Leaning back on the comfortable old sofa, Micah confessed silently that just flying himself here had been a release that he hadn’t experienced for a long time. He’d recently acquired a Cessna, and piloting himself to Maine had reminded him how much he missed the exhilaration of being alone, just him and an endless expanse of sky.
Finding Tessa here had been another plus, but he was cursing his unruly cock as it pressed against the unyielding denim of his jeans.
She’s just as beautiful as I remember!
As if he’d ever forget her staring at him like he was some kind of apparition when he’d stepped out of the shower at Jared’s guesthouse, the first time they’d met? Her expression had turned from one of terror to mortification, then finally curiosity as she’d surveyed his body. Shit, he still got wood just thinking about her fascinated gaze.
For some reason, Tessa had intrigued him from day one, and his preoccupation with her intensified after every encounter they had.
He’d gotten very little opportunity to talk to her during Evan’s wedding. Micah had been the only Sinclair cousin who had made it to Amesport for the official union between Evan and Miranda “Randi” Tyler. Julian had been in the middle of shooting a film out of country, and Xander was in no shape to travel. Regrettably, Micah had needed to leave right after the reception, and had only exchanged a few words with Tessa that day.
But that doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about her.
He thought about her too damn much for his liking.
Being back in Amesport felt good, real. He’d tried lying to himself when he’d bought Randi’s old home and much of the surrounding area, adamantly putting the notion in his brain that it would be a good buy from a business perspective. Okay, yeah, it probably would be a good investment since the town was growing. Maybe if he wanted to commercially build up the area he’d bought, it might even be reasonable. His cousin Jared had married a woman who had a steadily growing business in Amesport, and Randi’s special-learning-needs school would probably open next year. Eventually, the town would expand and grow. The speculation would make sense. But that wasn’t the reason he’d bought up the land. He was bullshitting himself, trying to rationalize the unreasonable. In reality, his reasons were far more personal.
His cock went stiff again as Tessa came out of the bedroom looking breathless and rumpled.
On her, the just-rolled-out-of-bed look was incredibly sensual. He wondered if that’s how she’d look after she came for him, and the desire to find out was nearly overwhelming.
Micah groaned inwardly as he noticed the perfectly modest shorts and the red T-shirt she was wearing. Her hair was probably still drying, but the plump curls were already visible, making him want to bury his fingers into the blonde, disorderly, spiraled locks to see if they were as soft and silky as they looked. On closer scrutiny, he didn’t see any makeup on her face, but her skin was glowing. The light-green eyes looking at him expectantly nearly did him in. The feeling that he’d seen her face before he’d ever met her hammered at him once again. She’d always looked familiar, but maybe he just fucking wanted to know her.
He wanted Tessa Sullivan—had from the first time he’d seen her, and the desire to bury himself inside her was getting impossible to ignore. Hell, he thought about her all the time, and she haunted his very dirty dreams even though he barely knew her. Honestly, he knew that she was one of the reasons he was here. He needed to get over his crazy obsession with the petite blonde, spend enough time with her to realize that his fantasies were nothing like reality. Micah was convinced that once he got to know Tessa, his fascination with her would stop tormenting him all the way to New York.
The way she was staring at his lips was oddly erotic, even though he knew exactly why her gaze was fixed on his mouth. He cursed himself for getting turned on by an action that was strictly necessity for her.
“I’m ready. I don’t really have much. I stored my stuff in Liam’s garage and just brought what I needed. I knew I wouldn’t be here forever,” she told him softly.
Micah signed as he spoke. “You gave up your apartment?”
He was secretly glad he’d brushed up on his ASL. There was no question as to why he’d done it. Micah wasn’t going to lie to himself anymore, or deny that his dick got hard over seeing Tessa. Truth was . . . he wanted to be able to communicate with her without looking awkward, and he just wanted to get over whatever madness Tessa Sullivan had driven him into. He was sick of his cock popping up like a jack-in-the-box every damn time he thought about her.
Now, he knew seeing her in person wasn’t helping. It was making his embarrassing condition even worse.
She nodded. “I wanted to save money over the summer, and rentals are outrageous. The price triples during tourist months.”
Micah knew she cleaned for his Sinclair cousins—who lived out on the exclusive Amesport Peninsula—during the winter months when the restaurant she owned with Liam was slower. Obviously, she was also willing to watch homes while the owners were absent. “Don’t you have to drive to the restaurant every day?”
“Not every day after the summer months,” she answered. “Our open hours are shorter, and we’re closed more days. We have staff that we want to keep even though they’ll work less hours. Liam handles most of the management at the restaurant during the winter, and he’s anal about the way things are run there. I just work the busy days, and cover for other staff when they need me.”
“So where will you go if you leave here? Are your parents still alive?”