tilted his head, his gaze drifting over her lazily, creating little sparks of awareness. “Before all hell breaks loose,” he guessed.
Because she had no bottle warmer—yet—she filled a bowl with hot water and set the bottle in it. “I haven’t noticed anything being out of control this evening.” She adapted a militant stance. “If you discount the tiff with my landlord.”
He flashed a teasing grin. “That’s because, for the most part, there’s been two of us and two of them.”
It was so true she didn’t want to think—or was it worry?—about that. Adopting the confident, cheerful air she usually used to tackle the problems in life, she asked, “What time do you usually get up and out of here in the morning?”
“Before dawn, usually, but tomorrow I’m planning to hang around here and do office work, at least initially.” Seeing her unease, he murmured, “I also usually grab breakfast with the guys at the bunkhouse, but I could cook you breakfast.” He shrugged. “If that will help you out.”
There was a limit to how far she wanted his gallant involvement to extend. The vibe between them was far too personal already. “Or we could each cook our own,” she said pleasantly. Another spark of tension flickered between them, and she felt her breath catch in her throat.
“Independent, hmm?”
She swallowed hard, then shot back firmly, “Like you’re not.”
He chuckled, a deep rumbling low in his throat. Then he slowly ravished her with his gaze, as if he found her completely irresistible. “Is that why you wanted to adopt a baby on your own?”
Trying not to think how physically attracted she was to him, too, Bridgett checked the formula on the inside of her wrist. Still cool. She added more hot water to the bowl and set the bottle back inside.
“I never said that solo adopting was my first choice.”
Intimacy shimmered between them as he took up a station opposite her. The brooding look was back on his face. “But you’re doing it?”
She leaned back against the counter, her hands braced on either side of her, not sure why his opinion mattered so much.
She sighed, figuring it wouldn’t hurt to confide this much. “Only because I stupidly gave up the one shot I had at a happy family life.”
His brow quirked and he shifted closer.
Which didn’t mean she had to explain further. But, for reasons she couldn’t understand, she wanted him to know. “I was in love with a fourth-year medical student while I was in nursing school. He was headed back to Utah, where he was from, to do his residency, and he wanted us to get married before he left, start having kids right away. I still had another two semesters to go and I wasn’t ready. But Aaron saw no reason to wait if we loved each other. So he gave me an ultimatum.” Refusing the crazy urge to take refuge in Cullen’s strong arms and rest her head against his broad chest, she continued. “Thinking he would become more reasonable over time, I refused.”
Dark gaze skimming hers intently, he moved closer still. “Didn’t work out?”
Her heartbeat quickened at the unexpected compassion in his low tone. “He married someone else within a few months of our breakup.”
“Still married?”
Bridgett nodded. “Happily. They have six kids and another on the way.” Six kids who could have been hers.
His brow knotted. “Wow.”
“Yeah.”
Silence fell between them.
“Still wishing it was you?”
Not the way he thought.
“Not really,” she replied honestly. “I wouldn’t want to leave my family, be that far away from Texas.” She locked eyes with Cullen, not ashamed to admit it. “But I do regret giving up my one shot at marriage, especially knowing it might never come again.”
His expression guarded, he said, “You’re selling yourself short.”
Finding his low, grumbling voice a bit too determined—and too full of sexual promise for comfort—she returned, “How do you know?” Who was he to give her advice on her love life or lack thereof? “Especially since you’re not known to be the most sentimental guy around!”
Ooh, she should not have said that. But he was goading her. Making her feel foolish in the way he kept looking at her.
He came close and, if she was not mistaken, looked very much like he wanted to make love with her then and there. A wicked grin deepened the crinkles around his navy eyes.
She felt as if she’d just waved a red flag in front of a bull.
“You think not?” he prodded.
Bridgett huffed. “I do.” Knowing it was a dangerous proposition to have him that close to her—because she did desire him more than anyone who had come before—she moved away. Feeling hot color flush her cheeks, she enunciated as clearly as possible, “I also know that, unlike you, I believe very strongly in destiny or fate or whatever you want to call it. And that destiny brought Riot and Robby—”
He prowled toward her. “And me.”
Ignoring the fierce sense that he was about to put the moves on her, she stubbornly finished her sentence. “Into my life. So if this is what’s meant to be for me, I’ll take it.”
In one smooth motion, he took her all the way into his arms. Pressed her against him in a way that left her reeling and lowered his lips to hers. “So will I,” he said.
* * *
IN INVITING HER to stay, Cullen hadn’t meant to do anything but clear his own reputation and help Bridgett out. He hadn’t figured what it would be like to have her, and the baby and puppy, in his home. Or how much he would quickly come to admire her fierce desire to help others, even as she shortchanged herself.
Was it possible she really had no idea how beautiful and desirable she was? How worthy of having?
It seemed so. And that was something he couldn’t let stand unchallenged, as all thoughts of being a gentleman fled. She had to know how captivating she was. So he did what he’d been wanting to do since they had first caught sight of each other; he kissed her. Kissed her to discover how soft and supple and sweet-tasting her lips were. Kissed her to fulfill a yearning deep inside him that he hadn’t known existed.
And, most of all, he kissed her to show her that they could simply enjoy each other without the false illusion of love or emotional promises that would most likely end up being short-term.
But he was the one who was surprised. Because this kiss, holding her like this, didn’t feel like any normal clinch. It felt different. Unique. Amazingly unique, as it turned out.
And who was the naive fool now?
* * *
BRIDGETT HAD KNOWN from the moment that she walked into the kitchen, hours after dinner, that
