The Christmas Baby (15 page)

He wrapped her in his arms with her back to him. He felt warm, inviting. Interesting, she thought, smiling as he hardened against her. They’d already made love twice. Surely he couldn’t…

“I want you again,” he murmured in her ear, his voice deep and sexy. He pressed his lips against her neck, just below her ear. She started to turn around but he stopped her. “Like this.” He swept his hands beneath the soft cotton to caress her breasts, then pulled the shirt up and over her head so she was naked again. “You’ll like it, you’ll see.”

She suspected she would. She liked everything he had done to her. Everything she’d done to him. Moonlight spilled across the bed, dappling the shadows with slivers of light. She looked down and watched his clever hands toy with her breasts. Watched them slide lower and slip between her legs, touching her, arousing her. “You’re magic,” she told him. “Your hands, your mouth. Your body.”

She turned to look over her shoulder and he captured her mouth. Then he entered her, made long, slow, exquisitely gentle love to her until she came.

When their breathing slowed, she turned around and laid her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. “When you asked me earlier what changed my mind…”

“You said it didn’t matter why, only that you had.”

She raised her head to meet his gaze. “Brian…I’m in love with you. That’s why I changed my mind.”

He didn’t say anything. He kissed her, so tenderly she thought she’d cry. And he held her in his arms, all night long. And much later, in the early-morning hours of Christmas Day, he made love to her again. But he never spoke a word about loving her.

“L
OVE THE BLING
,” Gail said to Faith that afternoon at Cat and Mark’s house. “Christmas present?”

They were in the kitchen, ostensibly helping Cat with the cooking, but in reality she and Gail were chatting while Cat did most of the work. Roxy and Mel had taken charge of the babies when they arrived not long before and Brian had gone off with one of his brothers. Everyone else had spread out into the backyard since Mother Nature was mercifully kind this Christmas day. One of the advantages to south Texas, Faith had always thought, was the milder weather.

Bling? Faith looked at her blankly.

Gail laughed and touched the bracelet on Faith’s wrist, then pointed to the necklace. “Bling. Jewelry. Were these Christmas presents? I’ve never seen you wear them before.”

“Yes, the necklace was a Christmas present.” She looked at her bracelet and smiled. “This was a birthday present.”

“Do we get to guess who gave you the baubles?” Cat asked. “And come over here and let me take a closer look at them. I love jewelry.”

Faith laughed and flushed but before she could speak Gail answered for her. “Brian, naturally. Who else? Don’t be dense, Cat.”

“I’m not dense. I said they had something going.” She pointed her wooden spoon at her sister. “You were the one who said they didn’t.”

Faith walked over to the stove to show Cat the bracelet and necklace.

“Gorgeous,” Cat said after inspecting them carefully. “The man has good taste, but that’s no surprise. He’s a Kincaid, after all.”

“Pretty serious bling for a man to give a woman he’s not involved with,” Gail said. “Or did our little chat in the store change things?” She winked at Faith conspiratorially.

“I wasn’t lying about that,” Faith rushed to say. “We really weren’t involved. At least, we weren’t when he gave me the bli—jewelry.”

“Aha! But you are now,” Gail said and sat down at the table. “I knew it. Sit and tell us all about it. We want details. Juicy details.”

Faith laughed again but she took a seat. “You’re not getting them.”

“Spoilsport,” Cat said. “Not even a teeny-tiny detail?”

“We’re embarrassing her, Cat,” Gail said as Faith felt her face heat. “Don’t pay any attention to my sister or me. We’re just nosy.”

“We were only teasing. But can’t you just give us old married women something romantic to sigh about?”

“Well…okay.” Thinking about it, she sighed as well. “He gave me the bracelet for my birthday. When we were on a dinner cruise of the Laguna Madre.” She held her wrist out. “My birthstone is the blue topaz.”

“Brian took you on a dinner cruise for your birthday?” Cat said stopping her stirring to put a hand on her hip and glare at her sister. “Why am I just now hearing this?”

“Ava told me,” Gail said. “I guess she thought I’d tell you.” She looked at Faith and said, “We weren’t gossiping, Faith. Well, not much. But we care about you two and want to see you happy.”

“Of course we do, but we really, really want to know about the necklace,” Cat said. “So spill.”

They were his family. Of course they were going to talk. Faith didn’t mind, which was good since she expected they would talk regardless.

“Brian gave it to me last night.” She touched the charm at her throat and smiled dreamily. “He said he asked for a lily specifically, for my Lily. And he wanted it to match the bracelet he’d given me.”

“She’s a goner,” Gail said to her sister.

“Who could blame her? Talk about romantic.” She sighed and shook her head. “Wait until I tell Mark. He’s been convinced since Will’s birthday that Brian’s fallen for you.”

Faith wanted to think so. But she wasn’t sure. Brian had been nothing but sweet and loving to her last night and this morning. Christmas morning with him and the babies had been everything she’d dreamed it would be. Since they were up so early they’d taken Will and Lily to the sunrise service at church then come home to open the presents. The children had been precious playing with the toys; sharing that with Brian had made it even better. Then it was time to get ready for the day with Brian’s family.

Before they’d left for Christmas dinner Brian had pulled her into his arms for a long, slow kiss that she was certain would have ended in bed if not for the children and needing to be at his brother’s house shortly.

Yet…she couldn’t put her finger on it, but something was bothering him.

“I’m so happy for you, Faith,” Gail said. “And for Brian, too.”

“I am, too. But—” She hesitated. Gail and Cat were her friends, but they were family to Brian.

Gail patted her arm. “Is there something wrong? Do you want to talk about it?”

“I’m still worried,” she blurted out. “I’m not sure Brian feels the same way about me as I do about him.”

“Translation,” Cat said. “He hasn’t told you he loves you yet.”

“No. And I’m not sure he does.”

“He’s acting like he loves you,” Cat said. “Maybe he just isn’t quite ready to tell you.”

“Maybe.” Or maybe he didn’t and he was wondering what he’d gotten himself into by going to bed with her.

B
RIAN AND
J
AY
had sought refuge in the open-air aviary behind the house. At the moment there weren’t any birds occupying it, which suited Brian just fine. There were a bunch of people in other parts of the yard and house, but Brian and his brother had the aviary to themselves.

Jay sat on a bench, sipping a beer and watching him. “Are you going to tell me why you dragged me out here?”

Brian paced. He’d intended to spill his guts to his brother and see if he had any ideas about what he should do. But he wasn’t finding it easy to broach the subject.
Hey, I just screwed up big time. In fact, last night I made the biggest mistake of my life. Even worse I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

“They’re all in the kitchen,” he began. “Faith, Gail and Cat. Ava’s probably in there, too. Talking.” Brooding, he took a sip of beer. “Do you know a recent study suggests women talk at least three times as much as men?”

“No, but that doesn’t surprise me. I
am
married to a woman.”

“There are physiological reasons for it.”

“And women talking is a bad thing?”

“It could be.” Very bad. Shit, for all he knew they were discussing weddings. “Depending on what they’re talking about it could be…disastrous.”

“I’m not a mind reader. Do you want to clue me in to what this is about?”

Brian shoved a hand through his hair. “I slept with Faith last night.”

“And?” Jay said when Brian didn’t continue. “Is there a problem with that?”

“Of course there’s a problem.” He gestured with his bottle. “I shouldn’t have done it. It was a huge mistake and I knew it. I swore I wasn’t going to sleep with her and then I went ahead and did it anyway.”

“If you knew taking her to bed was such a mistake, why did you do it?”

Brian set down his beer, then sat on the bench beside his brother. He put his head in his hands, wishing…no, he didn’t want to take back the night before. Faith in his arms, so beautiful, so responsive. “Because I wanted her. So I took her, damn the consequences.”

“So it’s just sex?”

“No. Yes. Damn it, I don’t know what it is.” He looked at Jay, who was watching him with an inscrutable expression. “Don’t just sit there, tell me what I jerk I was. Tell me I shouldn’t have taken advantage of her. Tell me I should never have touched her.”

“You mean she didn’t want to go to bed with you and you talked her into it? You seduced her?”

“No. I’m not that big a jerk.” Except he was. A big, stupid-ass jerk. “She wanted to make love as much as I did. I should have resisted her, though, because I knew she’d regret it. I knew we both would. But she was so beautiful. So loving. And so sweet. God, she’s so damn sweet. And I wanted her so much. I’ve been wanting her for weeks. Months. So last night, she kissed me and…I couldn’t resist her anymore. So I took her.”

Jay rubbed his forehead. “Look, Brian, I can see you’re upset, but I don’t see the problem.”

Wasn’t it obvious? “She told me she’s in love with me. She’d decided to have sex because she loves me. And now she’s in the kitchen with the women and for God’s sake, they’re probably planning the wedding by this time.” He shoved both hands through his hair and stood to begin pacing again. “Now do you see the problem?”

“No.”

He stopped pacing abruptly to stare at Jay. “Are you out of your freaking mind or just stupid? Did you hear what I said? Faith told me she loves me. She’s not like other women. She means it. She loves me and she loves Will and now I’m going to break her heart. And she doesn’t deserve that.”

Jay didn’t speak for a moment, but sat watching him, again with that inscrutable expression. “I can see that having a woman tell you she loves you could be a problem—”

“Thank you, Dr. Brilliant,” Brian interjected.

“—if you weren’t in love with her,” Jay continued. “But since you are in love with Faith, I don’t see why you have to break her heart.”

He couldn’t believe his ears. He stared at his brother for a long moment before he said, “I’m not in love with Faith. I can’t be.”

Jay laughed. He had the freaking gall to laugh at him. Brian had just admitted the biggest mistake of his life and asked for advice from his brother, his brother who supposedly loved him and should be there to help him, and the dumb-ass had the nerve to laugh at him.

“Brian, I hate to break it to you, but you are totally stupid in love with Faith.”

“Damn it, I ought to know if I’m in love with a woman. I’m telling you, I’m not in love with Faith.” He nearly shouted it. He wanted to punch Jay right in that grinning mouth of his. He wouldn’t think it was so damned funny then.

“No? Do you know what you looked like when you were telling me about her? How you described her?”

Brian shot him a dirty look. In about twenty seconds he was going to give in to the urge to slug him. He could take him. Jay had undoubtedly gotten soft since he’d been married.

“Beautiful, sweet, loving.” Jay shook his head. “I can’t remember the rest, but take it from me, bro, you sounded one hundred percent gone over her.”

“I care about Faith. That’s not the same thing as being in love with her.” He looked away and sighed, losing interest in punching Jay. That wouldn’t make him feel any better. Probably.

“I don’t think I know how to be in love. I’m pretty sure…I can’t be.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I know what I should do.” Break it off now, before it went any further. Being with her again would only lead to more pain for her later. But now that he’d made love to her, now that he’d held her in his arms and watched her give in to pleasure, heard her call his name when she peaked…Now that he’d been inside her and knew exactly how soft and wonderful she felt…How in the hell was he supposed to live in the same house with Faith and
not
make love to her again?

“I know what I should do,” he repeated. “I’m just not sure I’m strong enough to do it.”

“Here’s Roxy,” Jay said. “I hope that means it’s time to eat? I’m starved.”

Brian wasn’t. Somewhere along the way he’d lost his appetite.

Roxy opened the gate and came in. “Aunt Cat says dinner’s ready. She says you won’t get any food unless you come in right now.”

Jay ruffled her hair. “Tell her we’ll be right there. Thanks for coming to get us.”

“Faith said she would but I guess she forgot. She’s doing something with Lily, but I put Will in his high chair, Uncle Brian. Mel’s with him, so you don’t have to worry.”

“Thanks, Roxy.”

Brian watched her run off. He hadn’t seen Faith. Surely she hadn’t…No, he or Jay would have seen her if she’d come to the aviary. Wouldn’t they? Or had they both been too involved in talking to notice?

See, that’s why men didn’t talk. Look where it got them.

“Brian.” Jay laid a hand on his shoulder as they started to go inside. “I realize you think you have a major problem on your hands and I haven’t been much help. But don’t do anything drastic. Just see how things go, okay?”

Easy enough to say. Damned hard to do.