The senator stood, obviously intending to leave him with his thoughts. “You were Stephen Taylor’s son from day one. I’m not trying to change that. But I’d like to get to know the man he raised in the little time I have left.”
Scott watched him go, feeling as if the world—his world—had just shifted all over again.
Twenty
Natalie felt the shadow fall over her and opened her eyes. She blinked. Scott loomed over her, his body—his big, half-naked body—blocking most of the sunlight.
For all that he was a SEAL and spent a good part of his life in the water, she’d actually never seen him in a bathing suit before—in this case, board shorts that hung nice and low on his hips, emphasizing the washboard stomach and eight-pack abs. The print was green camo with some kind of flag on the tag. Jamaica maybe?
“You carry board shorts with you on all your missions?” she asked with a laziness she wasn’t really feeling anymore. Her pulse was racing a little too fast for that.
He smiled and scooted her feet over to sit down on the end of her lounge chair. “Never know when surf will be up. Gotta be prepared.” He lifted a brow, taking in her white shorts and T-shirt. “I was hoping you’d tossed in a nice teeny-weeny bikini.”
“Sorry. Even if I could squeeze into one right now, a bathing suit didn’t make your two-minute packing cut.”
He frowned, letting his gaze roam over her again. There was something hot and possessive about it thatmade her think he wouldn’t mind a little squeezing into in certain places. Namely the chest area where he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her tight scoop-neck T-shirt.
“You look incredible. You are barely showing.”
Her hand went self-consciously to the slight round bump on her stomach. The one problem with the T-shirt was that it fit snugly against her stomach, too.
His gaze followed and Natalie felt her cheeks flush. When he lifted his eyes to hers, the look that passed between them made her chest squeeze with the kind of happiness she never thought would be hers.
They were going to have a baby together and sharing that with him filled her with a new kind of joy. A special kind. Her secret wasn’t just hers anymore. Knowing Scott would be there for the baby was such a relief; for the first time she actually felt truly happy about her pregnancy.
“The senator guessed,” Scott said.
“He did?”
“He noticed you weren’t drinking wine last night and only decaf this morning.”
She crossed her arms and glared at him a little. “And not any barely there bumps?”
Scott grinned. “He might have mentioned something.”
She socked him playfully, doing more damage to her knuckles than the rock-hard muscle of his arm.
But then all of the sudden, she realized what he was saying. “You talked to him?”
He nodded. “You were right.”
“I was?”
He stood and dragged her to her feet. “I’ll tell you all about it if you swim with me.”
“But I don’t have a...”
She didn’t get to finish. He picked her up and tossed her into the water fully clothed. When she came upsputtering—and cursing—he had already dived in and swum half the length of the pool underwater.
She didn’t bother trying to catch him. She knew when she was out of her league. Instead she swam over to the entry stairs and sat in the water, which actually felt refreshing, waiting for him to come up for air.
He had to come up sometime, right?
As her watch was now a doorstop, she’d guess it was a good two minutes—and four lengths of the twenty-five-meter pool—before he did.
He stopped and stood a good ten feet away from her at the bottom edge of the stairs, breathing heavily. The water was only about three feet deep there, which gave her plenty of wet chest and abs to view. But it was a big, Cheshire cat grin that was getting to her right now. He was obviously proud of himself.
“You’re buying me a new watch,” she said, holding up her wrist. It hadn’t been expensive, but the one he’d be buying her would be. “And I’ve suddenly taken a fancy to little gold crowns on my watches.”
