Page 65 of Deadly Attraction
Chapter Fourteen
The night was dark but, for the first time in a week, Emma could see stars in the sky as she stared out her bedroom window. A strong wind was blowing down from the north, clearing the air. The last weather report Mitch had gleaned before the satellite lost transmission claimed rain was on the way.
Rain on Christmas. A miracle for sure this year.
The clock across the hall ticked softly, nearing midnight. Mitch lay spooned around her body, his soft snores resonating from his chest into her back. Warm, reassuring.
Comforting.
Her baby had died shortly after midnight on Christmas morning. The pain, so fresh last year, now only ached dully in her chest. She’d miscarried so early, she’d never known the sex of the child, but in her heart, she’d known it was a girl.
As she lay in bed with Mitch’s arm around her, she looked out at the stars shining over the ranch and focused on one that appeared to twinkle inside the Andromeda Galaxy. Many nights, she’d dragged herself from bed in order to look through her telescope at the Blue Snowball Nebula inside the Andromeda constellation and talk to her daughter. It made no logical sense to associate a star in the heavens with a soul, yet Emma—like many other people in history—found solace in doing so.
Tonight, however, she was content to stay in Mitch’s arms and watch Blue Snowball from bed. The smell of cinnamon drifted through the house from the pie still downstairs on the counter. The normal soft creaks of the house settling in the night air comforted her, much like Mitch’s gentle snores. Every once in a while, she heard the dogs shift in their sleep right outside the bedroom door.
Merry Christmas, Skye. Emma had never told anyone—not even Roland—that she had named the baby. When they’d found out they were pregnant, she’d had a list of possibilities, of course. Allison, Michelle, Kathleen. After the miscarriage, none of them seemed…right. None of them fit.
One night after she’d bought the ranch and was making room in the attic for some of her boxes, she’d come across the old telescope. She knew nothing about telescopes or astronomy, but cleaned off the lenses anyway and soon became an amateur astronomer.
One night, looking at the sky and reading through a book on the Andromeda Galaxy she’d bought off the Internet, it came to her.Skye. The perfect name for her daughter.
Mitch’s breathing grew lighter; he stretched, running a hand down her hip, his lips finding her neck. “You awake?”
They’d made love three times in a couple of hours. His erection pressing into the crease between her legs told her he was ready again.
She’d never felt so wanton in her life. The spot between her legs ached. At the same time, she was wet for him.
He did that to her. Everything about him, from his messy hair to his eyes, to his strong, muscular body, turned her on. She liked his snarky attitude, the way he teased her and didn’t seem to feel the least threatened by the degrees and certificates on her office wall. He was the exact opposite of the men who usually tripped her sexiness meter. “Hard to sleep through your snoring,” she teased.
Truth was, she hadn’t shared a bed with anyone since Roland. She’d grown used to being alone, sleeping alone. It surprised her that Mitch’s presence in her house, in her bed, felt so right.
He leaned up on an elbow and followed her gaze to the window. “I don’t snore.”
“Haha,” she said, noticing how his hand had made its way to her lower belly. “And I don’t eat M&Ms when I’m stressed.”
He nuzzled her behind her ear. “I hate to bring this up and ruin the moment, but…”
Oh, crud. Here it came. “You’re married, aren’t you?”
His fingers trailed over her ribs up to her breast where he cupped it. “You wish. That would make it easy, wouldn’t it? For you to kick me out of this bed.”
Sarcasm. His go-to when things might get serious. It did, however, ease her mind a tad. “Let me guess. You have a librarian fetish.”
“Wow, youaregood. How’d you guess?”
“Earlier you promised to take me on my desk while I wear my reading glasses.”
“Ah.” His hand moved to her other breast as he nibbled her ear. “Pretty textbook, huh?”
“Classic. But just so you know, I’m happy to enable that fantasy.”
He laughed softly in her ear, tweaked her nipple. His erection bobbed against her. “Damn, woman. You make me crazy. And distracted.”
“You were about to admit some deep, dark secret, I believe.”
He stopped nibbling, sighed. “I’m sorry, but I totally blew it.”
“Blew what?”
