The Pregnancy Surprise. Kara Lennox

but she really does love me like a granddaughter. The B and B is my home, and we take care of each other.”

      “What about your family?”

      “My parents aren’t exactly the nurturing kind. They’re both military—spit ’n’ polish, no crying allowed, pull yourself up by your bootstraps. I don’t ask them for help and they don’t offer.”

      “Where do they live?”

      “At MacShane—you know, the army base about fifty miles inland?”

      Reece nodded. He’d seen it on a map, but that was about it.

      “I’m not a military brat in the usual sense, though,” she said. “They didn’t move around. Both of them spent almost their entire careers at MacShane. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good people and they were good parents. But I’m so different from them. They don’t get me and I don’t get them, but we love each other in our own ways.”

      Reece understood growing up with less-than-warm-and-fuzzy parents. His were rigid, also, especially with him. Whatever nurturing instincts they had got used up on his older brother, Bret.

      “I don’t exactly get you, either,” he said. “But I think you’re…unique.”

      She wrinkled her nose. “Unique? Is that the best you can do, Reece Remington?”

      All right, so sweet-talking women had never been his strong suit. He possessed other good qualities. Like kissing. He’d been told he was a very good kisser.

      Before he could chicken out, he pulled off his glasses, slipped his arms around her and brought his mouth to hers.

      Chapter Three

      Sara sank into the kiss, which was like melted butter on a warm biscuit—better than she could have dreamed. His mouth was demanding but somehow gentle as he coaxed her lips open, one hand buried in the hair at the back of her neck, angling her head just how he wanted it.

      He teased her upper lip with his tongue, then did the same with her lower lip. She entwined her arms around his neck, at first to draw closer, then to keep from sinking to the floor as her knees turned to jelly and she lost all feeling in her extremities.

      The kiss seemed to go on forever as their tongues met and performed a mating dance. It was, hands down, the sexiest, most provocative kiss she’d ever experienced, and she loved it that he didn’t immediately press for more. He didn’t touch her breasts, he didn’t grind his pelvis into hers.

      He just kissed her like it was the last kiss either of them would ever have. Oh, God, she hoped not.

      Finally he pulled back and looked down at her, faintly amused. “Unique, and you have really soft lips.”

      “O-okay, that’s better.”

      “Go get some sleep. We have a busy day ahead of us.” He released her, brushing his lips against her forehead before disappearing into his room.

      Huh. She wanted so badly to go in there with him. But he hadn’t invited her.

      She headed for the attic stairs that led to her bedroom, but her legs refused to carry her up them, and she sank onto the second step and stared at Reece’s door.

      Wow. That had been a surprise.

      Maybe she should have forced him out of his comfort zone sooner. Certainly that Bulgarian restaurant hadn’t been a comfortable place for him. Neither had he felt at home in the B and B’s kitchen. He’d bungled around like…well, like a macho man in a kitchen.

      She’d been surprised each time he’d risen to her challenges. He’d tried the slightly strange food. He’d allowed her to show him things in the kitchen.

      And then he’d kissed her. Connection?

      The only problem was, what was she going to do now? Had she started something she wasn’t prepared to finish?

      She used to take romance lightly, easy come, easy go. If a relationship didn’t work out, she might be sad for a short time, but there were always new men to be found.

      Recently, however, she’d been wondering whether she had a soul mate out there. Allie, who only a few weeks ago had been confirmedly single, had found love with Cooper Remington, and Sara had begun to feel left out.

      But if she were to “settle down,” it would take a special kind of guy, one who was as adventurous as she was, who loved traveling and trying new things.

      She had to admit, Reece didn’t strike her as the least bit adventurous. He was ultraserious, a buttoned-down CPA who loved to talk about risk management and long-term projections.

      Her projections usually didn’t extend past what she planned to have for lunch that day.

      And yet…he was so delicious. Not only that, but he was a good guy. He hadn’t balked—not really—when she’d volunteered him to handle the B and B finances while Miss Greer took care of her health. Delicious men came and went, but ones with character—they were a bit more rare.

      Maybe she ought to decide what she wanted from Reece before she did something crazy.

      SARA WAS UP before light the next day, but when she reached the kitchen, she found Reece already there, pondering the workings of the coffeemaker. She liked seeing him there. His very male presence balanced all the Victorian froufrou.

      “You already changed the lightbulbs?” she asked, instead of saying good morning.

      He jumped. “Oh. Yeah.” He looked everywhere but at her.

      He was probably regretting last night’s moment of weakness. Fine. If that was how he wanted to play it, she could pretend it never happened. “I’ll get the coffee ready. You can preheat the upper oven to three hundred ten degrees, and the lower one to four twenty-five.”

      “Okay.”

      That took him all of twenty seconds. When he was done, he intently watched her make coffee, as if committing every step to memory. His attention, so focused, gave her a delicate shiver.

      “Are you cold?” he asked. “I opened the window when I came down because it seemed stuffy, but I can close it.”

      “No, the fresh air is nice.” She chuckled. “I’m surprised you were able to get the window open at all. Miss Greer has a phobia about fresh air. Even in the dead of summer, she’s sure everyone will catch their death of cold if there’s a draft.”

      “Well, Miss Greer isn’t here, and what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”

      Sara’s heart thudded hard as she chanced a look over her shoulder at Reece. His brown eyes sparkled with mischief. Was he trying to tell her something else? Did he know that she’d been holding back a bit because he was a guest, and hitting on guests was frowned upon?

      Now that Reece was sort of part of the management, did that change everything?

      She looked away quickly, wondering if it was too late to undo last night’s kiss. For the first time in her life, she was a bit scared of getting involved on any level with a man, and she wasn’t quite sure why. Would she get out unscathed if she and Reece got carried away with this attraction thing?

      He was just so different from the guys she usually went for, and she felt she didn’t know the rules anymore.

      “Why don’t you set the table?” she suggested brightly. “Linens are in the buffet, dishes in the china cabinet. Set six place settings.”

      “What about me?” he asked. “Don’t I get to eat?”

      “You’re the hired help now. We eat in the kitchen.”

      “I don’t see how I can be hired help if I’m not getting paid,” he pointed out good-naturedly, though he moved to the dining room to follow directions.

      She pushed the coffeemaker’s