Getting Hotter (36 page)

With a chuckle, Dylan ducked away and reversed the position, getting
Aidan
against the wall and rubbing
his
aching erection all over that enticing ass. “Funny, I was just wondering the same thing.”

As his cock throbbed uncontrollably, Dylan caught Aidan by the waist and brought him back around, taking swift possession of the man’s mouth. This kiss was all tongue, all domination, and they were both breathing hard when it ended.

Laughing, Aidan took a step back and smoothed out his rumpled hair. “I should definitely go.”

“Yep.”

They grinned at each other.

“You wanna come by my place tomorrow night?” Aidan asked.

“Yep.” He didn’t even hesitate.

He was still grinning to himself as he let Aidan out and locked the door behind him, but the grin faded the moment he turned around and saw Claire standing in the shadows of the hallway.

Her wide amber eyes and the shocked O of her lips told him she’d witnessed most—if not all—of that very private, very intimate moment.

Between him and another man.

Shit.

As his stomach churned with uneasiness, Dylan waited for her to speak.

“I…” Her voice was hoarse, and she was staring at her feet now, avoiding his gaze. “I…”

He waited.

Claire lifted her head and met his eyes. “I won’t say anything to Chris.”

And then she hurried away.

Dylan watched her go, feeling queasier by the second.

Shit.

When Miranda got home at two thirty in the morning and found Seth wide awake and smoking a cigarette in the backyard, she immediately knew something was wrong. He’d been cutting down this past month, and it was rare for him to have a smoke before bed anymore. Unless he was upset.

Which he clearly was now.

“Hey,” she said as she slid open the door.

He glanced over. “Hey.”

Her forehead creased in concern. Closing the door, she stepped outside and sat in the chair opposite his. “What’s going on?”

Seth didn’t answer. The orange tip of his cigarette glowed as he inhaled.

“How was the carnival?”

No response.

Now she was seriously worried. “Okay, you’re scaring me. What the fuck is going on, Seth?” The color drained from her face, propelling her to her feet. “Are the kids all right? I didn’t check on them when I came in. Oh God, are—”

“They’re fine,” he said gruffly. “Sound asleep in their beds.”

Miranda relaxed. Slightly. “Something’s still wrong,” she insisted. “Talk to me, babe.”

His lips quirked at the endearment. Sort of like the way
rugrats
had turned into a term of affection, so had
babe
. She’d started saying it to taunt him, but it had kind of stuck.

The smile he offered faded fast, though. “I almost lost Sophie today,” he said quietly.

Her stomach dropped. “What?”

“The little imp took off on her own. She wanted to see the ponies and refused to wait for us to finish up at the shooting game. I had my eye on her the entire time, except when I turned away for half a minute to help Jason with something. That’s when she snuck off.”

“Shit. It’s not the first time she’s done that,” Miranda admitted. “She gets so impatient sometimes, which is weird because Jason is the one with all the jittery energy. Last time she got away from me in the mall, I threatened to make her wear one of those kiddie leashes. I guess the threat didn’t work. Don’t worry, I’ll talk to her.”

It took her a second to realize that Seth was gaping at her.

“That’s it?” he demanded. “I told you that I lost your daughter and you’re not pissed off at me?”

“But you didn’t lose her. She’s safe and sound in her bed. You said so yourself, you turned away for less than a minute.”

“Exactly. I turned away from her.”

“We can’t be expected to have our eyes on our kids every second of the day. It’s impossible. But we can expect our children to listen to us when we tell them not to run off after they’d been asked to stay put.” She let out another breath. “Like I said, I’ll talk to Soph. Or we can talk to her together if you want, so she sees how upset you are that she disobeyed you.”

“I can’t do it,” he said flatly.

Her stomach clenched. “You can’t talk to her with me?”

“I can’t do it.
This.
”

“This?”

“Us.”

Now her entire body went rigid. Cold. Numb. “Because Sophie didn’t listen to you and ran off?”

“Because I don’t deserve you. I don’t deserve them.”

“Seth, that’s just insane.”

“No, it’s not.” He viciously stabbed his cigarette out in the ashtray. “I was starting to let myself off the hook for Adam’s death, and look what happened, Sophie almost gets abducted!”

“She didn’t almost get abduc—”

But he was past listening. “I’m not supposed to have this. Any of this.” He waved his hand around the backyard. “My whole fucking life has been about atonement. I enlisted, I signed up for the most elite training there was, and now I spend my life helping people.”

Bitterness hardened her tone. “You’re not helping me or the twins by leaving us.”

He stubbornly shook his head. “You’ll be better off. Clearly I’m not meant to have any of this. Love, children, a family. I don’t deserve it.”

Agony seized her heart, bringing tears to her eyes. Lord, she didn’t know what to say to him. Didn’t know how to change his mind, how to show him how irrational he was being, how completely
wrong
he was.

But Seth didn’t even give her a chance to formulate a response. He stood up, his shoulders stiffer than boards. “If I stay, I’ll end up hurting you. So I have to go.”

The tears spilled over. “I can’t believe this.”

“I love you, Miranda, but I don’t deserve you, and I can’t take the risk that one day I might end up hurting you or the twins.”

He paused only to plant a soft kiss on her forehead, to gently touch her cheek with his callused hand, and then he left the backyard.

A minute later, she heard the sound of a car engine rumbling to life.

And then silence.

Chapter Twenty-One

“Mom, wake up! Mom! Wake up, wake up, wake up! Mo-om!”

Miranda opened her eyes to find Sophie standing at the foot of the bed, bouncing around like a pogo stick. She still wore her pink cotton PJ’s, her brown hair was mussed up from sleep and she was packing a scary amount of energy in that little body of hers.

“What is it?” Miranda asked sleepily.

“We hafta go dancing. Ginny called and said it’s late and why aren’t we there.”

It took a moment to notice her BlackBerry in Sophie’s hand.

Rubbing her tired eyes, she slid up into a sitting position. “You answered Mommy’s phone?”

“Mmm-hmmm. ’Cause it was ringing and ringing and ringing—”

“I told her not to but she didn’t listen.” Jason barreled into the room in his Spiderman pajamas.

Glancing at the clock, Miranda realized that not only had she slept through the alarm, she’d overslept by
three hours
. It was ten o’clock. Holy shit. Her first lesson of the day started in a half hour.

She flew out of bed, ready to do the impossible by getting her and the kids out the door in ten minutes flat, but then she froze in the middle of the room, the heartbreaking events of last night rushing to the forefront of her brain.

Seth had broken up with her.

He’d actually broken up with her.

Suddenly the last thing she felt like doing today was
dancing
.

With a sigh, she lowered herself to the edge of the bed. “Actually, guys, I’m not feeling too well today. I think I’m going to call Ginny and tell her to cancel today’s lessons. At least for my students.”

Sophie’s bottom lip dropped out. “But I wanna dance.”

“But I have a game,” Jason reminded her.

“You can still go. Coach Diaz is picking you up at noon for the game.” Normally she brought Jason to the school with her and Sophie, and the coach picked him up from there, but she’d have to call and ask Diaz to come here instead.

As for her daughter, she offered a remorseful look. “Mommy’s not feeling well at all. Neither of us will be dancing today, sweetie. But we can still have fun. We’ll stay home and watch movies and then we’ll go to the field and cheer for your brother.”

Jason pumped his fist with excitement. “You
never
get to see a whole game! Will Sef come too?”

An arrow of sorrow pierced her heart. “I don’t think so, Jase.”

“Why not?”

“Will he take us for ice cream after, like last week?” Sophie asked.

“No, I don’t think he’ll do that either.” Her throat closed up and she had to swallow several times before she could talk again. “Come sit with me, guys.”

The twins bounded over, flopping down on either side of her. She looked from her daughter to her son, then let out a shaky breath. “Seth might not be coming around that much anymore.”
If ever
, but she didn’t say that.

“Why not?” Jason asked in confusion.

Sophie, on the other hand, didn’t look confused at all. That bottom lip began to tremble. “Mommy?”

“What is it?” The tears clinging to Sophie’s lashes triggered a rush of concern. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”

“It’s my fault Sef’s not coming! I made him mad at the carnival ’cause I wanted to see the ponies and I ran away!” Sophie gulped for air. “And now he
hates
us again!”

“Oh, baby, he doesn’t hate you. He
never
hated you. Seth told me all about what happened yesterday.” She injected a stern note into her voice. “I’m not happy that you ran away from Seth, but I promise you, that’s not what this is about.”

“Yes it is,” Sophie insisted.

“No, it isn’t. I promise.”

“Is it my fault?” Jason demanded.

A sigh slipped out. “Guys. Neither of you did
anything wrong
. Seth cares about you, he cares about you a lot. This is between your mom and Seth. It’s a whole bunch of boring grown-up stuff that you don’t need to worry about, understand?”

They nodded.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, or when we’ll see Seth again, but even if we don’t, it doesn’t matter. Want to know why?”

Both kids looked at her with curious eyes.

“Because we have each other.” She kissed the top of Jason’s head, then Sophie’s. “We’re the three musketeers, remember? The three amigos. The three stooges.”

“The three little pigs!” Sophie piped up.

“The three zombies!” Jason chimed in.

Miranda chose not to point out to her son that his contribution wasn’t a real thing. Instead, she smiled and said, “So what’s the magic word?”

“Three,” the twins said in unison.

“Three,” she confirmed. “And the three of us are going to be just fine.”

Her kids beamed at her, proving that she’d succeeded in allaying their fears and convincing them that everything was all right.

Too bad she couldn’t convince herself.

“Put the fucking bottle down.”

Seth cranked open one eye, glimpsed Dylan in the living room doorway, and promptly let his eyelid flutter closed. He’d been lying on the couch for the past hour, one cheek plastered on the cushion, one arm flung out, still holding the tequila bottle he’d been nursing all night.

“I’m serious. Drop the bottle.”

Seth did the opposite. He tucked the bottle to his side and held it with the protective grip you’d use on a baby.

Footsteps thudded against the hardwood.

“You’re really going to make me wrestle you for it? This is actually happening?”

“Fuck off,” he mumbled, his voice rusty from lack of use. He didn’t think he’d said a single word since he’d left Miranda’s house last night. Jesus. And his breath reeked of alcohol.

“Give me the bottle, asshole.”

“Go away, Dylan.”

The footsteps got closer. “Motherfucking fuck. I do not have time for this,” he heard Dylan mutter.

And then chaos erupted. The bottle was yanked out of Seth’s possession and suddenly he was no longer on the couch but sailing through the air. His ass landed on the floor with a heavy thump, head bouncing off the hardwood.

Pain shot through his temples, not just from the hit, but from the ridiculous amount of alcohol he’d been consuming since last night. His stomach roiled, nausea scampering up his throat, but he managed to choke it down before he hurled all over the place.

“That’s it,” Dylan said in disgust. “I’m calling Miranda. She can come and deal with this.”

Seth tried to sit up and groaned when the room started to spin. “You can’t call Miranda. I dumped her.”

Silence.

And then, “Are you
insane
?”