Breaking Good by Madeline Ash

Author:Madeline Ash
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tule Publishing
Published: 2017-04-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

It had been no more than ten minutes since Zach’s sullen, scowling arrival. Parker had casually declined the invitation to come inside, smart man, leaving the three of them to sit on deck chairs in the empty living space and pretend the only reason they weren’t having an engaging conversation was because they were all too busy drinking their glasses of water.

Although Zach had clearly been awed by the house and the view, he hadn’t commented. Although he’d succumbed to Hack’s enthusiastic greeting, laughing when he copped a long lick up his nose, he hadn’t asked about the dog. To do so would have gone against his resolution to ignore Ethan completely. Now, water glass empty, Zach angled his chair to face Stevie, and he starting talking with an obvious intent to exclude the man he now knew was his father.

Wary, Stevie eyed Ethan. He looked bad, sitting stiffly with darkness circling his eyes. He held his water like a lifeline, the base of the glass pressing down into his thigh. He glanced at Zach’s back every so often, but mostly, he stared at the floor.

A strange sensation knotted inside her. It wasn’t pity. It wasn’t guilt. But with the undertones of regret, it came with the same ache.

Admiration.

This man was trying.

God, he was trying so hard. He hadn’t been prepared for a son. He hadn’t had months to get his head around the notion—only hours to process it before Zach had presented himself at the bar last night. And still, blindsided and floundering, Ethan wanted to see Zach. He wanted to talk to him to figure out what this could mean for their future.

Ethan wanted her, too. Stevie’s gaze fell to his body, the wide spread of his knees, the curl of his fingers, and desire clasped tightly between her thighs at how he’d touched her. At first, a withdrawn kiss to respect caution, not giving himself over, and now she knew why. When he kissed properly, it wasn’t really a kiss.

It was the beginning.

Heady, passionate, unapologetic—his touches had been like match strokes, the first flares of lust to get the real fire burning. As he’d skimmed her spine and shoved his hands up her legs, thumbs pressing a groove along her inner thigh, Stevie had wanted to catch flame around him. She’d been desperate to feel the weight of him, the passion, the moment of intimacy so rare. She hadn’t had the energy or inclination to want that in a long time. Then he’d set her on the workbench, his hands had found her buttons, and she’d known if she didn’t stop him, he’d take her right there, and it would only take several hard strokes to have her clinging to him as she came.

Bad way to keep things uncomplicated.

So she’d stopped him, denying their attraction.

And now Zach was denying him, too.

Ethan was being blocked at every turn, and still he sat silently, patiently, waiting to be let in, if he ever would. He wasn’t pushing himself on them, decreeing that as Zach’s father, he would be a part of his son’s life.

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