“Okay. I’ll think about that. Sleep well.” He heard her roll over.
Okay, so much for that.
After a minute, her breathing became steady and even. He could see the outline of her body under his blanket, with one lovely leg on top of the covers. He forced himself to turn toward the wall—the only way he could stop himself from touching her.
The plan was in motion, and he had to stick to the script.
Except having Tessa in his bed was not part of the script.
Any playing in the sheets would lead to disaster. And he would never want to hurt her. He didn’t do serious, and she didn’t not do serious.
And in the meantime, he was going to need a few things.
A cold shower. A bigger house. And a less-sexy fake wife.
…
Leo awakened right before dawn, the sky just starting to lighten. As he came to consciousness, he was very aware of that same citrusy, floral scent he could only describe as…Tessa.
Make that Tessa’s hair. His nose was in it. He jerked back his head, only to find that things were far worse than he thought.
He was spooning his wife. Silky strands of hair tickled his cheek, his body curving gently around hers, his arm draped across her waist, her calf resting against his shin.
For a second, he froze. His body seemed to conform effortlessly to hers. Her breathing was calm and soothing, and her warmth and softness could make a man do out-of-control things.
He shook those thoughts away and extricated his foot. As he quietly slid it back, he noticed something else. The cat was asleep at their feet.
And Leo was still breathing.
A miracle of modern medicine, brought on by antihistamines and the desensitization shots he’d just begun at the allergist’s last week.
Painstakingly, inch by inch, he extracted himself from her warmth. Cosette, looking highly offended by his movement, jumped down and hit the wood floor with a soft thud.
Tessa didn’t move. Thank goodness. Because if she woke up, he’d never live this down.
He’d gotten himself away from her warmth, her scent, her lovely curves, just in time.
“I made coffee,” Juliet said as soon as his foot hit the bottom stair, pointing to the coffeemaker. She was wearing one of Tessa’s T-shirts, judging by the big Bonjour! across it, and a pair of running shorts. “Thanks for letting me stay last night. Tessa doesn’t think her old apartment is rented yet, so I’m going to go talk to her landlord right away.”
“No worries if you need to stay longer.” Please don’t stay longer, he thought. It was only spooning this time, but who knew what another night with Tessa in his bed would bring?
He’d just taken his antihistamine and was shuddering at that thought when the cat somehow managed to whiz by his feet and claim her freedom out the sliding door.
“Oh, sorry,” Juliet said. “I came in to get more coffee and I accidentally left the door open.” She followed Leo out into the backyard.
“Cosette! Come back here!” He had a busy day ahead, and he needed to find this cat now. Plus, he wasn’t going to be responsible for losing Tessa’s number one creature.
“You do know Cosette is a cat, not a dog, right?” Juliet asked from the edge of the patio, where she was sipping her coffee.
All he knew was that if this animal ran away, Tessa was going to kill him. “Cosy! Cosette! Cosetta! Come here, girl!” He bent over and patted his thighs. The cat looked at him from atop the gnome’s mushroom in the middle of the garden and gave him what he swore was an eff-u look before disappearing into the ground cover.
The desensitization therapy might be working, but he was a little nervous about touching the cat so soon. But what else could he do?
“Cosette is fine. But now that we’re out here, I have something to say.”
“Okaaay,” he said, wondering if Vivienne was this bossy, too. Because there was a giant hole in the fence he hadn’t gotten to fix yet, and if this cat bolted, Tessa would never forgive him.
And whatever Juliet was about to say was definitely going to affect whether or not he made those pancakes.
“Tessa’s always taken care of us,” Juliet said. “And she never asks us to take care of her. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have her back.”
He straightened out from the middle of the pachysandra, a prickle at his neck. “What are you saying?”
She shook her head solemnly. “Tessa’s had an awful year. I don’t really understand what’s going on here, but this little arrangement is tying her up and preventing her from meeting someone else. Someone decent who really cares about her. No offense, Leo—you make great pasta, but…my sister never would have married you so suddenly. Not for real.”
He narrowed his eyes. Was she really onto them? And should he take offense that Juliet had told him he wasn’t great marriage material?
“You have no idea what it’s like to be a woman in a small town, do you? She lost a fiancé. Which might actually be a good thing, but if you two part ways, she’s going to be marked forever.”
He knew Juliet had a flare for drama. But forever? That seemed a bit much, even for her. “What are you talking about?”
“The gossip. The whispering. It will make her put up even more of a wall so that if a man even tries to get close, she’ll shut him down. She’s really good at that.”
She was really good at that. But she seemed to have lost her edge with him, judging by those kisses last night.
Which were a huge mistake.
Tessa acted tough and strong on the outside, but she was like one of her own cream puffs on the inside—soft, melty.
Vulnerable.
“Tessa’s spent her whole life taking care of us. It’s time for her to finally do what she wants. I hope you appreciate that.”
“I do.” He was about a foot from the cat, who was now sitting on a rock in the middle of the pachysandra, licking her paw. One step forward and a quick swoop, and he’d have her.
“She deserves someone to respect her,” Juliet continued. “To treat her right. She’s capable of doing anything for people she loves.” She paused a long time, as if debating saying more. “Like throwing that scholarship.”
Leo’s swipe at getting the cat missed, and she scurried off to the far corner of the garden, next to the wire fence—and the hole he hadn’t yet fixed. He straightened up and narrowed his eyes at Juliet. “What scholarship?”
Juliet ignored his question. “I don’t really know what’s going on here, but I do know that you wouldn’t be asking that question if you really knew her.” Juliet walked past him and into the garden, where the cat was delicately sniffing some chives, and scooped her up with one hand. “Sorry, sweetie,” she said, setting her coffee cup down on the table and rubbing the cat’s head. As she moved to open the sliding door, Cosette almost wiggled out of her arms before Juliet could scoot her inside.