he’s not a mistake. He’s been a godsend. But getting involved with Sam would be a mistake. He won’t stay this time, either, Andi. You’d do well to remember that.”
If only Tess realized that’s all Andi had thought about the past few days. She didn’t need to be reminded that Sam would leave once again in the name of duty to his country. Knowing didn’t make it any easier to deal with, yet she was determined to keep everything in perspective. She also didn’t expect Tess to understand what she intended to do—make love with Sam in order to get him out of her system.
“By the way,” Tess said as she swiped at the kitchen counter, “the camp called.”
Andi’s chest tightened with panic, and she nearly dropped the glass. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. They called to remind you about parents’ day on Saturday. You have to be there by 8:30 a.m.”
Relief flowed through Andi knowing that her baby was okay. After taking a long drink, she dumped the water into the sink and set the glass aside. “I remembered it was this weekend, but I didn’t know I’d have to be there quite that early. I guess I can ask Sam to feed and water the horses.”
Tess tossed the towel aside and faced Andi, her expression no less stern. “I’ll feed the horses. Sam should go with you.”
The panic returned to Andi once more. “I can’t do that, Tess. Chance might start asking questions. He doesn’t need to deal with any stress while he’s away.”
“And when do you intend to tell him, Andi? Never?”
She hadn’t gotten that far in her thinking. She only knew she didn’t want to deliver any confessions during her son’s first opportunity to establish his independence. “I don’t know when I’ll tell him. Soon, I guess. Before Sam leaves.”
Tess sighed. “That’s up to you, but I still think Sam should go with you.”
“Where are you proposing I go?”
Andi tensed at the sound of Sam’s deep voice coming from behind her. Trapped like a caged rabbit. She had no choice but to tell him about the event.
After facing Sam, Andi’s well-rehearsed smile disappeared when she immediately contacted his bare chest, now at eye level. Her gaze skimmed over the territory marked by sinewy muscle and scattered with dark hair. Her fingers opened and closed with the urge to explore as if they’d been offered a masculine playground designed with a needy woman in mind.
In the barn she hadn’t taken the time to study the details. In fact, she’d intentionally avoided the details after Sam thwarted her seduction. But she couldn’t ignore them now, though she thought it best to stop looking with Tess playing audience.
She put on a casual smile and pulled her gaze back to his face. “Actually, it’s no big deal really. The camp is holding a parents’ day on Saturday.”
His brows drew down into a frown. “Parents’ day?”
She shrugged. “You know, games, a barbecue, that sort of thing. Pretty boring stuff.” Especially for a man like Sam who probably spent his days in some elaborate palace surrounded by jewel-encrusted bowls of fruit and scantily clad women provided for his entertainment. She almost laughed over the absurdity of that stereotypical image, and silently cursed to think it might be an accurate assumption.
Forcing the thoughts away, she turned her attention back to Sam and noted her drenched shirt gripped tightly in his grasp. “I would like very much to go,” he said.
“You would?”
“Yes. It would provide the opportunity to spend more time with my son.”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” Tess said.
Andi quelled the urge to tell her aunt that no one had asked her opinion on the matter. “I’m still not sure it’s a good idea. Chance might wonder why you’re there.”
Sam’s features turned tightrope tense. “You may tell him I’m there as a friend. I will not force you to say anything more, if that’s your concern.”
The anger and hurt in his tone made Andi flinch internally. She had already denied him many opportunities to know his child, though not intentionally. After all, he had been the one to disappear from their lives. He had been the one to discard her as if what had existed between them meant nothing at all.
Still, she had to consider Chance’s opportunity to know his father. “I’ll think about it.” And she would, long and hard.
Tess brushed past Andi on her way toward the hall. “I’ll leave you two alone to discuss it while I sit on the porch and snap some peas.”
After Tess left the kitchen, Sam offered her the soggy T-shirt. “Perhaps you would like to return my clothes to me.”
Andi couldn’t suppress a devilish smile. “Do you want to do it now?”
“Do what?”
“Exchange shirts.” She took a few steps and stopped immediately before him, close enough to touch the copper surface of his bare skin. “Unless you need something else from me?”
He released a frustrated sound, somewhere between a growl and a groan. “I prefer you stop making offers I cannot accept.”
Determined to keep his attention, she ran a fingertip down his sternum along the stream of dark hair, and paused at his navel. “You can’t accept them or you won’t?”
“We’ve been through this, Andrea. I am not able to accept.”
She sent a quick glance at the proof that he was still willing to play along. “You seem more than able to me.”
He held her hand against his belly and kept his gaze fixed on hers as he exhaled slowly, his muscles tightening beneath her palm. Andi held her breath, wondering if this time he might decide to accept her offer. Maybe this time he would give up and give in, knowing this was what they both wanted. Even though he tried to deny that he did want her, she wasn’t too dumb to read the signs. His eyes were dark, almost desperate, warring with indecision and desire. A slight sheen of perspiration covered his chest and forehead. His respiration sounded unsteady.
No, she wasn’t too dumb to recognize that he wasn’t at all unaffected, either here in the kitchen, or earlier in the barn. As affected as he had been seven years ago.
“Is this really all you want from me, Andrea?” he asked in a low, controlled voice as his fingertips stroked her knuckles. “This and nothing more? And afterward, will you then be satisfied?”
“Yes, I will,” she said in a voice she didn’t recognize.
He pushed her hand away and took a step back. “Perhaps you will, but I will not. If I have you, I promise I would want you more than once, and often, until I again must leave. Ask yourself truthfully if you would want to make love knowing nothing more will ever exist between us.”
With that he tossed her wet shirt onto the table and strode out of the room, leaving Andi to ponder his words, the raw truth she heard in them. If she did have him once again—all of him—would it ever be enough?
There would never be enough time now.
Sam tossed his cell phone onto the sofa next to him and sent a string of mild curses directed at his duties. According to his father, the current situation in Barak demanded Sam return home immediately. Sam had bargained for two more weeks instead of four, on the pretense that he still had investments he needed to oversee. Only one week to spend with his son upon his return. Never enough time.
He shoved the newspaper’s financial section off his lap, then scolded himself for acting like a child in the throes of a tantrum. Anger wouldn’t serve him well at this time. He could only make the best of a situation beyond his control.
“Problems, Sam?”
Sam watched as Andrea strolled