He thought maybe she’d come in and demand an explanation. Why he’d kissed her in the first place. Why he’d walked away without saying anything. But she didn’t, and for that he was grateful. He had no idea what he’d say. He hadn’t been himself since that short interlude at breakfast, because he hadn’t been able to quit thinking about how much he’d enjoyed her touch and wanted more of it. So once he had her in his arms, instinct had taken over, without any permission from his brain.

Trying not to dwell on how good Tia had tasted—the mere acknowledgment felt so disloyal to Shiloh—he got in the shower, where he knew he was safe from a confrontation, and let the water pound down his back.

Afterward, while drying his hair, he couldn’t help listening for sounds of movement in the house above the whir of the blow-dryer.

He couldn’t hear anything. Thank God.

What would’ve happened had he stayed in the pool? he wondered. But the answer was easy. He would’ve removed her suit and his basketball shorts. No question. The thought of her bare body sliding under his as he pressed her up against the side of the pool and—

Yanking his mind away from that precipice, he drew a deep, steadying breath. Lust had always seemed like such a shallow emotion. At least, it was portrayed that way. Who knew it could be powerful enough to nearly bring him to his knees?

“Help me out, Shiloh,” he said while staring at his reflection. But she’d never felt more distant than she did in that moment. And the only way he could siphon off the sexual energy flowing through him was to start a new painting, one that hadn’t been commissioned but captured the desire, the wild turbulence and the deep-seated anger he felt—at his mother, at his childhood, at the loss of one of the few people who’d ever truly loved him, and at the fact that his body craved something his mind and heart couldn’t let him have.

Tia was a little shaken after Seth left. She’d been feeling more like herself than she had since the accident. She’d even begun to let go of her self-consciousness and fear and believe that Seth didn’t really see or care about her scars.

And then wham. What’d happened to them when they’d come up out of the water that last time? Had she instigated their kiss?

She didn’t think so, but she’d certainly been a willing participant.