“Apparently, to a four-year-old, all stepmothers are evil. But he doesn’t have to worry. I don’t see myself marrying anyone any time soon, and….” It seemed like he pulled himself to a stop. “I don’t know. After all the drama and craziness of the past few years, I don’t think I want to get married again. Hell, I haven’t really figured out what kind of relationship I want.”
Lucas cleared his throat. “Do you want one? I suppose there’s something to be said for easy, no-strings-attached sex, but I know I’ve never been good at that.”
“I know I was awful at it. I suppose if I had been better, I might have been able to walk away more easily. But I guess I’m the type of person who hangs on too long. Jenn and I were good right at the beginning, and she seemed happy, so I thought we were happy. But I was actually miserable. At least once we hadJameson, I put a lot of my love into him, while Jenn went back to what made her happy. I swear, if she could have had a foal instead of a baby, she would have been a hell of a lot happier.” Brendan put his hand over his mouth. “God, that sounded awful.”
“Yeah… but I get it. She was more into the horses than people.”
“Yup. She loved riding and training. Jenn was a damned good rider, but she was a crap wife and mother.”
Lucas could see that in the way she treated Jameson. “What finally opened your eyes?”
“I guess it wasn’t just one thing. I mean, Jenn settled back into her riding once she had Jameson. She got herself back in shape and acted just like she had before. She didn’t breast feed, so I fed Jameson, changed him, got up at night with him. One night, I realized as I was walking a fussy baby that I was a single parent. Once that flashed in my head, so did everything else, and I saw our life for what it was. Jenn wasn’t interested in changing anything because she had everything she wanted. So I filed for divorce and told her she needed to get a job and move out.” Brendan shook his head. “The first thing she told me was that it was going to cost me a fortune because she was going to take half of everything. But I inherited the house and land, and she did nothing to it, so that was all mine, and she had no claim on it.”
“I can just imagine her anger,” Lucas said. Jenn seemed like a kind of person who bullied her way into getting what she wanted.
“From what I understand, her lawyer explained it to her. I would have loved to have been a fly on that wall. If she had gotten custody of Jameson, things would have been different, but she didn’t, thank God, so Jenn got very little and lost access to the horses. She kept the horse she owned, but I told her she couldn’t keep it here. I didn’t want her using that as an excuseto be here all the time.” Brendan took another sip of his beer. “I needed a way to be able to build my own life again.”
“And you had all that put in the divorce agreement?” Lucas asked. “That was forward-thinking.”
“Things between us weren’t going to work. I saw that life had changed because of Jameson, and Jenn basically wanted to ignore him and go back to having everything the way it was. And that couldn’t happen.”
“How did your friends react?” Lucas asked.
“It was a mixed bag. Most of them stayed friends with me. Though Jenn has her horse friends, but I doubt she sees many of them anymore, since she doesn’t have a horse. She couldn’t afford to keep it, so it was sold years ago. I thought of buying it because her bloodlines were superior, but I didn’t want the drama that would come with it.” He sighed and drank the last of the beer, then set the bottle on the coffee table. “That’s enough about me. What about you? What is it that you like?”
Lucas’s mind sort of skipped a beat. “I like you.” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.
Brendan chuckled deeply. “I meant what sort of things do you like to do, but that’s nice too.” The blushes were back, and Brendan swore softly under his breath. “I hate this.”
“What?” Lucas asked, concerned.
“This….” He pointed to his face. “I turn red every time someone shows any interest in me. I light up like Rudolph’s nose.”
“I think it’s adorable,” Lucas whispered.
“It’s a pain in the butt. I could never get away with anything, because if I tried, I blushed. I was always a good boy because of the damn blushes.” And damned if he didn’t turn redder.
“Well, at least I’ll always know you’re telling the truth.” He smiled softly. “Let me think. I like swimming. I was always pretty good at that. I used to play football, but I got injured incollege. I got hit and went down hard. The doctors say I was out for three hours and had a pretty bad concussion. It was at that point that I quit playing. The doctors said it was dangerous, and that if I kept playing, I could end up dead. I wasn’t that good anyway, but that meant the end of my playing, and my scholarship went right along with it. So I left school and got a job. I was huge, so I easily got a bouncer position.”
“Okay. What sort of things do you do for fun? I’ve seen you cook, and I know you’re pretty good with your hands.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Lucas quipped, and Brendan leaned closer.
“I see. Then maybe you should show me.” His gaze didn’t shift, and the redness in his cheeks slipped away. “I love a man who knows what to do with his hands.”
Lucas wasn’t sure if Brendan meant what he thought he meant. In an instant, the world seemed to narrow. Lucas licked his lips, locking his gaze onto Brendan’s, wondering if he had been reading this right or not. Part of him wanted to just tug Brendan closer and kiss the hell out of him. But…. He hesitated and waited, blinking as the room grew warmer by the second. His heart pounded so hard, he swore he could almost hear it. “So do I, and I saw what you do with your hands earlier.” It had been sexy as hell the way Brendan handled the wood in his shop. It was like he was coaxing it to do exactly what he wanted it to do. And it was hot.
“I see. You like what I can do?” He leaned a little closer, and Lucas took that as an invitation. He set his beer on the table and slid his hand around the back of Brendan’s neck, waiting for any sign that he was to stop. There was nothing, so he gently tugged Brendan closer.
Their lips met in a blaze of heat that sent Lucas’s mind racing. Brendan tasted good, his lips firm and moist, and damned if he didn’t give as good as he got. At first, he wonderedif Brendan might be tentative, but he was as forceful as Lucas, pressing to him, deepening the kiss, his hands carding through Lucas’s hair even as Lucas stroked his cheek.
Everything about Brendan seemed to press all the right buttons, and Lucas used his weight and strength to press Brendan back against the cushions. He wanted more than this, and all Lucas’s instincts pushed him forward. But he stopped, backing away and breathing deeply.
“Why’d you stop?” Brendan asked just above a whisper.
“Because….” He wasn’t sure. Part of him had wanted him to go forward, but then….
“I get it,” Brendan said. “I mean, I’m not big and strong like you, and I know I’m not a catch.”
