the sliver and dropped her heel.
“Careful,” Linc warned. “There’s glass everywhere.”
“Sorry,” Tate said. “I’ll replace the glass.”
Linc frowned. “It’s a glass, Tate, not a Picasso. Relax. And sit down. I’ll clean up.”
“But—”
“I’m wearing shoes. You are not,” Linc said and turned to walk into the expansive utility room behind the kitchen, returning with a broom and dustpan. Within minutes he’d swept up the glass, mopped up the milk and was chugging down a bottle of water he’d pulled from the fridge.
“Do you normally work out at midnight?” Tate asked, trying to break the heavy silence between them.
Linc lifted a big, broad shoulder, and Tate wondered how it would feel to run her hand through his light sprinkling of chest hair. “I work out daily. Sometimes I have crazy days, and that means that my workout happens at crazy hours.” Linc lowered his water bottle and nodded at the baby monitor on the table in front of her. “Did she go down easily?”
Tate shook her head. “Not really. I had to rock her to sleep.” She made herself meet his hard eyes. “She’s probably missing Kari.”
Linc bent down and rested his forearms on the granite island of the kitchen, his expression broody. “So, have you decided what you’re going to do?”
“About Ellie?” Tate clarified and waited for his nod before continuing. “I’m still thinking it through. My plan is still to get legal advice and go from there.”
“Are you going to talk to my PI?” Linc leaned his butt against the kitchen counter and crossed his ankles. His hands gripped the granite countertop behind him, and his muscles bulged and tightened. Raised veins—a fine indication that he was super fit, in case she didn’t catch a clue from his zero-fat, all-muscle body—snaked over his forearms and biceps.
Concentrate, Harper!
Tate squirmed under his hard, penetrating stare, sensing that he was frustrated by her lack of decisiveness. He wanted answers, an immediate plan of action. It was the CEO way, she decided.
But this wasn’t his company; it was her and Ellie’s lives. She’d take all the time she needed to make a decision she felt comfortable with. Besides, he would be free of them in the morning, so what did he care?
But he’d been kind enough to let her stay here tonight, so she thought she might, maybe, owe him a brief explanation.
“I’m conflicted and feeling a lot overwhelmed, Linc. I need time to process what’s happened,” Tate admitted, she jumped up from her seat at the table and walked toward him.
So much for a brief explanation, she thought, as words rolled off her tongue. “I know I can’t look after a baby, and I don’t want the responsibility of making decisions for Ellie. I have two months before I go back on the road and can’t take a baby with me! Ellie is her daughter, not mine. I mean, God, she’s cute and sweet and pretty damn easygoing but I’m not mommy material!”
How could she be? Lane, Kari, even her aunt Lauren, had been—were—shockingly bad mothers, and there was no reason to think she’d be any different.
Having a baby was the ultimate commitment, so keeping Ellie was out of the question. Besides, conventional wisdom stated that the child was always better off with their mother so restoring Ellie to Kari was her ultimate goal.
“Along with your killer body and gorgeous hair, that seems to be a trait you share with your sister,” Linc said, his voice flat.
His words were an acid-tipped arrow straight to her heart. She wanted to lash back, to tell him that she wasn’t anything like Kari, that she wasn’t irresponsible and selfish and so very screwed up. But the suspicion in his eyes told her that, no matter what she said, he wouldn’t believe her.
But she had to try. For some crazy reason she didn’t want him to judge her by her family name. She was better than he thought. “I’m not my sister, Linc.”
Linc didn’t acknowledge her words. He just held her indignant look, and she watched as his eyes turned from granite to a smoke gray. Oh, God, she recognized that hot, masculine look of appreciation, and it had nothing to do with liking her mind or her personality and everything to do with liking the way she filled out a T-shirt.
He was as attracted to her as she was to him. Oh, Lord, what was she supposed to do with that thought, how was she supposed to process it?
The smart reaction would be to walk away, to turn her back on him and hightail it out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Tate wanted to be smart, she really did. But more than that, she wanted to taste him, to press her breasts into his bare chest, to feel that hard, sweaty skin under her hands. She wanted to inhale him, devour him, climb inside him...
An unintelligible curse erupted from Linc’s mouth, and his hand shot out to grab her wrist. With a hard yank, he pulled her into him, and her hips slammed against his erection—ooh, nice—and he ducked his head to cover her mouth with his.
He didn’t bother to sip or suckle, he didn’t tease or taunt; Linc just slid his tongue into her mouth to tangle with hers, challenging her to give as good as she got. Tate responded by twisting her tongue around his, answering his silent dare.
Something hot and hard arced between them. Tate felt heat zinging through her as Linc’s big hand slipped between the fabric of her shirt to cup her, his hand easily covering her small breast. His thumb swiped her nipple, and she made a guttural sound in the back of her throat, rising on her toes to align her mound with his erection, wanting more heat, more hardness.
Her hands, by their own volition, skated up his rib cage, across his chest, flirted with the ridges of his stomach. Linc responded by placing his arm under her butt and lifting her off her toes. It made sense for her thighs to grip his waist, to hook her ankles behind his back, to rub her long-neglected core against his hot-and-hard-as-hell length. She wanted this man. She wanted him in the worst possible way.
She wanted no fabric between them, she wanted them slick and hot...battling to breathe and crazy with need. Because feeling Linc inside her, touching all those neglected, lonely places, was what she needed, craved. Tate thought about asking him whether he had a condom as she pushed her hands down the back of his shorts to thrust her fingers into the hard muscle of his butt. A wave of desperation rose within her. They had to rid themselves of the barriers of clothing, mostly hers, that kept him from sliding inside her, stretching her and filling her.
Words, she needed them, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop kissing him long enough to get her point across. Tate swirled her tongue around his, pulling on his bottom lip, but, unlike earlier, he didn’t respond. Tate frowned. Taking stock, it occurred to her that his hands had stopped exploring her body, that she was sliding down his big frame, that her toes and then her feet were touching on the cold floor. Shaking her head, she tried to work out why he’d stomped on the brakes.
Had she done something he didn’t like? Did he think that she was a wild woman? A slut? Oh, God, did he think he was kissing Kari and suddenly realized that it was her?
Tate shoved her hands into her hair and looked up him, dreading the expression of cool disdain she knew she’d see.
Linc, however, looked calm
