love. How could she when it brought them closer together? Even if they had no future as a family, a better relationship between them could only be a good thing for Billy.
A smile tilted her lips. Happy tears, they must be.
* * *
DARCY PULLED ON the jeans and shirt he’d left lying over the back of a chair. The digital clock next to the couch read 3:00 a.m. He could hear voices shouting, doors slamming, hoses being reeled out.
And the unmistakable crackling of flames.
He ran down the stairs and onto the street. The Indian restaurant two doors down from the wine bar was on fire. Too bad it wasn’t— He stopped himself before the thought could form in his mind.
Firefighters had three hoses out, one trained on the restaurant, the other two wetting down neighboring shops.
A police car pulled up. Constable Delinsky and Senior Constable Jackson set up a police cordon, shooing a handful of curious townsfolk behind the rope.
Darcy watched for a while to make sure it wasn’t going to spread. The firefighters had caught it in time, but the restaurant would likely be gutted. Shame.
An unmarked car pulled up, and Riley got out wearing plain clothes. After being briefed by his officers, he came over to where Darcy was standing in front of the pub.
“Hey, Darcy.” Riley glanced at the apartment. “Did you see anything from where you were?”
Only Emma, on top of him, her naked body filling his field of vision. “No, I was...asleep. Then I, uh, heard the sirens.”
He felt no need to tell Riley any more than that. If he wanted to make love to his ex-wife, that was no one’s business but theirs. Sex had been short and sweet. And hot. Hot as the flames licking through the caved-in windows of the restaurant, heating his face even from across the street. His groin tightened thinking about Emma riding him, her beautiful breasts swaying above him. He wished he’d had longer to stay in bed with her. He would have liked to make love again, slower, taking his time to pleasure her, to banish all her bad dreams so that when she closed her eyes all she saw was him.
He’d crossed a line tonight. He could no longer pretend that what happened on the cruise was a one-off. He and Emma had been intimate under possibly the least seductive circumstances and it had been awesome.
Maybe he wasn’t as over her as he’d thought.
He needed to get his head screwed on straight. Nothing had changed. They were still divorced and, while he was happy to take her and Billy in temporarily, they formed no part of his future. She didn’t want it and neither did he. Although clearly it wasn’t a big enough deterrent to keep their hands off each other.
Darcy pushed those thoughts away and turned to Riley. “Kitchen fire, probably, eh?”
“It’s hard to say at this stage. It’s up to the fire chief if he wants an investigation.”
“Do you think it could be arson?”
“Possibly. Or it could be purely accidental.” He glanced up at the clear, starry sky. “But I think we can rule out a lightning strike or a bushfire out of control.”
A couple of firefighters wearing breathing apparatus emerged from the doorway through billowing smoke. “Looks like they didn’t find anyone inside,” Riley said. “That’s a blessing, anyway.” He clapped a hand on Darcy’s shoulder. “Catch you later.”
The fire was under control now, the flames doused, the air acrid with smoke. Yellow tape blocked off the area. The bystanders were starting to walk away. One of the trucks started its engine and slowly drove off.
Instead of going straight upstairs, he walked through the pub with a flashlight making sure that all was well in case it was arson and some nutty firebug had decided to target more than one local business. Nothing appeared to be out of place or out of the ordinary.
He put away the flashlight and went upstairs, tiptoeing past Billy’s room to open Emma’s bedroom door. She was asleep. He hesitated, torn between wanting to crawl into bed and spoon her the way they used to and knowing that waking up with her would only complicate matters. It would be easier to write off their midnight passion as an aberration if he wasn’t gazing into those big blue eyes gazing at him from the pillow next to his first thing in the morning.
Then he heard a cry. Damn. He froze like a statue, hoping the baby would go back