Okay, it wasn't heartburn, she admitted to herself. It was desire. She'd almost forgotten what that felt like.
When her gaze drifted back up to Luca's face, there was a faint curl of a smile on his lips. Could he tell she was checking him out?
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yes. I just couldn't sleep."
"Me, neither." His gaze drifted over her thin nightie with appreciation in his eyes. His jaw clenched tightly, making her wonder if they were both suffering from the same cause of insomnia.
"Would you like some tea?" she asked, distracting herself. "I just made myself some chamomile with honey."
"No, thank you."
As he continued to stand there, Claire felt herself at a loss. She could sense the tension in the air between them. It was electric, yet neither of them seemed willing to do anything about it. Probably because they both knew it was a bad idea. And yet...
Claire needed to go back to her room, drink her tea and go to sleep. That was the only thing she needed to do. She just had to get past Luca's hulking figure blocking the path between the fridge and the kitchen island. "Well, good night then," she said. Dropping her gaze to the mug in her hands, she pressed forward, expecting Luca to move out of the way.
But he didn't.
Instead, she felt his hand catch her waist. The heat of his skin burned through the thin fabric of her gown, nearly branding her with his touch. "Claire?"
She stopped cold, her breath catching in her throat. Using just one word, he'd asked a hundred different questions at once. She turned her head to look up at him. He was looking down at her, with his own ragged breaths making his chest rise and fall as though he'd been running. He swallowed hard, the muscles in his throat contracting. She watched his tongue snake over his bottom lip. All the while, his intense eyes were devouring her.
Claire knew in that moment that whatever question he was asking, the answer was yes. Setting down the mug of tea, she turned to him. "Yes."
Luca didn't hesitate. He scooped her up into his arms and pulled her hard against his chest. His mouth met hers with the ferocity of a man dying of thirst and she was his glass of water. He drank her in and Claire was powerless to stop it. She didn't want to. It had been too long since she'd been desired. Wanted. Jeff had never once in their years of marriage kissed her with as much passion as Luca did in this moment. She didn't want to let that go.
Claire wrapped her arms around his neck and arched her back to press her hips into him. She felt the evidence of his desire there, insistently nudging against her. He groaned her name against her mouth when they made contact, then spun her around until her back was touching the cold stainless steel of the refrigerator. The chill did little to dampen the heat building inside her. With every stroke of his tongue and graze of his hand along her body, he stoked the flames that she'd once thought had died out for good.
When she felt his hand slip beneath her nightgown and his fingers brush the lacy trim of her panties, she felt the slightest hesitation. Like a lightning bolt, it startled her out of the hormone-driven haze she'd fallen into. Things had moved fast. Too fast. Was she really ready to have sex in the kitchen with a man she barely knew? The man who was trying to take Eva from her?
Before she could answer, the sharp, angry wail of her daughter interrupted her thoughts. It wasn't Eva's usual cry for hunger or a wet diaper. Something was wrong.
Luca stilled and pulled away, his lips a fraction of an inch from hers. He was breathing hard, likely cursing his bad luck and hoping that Eva would fall back asleep. That wasn't going to happen.
Claire pushed against Luca's chest and he took a step back. "I'm sorry, I have to go check on the baby." She fled the kitchen as quickly as she could, both out of concern and awkwardness. That situation had quickly gotten out of control, and thankfully Eva woke at just the right time to keep things from going too far.
Entering the bedroom, she turned on the lamp and scooped her red faced and teary daughter from her crib. "What's the matter, baby?" she asked, but the second Claire's cheek touched Eva's, she knew what was wrong.
Eva was burning up with fever.
Claire started frantically searching through her diaper bag for the baby thermometer. Her desire-addled thoughts were scrambled by the sharp cries in her ear. "Shhh, you're okay," she soothed, but Eva could not be comforted. Poor, sick baby.
"Is she okay?"
Claire turned to find Luca in her doorway. "She has a fever." She finally located the thermometer and placed it inside the infant's ear. "One hundred and three."
That seemed high. She felt the panic start to well up inside her. She hadn't brought her baby book. She was hours away from Eva's pediatrician. She knew that the seriousness varied by age and temperature, but she didn't recall what the cutoff was for calling the doctor. The louder Eva cried, the harder it was for her to try to focus.
"Here," Luca said, gently taking Eva from her arms.
"What do you think you're doing?" Claire asked.
"I'm taking care of our sick child." Ignoring her irritable tone, Luca immediately started unsnapping Eva's onesie. He seemed unfazed by the sharp screams of his daughter, so in control when Claire felt anything but. "I'm going to put her in a cool bath to make her more comfortable. Do you have any medication to bring down her fever?"
She nodded. "It's in the diaper bag. I'll dig it out."
Luca disappeared into the master bathroom and Claire quickly dug around in the bag until she found the medicine. By the time she joined Luca in the bathroom, Eva had started to quiet down. She was lying in her bath chair in a shallow pool of water while Luca rubbed a damp sponge over her skin. The lukewarm water and lavender scented bubbles seemed to soothe her. After a few minutes, the tears were dried, and while she still seemed a little cranky and uncomfortable, they'd made good progress.
At last, Luca lifted Eva up into her yellow bath towel with the ducky hood and bundled her up. He squeezed the dropper of medicine into Eva's mouth and handed the bottle back to Claire. "While I get her dried off, can you make her a bottle with cool water in it? She might be a little dehydrated from the fever, and it will make her more comfortable."
Claire nodded and wandered off toward the kitchen, feeling oddly useless as Luca took charge. She wasn't even entirely sure what had just happened, aside from the fact that in a crucial moment she'd choked and given Luca the window of opportunity he'd been waiting for. When she reached the kitchen, she eyed her abandoned mug of tea and the smudged refrigerator and shook her head. Apparently tonight was a night of missteps.
At the same time, she was happy to have someone here with her. This was Eva's first real fever, and although she thought she was prepared for it, she'd been completely off her game coming fresh from Luca's kisses. She supposed that was the benefit of having two parents, to split the responsibility and pick up the slack for the other. She didn't know what that was like.
As she filled a small bottle with filtered water, she felt the unexpected prickle of tears in her eyes. This was just one more moment to remind her what she'd lost with Jeff's recklessness. Her dreams of having a family had been shattered, creating a new reality that was so much harder than she ever imagined. He'd left her to raise a child alone all so he could get a hand job on a winding road.
"Claire?"
Claire quickly batted her tears away and sniffed. She tightened the bottle's cap and turned to face him. "It's ready. How is she doing?"
Luca watched her with concern as he took the bottle. "I think she'll be okay. I'm not so sure about you, though."
"Me?" She must not have done as good a job of hiding her emotions as she thought.
"Eva's going to be fine, you know. There's nothing to be worried about."
Claire nodded in agreement. "I know."
"Okay, so what is bothering you then?"
That was a loaded question. "Something. Everything. Don't worry about me, Luca, really. Lately, I seem to have too many hot buttons for life to push."
Luca adjusted Eva in his arms and gave her the bottle. "Is it the kiss? Did I press you too quickly?"
"No," she admitted. "The kiss was...lovely. Probably not the best idea for us, but I don't regret it."
"Then did I overstep with Eva tonight? I'm sorry if that's it, but you seemed a bit overwhelmed and I wanted to help. My youngest sister had a lot of ear infections when she was little and was prone to fevers. I've spent more than a few nights up with my mother bathing fussy babies."