SevenSensuousDays by Tina Donahue

stop.
    “They’re here today?” Tessa asked.
    Logan had sent the husband and wife team packing, giving
them a surprise vacation for seven days. “No. But the house, my house, isn’t
empty.”
    That pulled her attention from him. She turned to the
building. “Who’s inside?”
    He leaned close and murmured, “You’ll see as soon as we get
there.”
    Tessa didn’t budge. She clutched her purse to her chest as
though she needed it for protection. “Can I ask you something?”
    Her reaction surprised Logan. He’d only been teasing. Why,
he had no idea. It wasn’t like him…at least the him he’d come to be. This past
year he’d been serious as hell about everything, his life consisting mainly of
his work. Before that, he’d grown increasingly cautious, not at all like the
man he’d been in his twenties. Casual. Relaxed. Optimistic. Goofing around.
Making jokes.
    “There’s no one inside, all right?” he said gently. “I was
just kidding. Nothing to worry about.”
    Tessa studied him, clearly deciding how she should respond.
    “Go on,” he coaxed. “Say whatever you want.”
    She shifted her weight, grasping her purse even tighter. “You’re
sure about that. Absolutely? No doubt at all?”
    Given her weird questions—no, he wasn’t certain in the
least. Even so, he nodded.
    Tessa sucked her bottom lip.
    God help him. She looked so fucking wholesome, so damn
inviting, it took all of Logan’s will not to move into her and suck her lip
himself. “What?” he asked.
    “I know why I’m here,” she blurted. “You know why I’m here.
But I have a request, if that’s all right.”
    “A request?” What was she talking about? What in the hell
could it be?
    “It’s not for more money or anything,” she said quickly. “So
you don’t have to worry about that.”
    “I wasn’t.” If anything, she was beginning to piss him off.
Did she believe he thought so little of her that he assumed she’d shake him
down for more cash? “You don’t seem like the type to extort funds from any man.”
    “Oh, I’m not.” She gave him a wide-eyed innocent look that
damn near had him pulling her into his arms to offer comfort and reassurance. “I
just want you to know where I’m coming from.”
    “Okay. Where is that?”
    “I’d like to talk. Not like now. But really talk.” The words
continued to rush from her as though she couldn’t get them out quickly enough. “I’d
like us to get to know each other a little bit before we, well, you know, do
anything.”
     
    At the end of the miles-long driveway, Wallace turned left
onto the public road and said, “Ronnie”, to activate the hands-free calling.
Her number rang three times before she picked up.
    “Wallace?”
    He smiled at her smoky voice, the way she said his name,
treasuring it. For years, he’d yearned for Ronnie while working for her. An
attraction he hadn’t expected or really wanted after losing his wife. She’d
been in her late forties, far too young, when Alzheimer’s struck. Relentless
and cruel, the disease moved all too quickly, erasing her personality and
memories, stealing the woman he’d adored. Wallace had bankrupted his own limo
company to pay for her care. After she passed, he hadn’t been looking for love
again, but thankfully had found it.
    “Yeah,” he answered, sounding downright giddy. Like a young
boy rather than a senior citizen. “Am I disturbing anything?”
    “Not at all. I’m just sitting on the sofa relaxing.”
    “Alexa run you around the stores?”
    “I did that to her.”
    He smiled. Since Alexa had left the agency, she and Ronnie
got together as often as they could. They were closer than most mothers and
daughters. So much so, Ronnie had urged Alexa to quit the agency for months. In
Ronnie’s eyes, even helping to run the place was too much of a risk for the
young woman, given that the authorities could always find out about it. With
Alexa now pregnant with her and Hunt’s first child—due in