For the Girls' Sake - By Janice Kay Johnson Page 0,77
tonight that upset her? Why wasn’t she talking to him?
Irritably he asked himself why he was jumping to conclusions. Maybe she’d slipped upstairs to get ready for bed. He might find her waiting for him with a sweet smile. He just hoped she hadn’t let her hair down. He wanted to save that pleasure for himself.
Flipping off lights as he went, Adam paused in the upstairs hall, as he knew Lynn would have done a few minutes before, to step into the girls’ bedroom and assure himself they were both safely tucked into bed, healthy, their sleep untroubled. As he stood beside the bed, Rose’s eyes opened and she gazed sleepily up at him.
"Daddy," she whispered.
He bent down, cupped her face and kissed her forehead. "Mommy and I are home. You sleep tight, sweetheart."
"’Kay, Daddy," she murmured even as her heavy lids sank closed. After a moment of stillness, a small snore escaped her parted lips and she rolled away, nestling closer to Shelly.
Adam’s smile died when he reached his bedroom and saw Lynn. Her back was to him. She’d already unclipped her earrings and let down her hair. As he watched, she massaged her scalp, then ran her fingers through the curls and shook them out.
He stepped silently behind her and brushed his lips along her nape. She started, then bowed her head. The skin was so soft here. With his fingertips Adam traced the column of her neck. She sighed softly.
"Are you tired?" he asked. "You didn’t wait for me."
"I am tired," Lynn admitted.
"If you want to go right to sleep..." Hoping she’d say no, Adam nuzzled the curve between neck and shoulder.
She sucked in a breath. "I thought I would." Her voice was throaty, not much above a whisper.
Disappointment smacked him in the face, fear in the gut. She might just be tired. But what if it was more?
He straightened away from her. With determined civility, Adam said, "Then you’d better get right to bed. Would you rather I read downstairs for a while?"
"No." Lynn turned suddenly and wrapped her arms around his neck. "No, don’t go. I’m not that tired."
"If you want to sleep, it might be best..." The translation, he thought grimly, was, I need to put some distance between us if I can’t be with you.
Her eyes were huge and dark, and he felt tension quivering through her. "You’ve changed my mind."
The disappointment evaporated like a cold sweat; the fear lingered. She tugged his head down to hers with a hint of desperation. Her mouth was needy.
* * *
THERE WAS NOTHING romantic about what had followed, but he’d been past caring. Now, when he tried to wrap Lynn in his arms, she stiffened.
"I’m cold," she said in a small voice. "I think I’ll take a shower. If you don’t mind."
That brought his eyes open. "Why would I mind?"
"I’ll be back in a few minutes." She was definitely beating a retreat. A second later the bathroom door shut and he heard the shower start.
Sighing, Adam got up. He hung up his slacks and tie, draped the shirt over a chair, and pulled on his pajama bottoms. He brushed his teeth and splashed water on his face at one of the two sinks outside the bathroom. Leaving on the lamp at Lynn’s side of the bed, he switched off the overhead light and climbed into bed.
Her shower wasn’t a quickie. It ran and ran, as if she felt the need to scrub every inch of her body, or simply to let the hot water unknot the tension he’d felt. Guessing that she’d prefer it, Adam pretended to be asleep when she finally, quietly, came out. Water ran briefly in the sink as she too brushed her teeth. A moment later the mattress gave as she sat. The lamp went out, and she slipped in on her side of the bed, seemingly careful not to touch him.
Wide-awake, Adam wondered how Lynn really felt about him. She had entered willingly into their bargain, but he knew that was for the sake of the girls. When they were together, did she pretend he was someone else? When she’d pulled his mouth down to hers, changing her mind with such odd abruptness, did she hunger for the physical connection without it mattering who held her?
Did she think about him during the day, or in the night when they were separated? Had her feelings for him grown, or were they still two strangers who happened to share a bed?