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‘He’s an insomniac. Dad refuses to share a room with him on golf trips because the lights never go off.’ Her phone was already in her hand as she stood up. ‘He went round to do an evaluation on my house this afternoon. I wonder what he’s going to tell me.’
Michael stood too. ‘Are you selling?’
‘Thinking about it... Bill? It’s Stephanie. How did you get on?’
Michael watched the emotions flitting across her face. Mostly surprise and excitement, and his heart sank. Yep, definitely selling.
Unable to listen to any more, he stepped out of the bathroom and headed for the sitting room. He cursed her. Stephanie was making this harder by the minute. He mightn’t be ready to take a risk with his heart, but he suspected it was too late—that it was fully engaged with her. He sure as hell didn’t want her leaving town again. But what right did he have to ask her not to?
I’m a flight risk.
Yeah, he’d heard that, and then she’d added, ‘But not again’. Seemed she didn’t know what she was doing.
‘Wow, that’s pretty darned good.’
The woman who was winding him up dropped into the seat opposite.
‘Bill has given me the price he thinks he can get for my house and it’s higher than I’d ever have expected.’
‘That’s good.’ No, it wasn’t.
‘Sure is. Especially when he says I can get a house that meets my criteria for similar money in the same suburb.’
What? ‘What do you mean, get a house that meets your criteria?’
Her smile grew. ‘I haven’t felt right in that house since I got back. It’s not mine now. I’ve had tenants there and it feels different. I’ve started moving on. I want warm and modern.’ Her gaze cruised around his state-of-the-art lounge. ‘Some place I can call home. I don’t feel like that about my place now.’
‘It’s a house, not a home.’ His heart was lifting slowly, warily, and the weight holding it down was going.
‘Exactly.’ She was staring at him. ‘You thought I was running away again, didn’t you?’
‘Yes.’
She closed her eyes and her breasts rose. Her hands gripped her thighs. Then she eyeballed him. ‘I will never do that again. It didn’t solve anything last time, and isn’t likely to if I do it again.’
‘What needs solving?’
She looked away, staring at the far wall. Looked back to him, hope and sadness filling that brown gaze. ‘My future.’ She stood up. ‘I’m going to bed to catch up on sleep.’
Future. Bed.
The two words stuck in his mind. One he could do nothing about. The other...? It wasn’t what she’d meant. He knew that. But could he really continue to fight the attraction between them? Would embracing it help lift that sadness? For a while at least?
He pushed up onto his feet. ‘Steph?’
* * *
Steph couldn’t have moved if the house had been on fire. There was something in Michael’s eyes that dared her to step closer, to touch him, to hold him, to—She didn’t know what...only knew that she had to find out.
Her hand was on his. His skin was warm and smooth. Her skin was on fire. Standing this close put temptation right in front of her. Temptation she was not going to deny herself.
Michael entwined his fingers with hers as he stood up. ‘Steph...’ he breathed, long and slow.
Was ‘Steph’ good? Or bad? When he called her Stephanie she felt special. Right now she had no idea how to feel about that. He was so close...so, so close. She only had to lean forward an inch and her forehead would be lying on his chest.
A finger touched her chin, tipped her head up so her gaze clashed with his. ‘You’re beautiful,’ he whispered as his mouth lowered to hers. ‘May I?’
Raising onto her toes was her only answer. Words were a waste of effort and breath when all she wanted was to kiss him, to be kissed senseless by him.
He tasted good. Of man and dinner and the lemon dessert his sister had brought. What more could a woman want? She pushed higher, closer, needing more of him. All of him. She ignored the consequences. Tonight she’d take what she could and the rest she could think about tomorrow.
Her arms slipped around his neck, holding him so that he couldn’t get away if he suddenly changed his mind. Then Michael had his arms around her, pulling her up against his body, his chest against her peaking nipples, his abs nudging her belly, touching her from chin to toes. His mouth joined in and she was lost. Not that she intended changing her mind. Not this time.
His hands were under her jersey and splayed across her back, each finger a soft pad against her feverish skin. She remembered this. How she heated in an instant whenever he touched her skin. The explosion that would come when his fingers touched her sex. This was what she’d been hankering after, fighting off. A Michael moment. A long Michael moment when he would kiss her blind, caress her and tease her wild, and finally take her to a place that was special beyond description.
He’d shown her a part of herself she hadn’t known existed. No wonder she wanted him so badly... No wonder she loved him.
Steph stilled, her breath caught in the back of her throat. This was wrong. Yes, she loved Michael. No, it wasn’t going anywhere. So she should be heading for the door right about now. But she wanted him. Her body craved him. Her trembling legs were a clue. Her blood charged around her veins, thumping, hot, in need of what only Michael could give her.
‘Stephanie...’ Michael’s voice was a whisper. ‘Look at me.’
She bit back a curse. He’d stopped kissing her. Opening her eyes, she stared into his, saw his need for her, his love and care, and the worry that she might back off.
‘You okay with this?’ he asked softly.
Her head dipped. ‘Yes. Very.’
More than okay. No matter the outcome, she was going to follow through and make love with this man she loved with all her heart. She wanted and needed to. But most of all she had to show him how she felt, and this was the ultimate way.
Pulling Michael’s head close again, she returned to kissing him, and being kissed back, until the heat between them was incendiary...until her body was plastered against his and her hands were under the waistband of his jeans and sliding slowly down, down, down.
‘Bedroom,’ he croaked, pulling those lips away and wrapping his arm around her waist before heading down the hall to that enormous bed he slept in.
‘Bedroom,’ she agreed. ‘Bed.’
Soft, warm, and about to be trashed as they poured their feelings out.
‘This isn’t going to be easy,’ Michael said.
‘What? Oh.’ She’d completely forgotten about the wound to his thigh. Which didn’t make her a good person, did it? ‘Want to stop?’
‘No.’ Raising her jersey, he pulled it over her head. ‘And I’m not going to unless you ask me to.’
‘No chance.’
Her fingers were arguing with the zipper of his jeans. She’d go and find a pair of scissors in a minute...
‘Let me.’
Zip down and her hands were pushing the jeans down over his hips, over his butt, his thighs, his... That injury was a problem.
‘What if I bump your leg? Cause pain?’
‘Then you can kiss it better.’
With one arm under her knees and the other at her shoulders he swung her up and lowered her to the bed, quickly following to lie beside her, pulling her across his body, keeping his injured leg clear.
Spreading her hand over his belly, she felt a shiver of anticipation rock her. She was making love with Michael. This was for real. No longer a memory or a dream. It was real. His length was hard, strong, silky to the touch. Up, down...up down. Urgency drove her. She needed this. But what if he suddenly changed his mind? Remembered why he’d walked away last time?
‘Not so fast,’ he gasped, and reached between her legs for he
r moist spot.
‘I like fast,’ she whispered, colouring as she heard herself. Talking about sex wasn’t her strong point.
‘Yeah, right...’ he growled, and then kissed her to show how he intended to continue, his tongue plunging into her mouth, retreating, plunging again.
Steph gave herself over to the pressure building inside her, along her veins, in her core, in the air surrounding them, in her hands.
This was making love with Michael. This was perfect. For now. And it was a start. And she wasn’t finished.
Her hand slid over his waist, down his belly...
* * *
