Page 43 of Summer of Love (Costas Sisters 2)
Ryan shook his head. “Sorry, my manners seem to have failed me,” he said rather formally. “Uncle Russell, meet Zoe Costas. Uncle Russell came down because…He…”
Ryan’s voice trailed off, and Zoe understood the reason for his sudden discomfort. “He wanted to meet Sam,” she finished for him. “Odd considering nobody but you has seemed interested in Sam in years.” Zoe lashed out, refusing to hold her feelings back, but unable to meet Ryan’s gaze as she did so.
Beside Ryan, his uncle stiffened.
“That was completely uncalled for,” Ryan said as he turned suddenly judgmental before her eyes.
“The young lady has gumption,” his uncle said in an equally formal voice.
She couldn’t tell if his comment was meant as a compliment or an insult. Between the New England accent and the haughty attitude, he hid his true feelings well.
“I always have gumption, especially when I’m protecting family. And Sam is already family. She’s my sister. Signing adoption papers is just a formality,” she said, forcing herself to speak aloud a conviction she no longer believed was so simple and straightforward.
Ryan set his jaw. “We’ll see about that.”
She narrowed her gaze. Never in all the time they’d been together, first as adversaries and later as lovers, had this subject come up. They’d each trodden carefully around the other’s feelings, wanting what was best for the teenager, and respecting the other’s position and desires. Yet in front of his uncle, Ryan took a definitive stand that froze Zoe inside and out.
But she’d started it by mentioning the adoption, and suddenly she knew why, just as she knew what was different about Ryan now. His demeanor had changed. Though he’d only been in New Jersey a short time, in the past few days he’d relaxed around Zoe and her family. He’d accepted their outspokenness and come to enjoy their uniqueness, like Elena’s kimonos and Sam’s pet pig. All things that would never be accepted in his Boston home.
Yet sitting sandwiched between Zoe and his uncle, he was faced with two disparate choices. The Costas’ eccentricity versus the values of his conservative relatives. Any feelings he might have developed for Zoe versus his loyalty to his own family.
His worst nightmare had come to life, Zoe thought. As had hers, since it was obvious whom he would choose. Ryan’s aloofness and the clothes he’d chosen all put a barrier between himself and Zoe and proved her gut instinct had been correct all along. More than the physical distance between New Jersey and Massachusetts separated her from Ryan. More separated them than even their desire to claim Sam.
The emotional gulf between them couldn’t be greater. Heaven help her when he discovered Sam had run away.
Ryan was furious. He couldn’t look at Zoe without wanting to strangle her. Signing adoption papers was just a formality? Since when had she deleted him from the equation, without a thought? That lack of thought was the key to his anger. Throughout this painful process, they’d developed a respect for one another that she’d completely trashed in one split second.
He clenched his fists, then turned to his uncle. “Excuse us for a minute, won’t you?” Ryan stood, grasped Zoe’s hand and pulled her into the kitchen.
The door swung shut behind them, and he immediately turned, backing her toward the counter. He stared into the green eyes capable of bringing him to his knees.
He couldn’t afford to lose focus now. “Care to tell me what that was all about back there?”
“What was what all about?” She braced her hands against the Formica and leaned back. Away from him.
“That nonsense about Sam. The cold way you’re deliberately distancing yourself from me. When we need to help each other most.”
She blinked. “Are you for real? You show up on my doorstep right after I had to break my parents’ hearts, wearing your stuffy suit and bringing your equally stuffy uncle in what has to be a show of power and—”
Ryan didn’t know what possessed him, but one minute she was hurling accusations that clearly told him how scared and hurt she really was, and the next minute all he could think about was kissing her. He watched those full, sensual lips moving and all he could hear was the blood pounding in his ears propelled by the desire coursing through his veins.
He’d missed her, and now he had to taste her or go completely insane. He grabbed her forearms and pulled her close, then pressed his lips against hers. He was hard and demanded everything, and she immediately responded, kissing him back, her mouth willing and open, all the pent-up passion and desire and need spilling forth.
He tangled his hands in her hair and angled her head so he could get deeper access into the warm, wet recesses of her mouth. She trembled under his assault and he turned his head so he could trail moist kisses down her cheek and slender neck, inhaling her fragrant scent.
