What a Woman Wants (A Manley Maids Novel) (20 page)

S
EAN
looked at his cell phone every fifteen seconds on his drive back from Mac’s. A whole day, wasted. Well, not wasted. Mac got her stuff moved and it was good to see Jared, Gran’s friend Mildred’s grandson, but, man, the tension between those two had made the day seem longer than it actually had been. He hoped to hell they could resolve whatever the issue was between them, but then, they’d always been oil and water together. It was probably just their normal interaction and he was projecting
his
frustration onto their dynamic and what the hell did he care anyway? The day was over and Mac’s love life was her business.

Hell, he didn’t even want to think about his little sister
having
a love life. Especially not if it included Jared Nolan. The guy was almost as big a player on the women scene as Bry.

Sean tapped the signal key on his dashboard that opened the estate’s wrought iron gates. He’d been planning to research key manufacturers this evening to find ones that could incorporate gate access into hotel keys for his guests—if he had guests—but the maze was the more important item on his to-do list.

He glanced at the low-hanging sun. One, maybe two hours at best before searching the maze would be pointless. He drove the truck a little faster to the parking area by the kitchen entrance.

The Howl-o-lujah Chorus greeted him the minute he turned off the engine.

Damn. He had to deal with the animals before he could check out the maze. He didn’t need a mess to clean up when he got back.

He filled the dinner bowls while the dogs took care of business in the yard, then had to corral them into the house to run after Davy, who’d taken off for the barn again. “Geez, dude, show some restraint,” he muttered as he scooped the little dog up. “She’ll still be there when we get back.”

Words to live by.

Sean shook his head as he entered the barn. After another round of chores and mucking out—that had really lost its appeal—he turned around to find
Davy
was the one running along the wall above the goats’ stall this time.

“How the hell did you get up there?” Sean unlatched the door to get the little bugger.

The dog yipped at him and danced across the two-inch wide rail as if he were a cat.

“Get back here.”

Of course the animal wouldn’t listen.

Sean went into the goat pen. The kids were hopping onto their parents’ backs as a stepping stone to the top of the wall.

The first one made it up before Sean could get to it. He caught the second one mid-jump, and thwarted the third from making it onto the ram’s back. For the first time since they’d met, the ram didn’t try to prod him in the nuts.

The fourth one made it onto the rail and ran after its sibling who was tap-dancing behind the dog along the top of the next pen, all of them headed straight toward Rhett.

The alpaca looked like he was working up a good wad to spit at them, his eyes trained on every movement they made.

“Davy, come!”

The dog didn’t even make the effort to look back as he kept scampering toward Rhett.

Sean left the goat pen, dropping a handful of carrots into their feed bowl to keep the remaining kids occupied, then ran to Reggie’s stall where Davy and his followers now were.

Rhett was working the wad faster.

“Damn animals. All I want to do is check out the maze, but instead I’m playing tag with a bunch of four-legged kids who ought to be in bed for the night.” Sean unlatched the door. “This is the last time I bring you with me, mutt,” he muttered just as Rhett let loose with his ammo.

It hit the poodle broadside, sending the thing toppling over the edge and headed straight to where Reggie was resting peacefully.

“Sonofabitch!” Sean forgot about Rhett’s stall and lunged through Reggie’s door to catch Davy so he wouldn’t wake the sleeping pig. While catching Davy, he tripped on a dog biscuit, twisted around, and landed flat on his back on top of Reggie—who merely grunted and rolled over in his sleep, depositing Sean and the dog onto the floor.

“Sean? What are you doing?”

He looked out through the open stall door to see Livvy standing in the barn doorway, backlit by the moonlight that seemed to have sprung up as if someone had lowered a backdrop for the express purpose of driving him insane.

The gypsy skirt was gone. In its place was a pair of cut-off jean shorts with ragged hems, threads trailing along her thighs.

She had great thighs.

Great knees, too. And her calves . . . He wanted to run his tongue along her calves.

“Catching your dog before he breaks a leg.” His voice was tight because his damn shorts suddenly were. And these were the baggy nylon kind.

Then a goat leapt onto his lap.

“Oooph!” he wheezed, rolling onto his side to avoid taking a hoof to the balls.

“Oh, no!”

Livvy took the dog from him, then ran her hand over his side. “Are you okay?”

He would be if she kept doing that.

“Fine,” was all he managed to get out. Part of him wanted to say
no
so she’d keep doing what she was doing, and the other part . . . The other part wanted to grab her, pull her beneath him, and make them both forget about dogs and alpacas and goats and inheritances and clues and all the other baggage for the next few hours right here on the barn floor.

Classy, Manley. Way to show a woman a good time.

He sucked in a breath and sat up. “I’m . . . good.” In a breathing-is-highly-overrated sort of way.

Damn goat.

Davy yipped as he leapt from her arms, then stood on his hind legs to plant a slobbery kiss on Sean’s shoulder.

“Aw, he likes you.” Livvy petted the dog.

Sean wished she’d pet him— “What are you doing here? Don’t you have your market thing?

“We sold out, so we decided to come home early. Saves on hotel fees. Plus, I thought you might need a break.”

He did. From her. “You mean from all this? Are you kidding? I’m on top of the world when mucking out alpaca poo.”

She smiled and it was as if the sun came out to light up the barn.

Good God. He must have hit his head really hard when he fell.

“I really appreciate it, you know,” she said.

“It’s no trouble.”
Liar
.

“I promise I won’t leave you alone again.”

That’s what he was afraid of. “Like I said, no problem.”

She tucked some hair behind her ears. “So . . . did you feed them?”

“Of course.”

She nibbled her bottom lip. “Um—”

“Why do you do that?” If he had to watch her tuck her hair back one more time, he might just say the hell with all his good intentions and do what he wanted to do right here and right now.

Moonlight was a powerful thing. Of course, Livvy herself was pretty powerful, too. He could only imagine what could happen if she were actually aware of the power she could wield over him.

“Why do I do what?” she asked, nibbling some more.

“That. The lip thing.”
That sexy-as-hell lip thing that turns me on to the point where I’m actually shoveling alpaca shit without complaining so could you cut it out, please,
he wanted to add, but didn’t.

There was a reason he didn’t add it—and he knew what it was, but when her tongue darted out to lick her lips again, the reason disintegrated.

“I don’t know. Habit, I guess.” She shifted off her knees, plunking her cute little backside on the floor next to him.

Stay back!
his common sense was screaming. His libido, on the other hand, was going full out with,
This way, sweetheart
.

He was losing his mind. “Livvy, there’s no need for you to be here. I told you I’d take care of the animals and I am. I did.”

“I know. I trust you. It’s just that . . . sometimes I need to be around them. There’s something very soothing, very natural about being with animals.” She ran a hand down Davy’s back. “Calming.”

Funny, he felt like an animal around her and
calm
was not the word he’d use to describe himself.

“So you said you were going to head out to the maze?”

Another reason not to be calm. She must have overheard him talking to the animals. Dr. Doolittle he was not. “I realized I hadn’t been in it yet and I thought it’d be cool to check it out in the moonlight.”

Jesus, that was lame.

Livvy bought it, though, nibbling her lip some more. “Seriously? Have you never watched a scary movie? Everyone knows you don’t go into abandoned houses or hotels or hedgerow mazes during a full moon. Or a snowstorm. Especially alone.”

“I brought my flea and tick and vampire collars for the occasion,” he said, hoping some humor would diffuse the utter awareness he had of her bare thigh next to his.

“Funny.” She wasn’t laughing, and if she nibbled her lip any harder, they’d end up plump and puffy, and the only reason that should happen was if he kissed them.

Which he shouldn’t do. Just like he shouldn’t do what he was about to do but was going to do anyway. “You’re right. No one should go into the maze alone.” He sat up and held out his hand. “So come with me.” Hell, he’d put the clue back in the sugar bowl so it was only a matter of time before she figured this out anyway.

Livvy looked at it. But she didn’t take it.

No, she went with yet
more
lip-nibbling.

“What do you have against the maze, Livvy?”

“Nothing.”

Her
nothing
sounded like
something
. “You didn’t see
The Shining
, by any chance, did you?”

“Worst movie ever.”

“Are you kidding? It’s a classic.” Since she wasn’t taking his hand, he took hers. She didn’t pull away. “Come on. It’s just a movie and I’ll be with you. What do you say?”

She didn’t say anything; she just nibbled her lip some more.

God help him. She could get him to shovel alpaca poo forever if she kept that up.

“I got lost in there.” She nibbled some more, looking way too sexy in the moonlight that whispered over her curls, catching the highlights in them like shooting stars, her amber eyes twinkling, and for once, Sean didn’t mind spouting poetry. Livvy
was
poetry. All beauty and goodness and light, and he was in so much trouble.

“But you won’t this time, Livvy. I promise.” He, on the other hand, he’d already lost it. “Because I’ll be with you.”

T
HAT’S
half the problem.

Livvy fought those words back as she let Sean lead her to the maze, Sher’s words in her head.
Don’t be so afraid of the future that you forget to live in the present.

She
was
afraid. Afraid of losing herself in him. Of putting hopes and dreams and plans into what was between them and losing. Again.

But if she didn’t try, she’d definitely lose. And seeing him with her animals tonight, knowing how readily he’d volunteered to help her so she could go to the market, how he was helping her with the treasure hunt, how sweet and gentle and caring and supportive he was being now . . . Sean was here for her and that alone would be appealing enough. Toss in how he made her feel, how he was, how he kissed
,
how he wanted her, and, well, if she ever wanted a future with anyone, she’d have to take a chance sometime. Sean was worth that chance.

They stopped at the entrance to the maze. Livvy pulled in a ragged breath.

“It’ll be okay, Livvy.” He cupped her cheek. “I’m here.”

He was and that gave her the courage to try one more time—and she didn’t mean about the maze.

She slid her hand around the back of his neck, winding her fingers into waves that were a little too long—just the way she liked them—and pulled him into a kiss.

Fireworks exploded behind her eyelids and a symphony struck up the loudest, most downbeat-laded melody, kettle drums thrumming her heartbeat, and she was
all about
living in the present.

Sean made one half-hearted—if that—attempt to pull away, and then he kissed her back. Hell, he didn’t just kiss her, he consumed her. He wrapped his strong arms around her, pressing her into him so that there wasn’t one inch she didn’t feel, one part of him she wasn’t aware of, from his lips to his breath hot against her cheek, to the way the stubble rasped along her jaw, the sweet sweep of his tongue against hers, the taste, the scent, the utter
all
of him as he took everything she gave into the kiss and then some.

Only to give back so much more.

She tightened her arms, wanting,
needing
, him to want her like she wanted him. She ran her other hand over his back, feeling the muscles there clench at her touch and she smiled against his lips. Let him stop
now
.

But then he did.

It was slow, but he slid his hand from her head, nipping at her lips instead of the full-on possession of a few seconds ago.

She moaned, snuggling into him. He didn’t get to stop. Not now. Not when she didn’t want him to.

He captured her face in his hands, drawing out this kiss, tasting her lips so effectively, but so not enough.

“Sean,” she whispered, a tiny bit of pleading in the word, but definitely more longing.