katie isn’t usually as withdrawn as she was this evening.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
He finally looked at her. “What do you mean?”
