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It was so tempting.…
“I know there’s no one out there waiting for you. Just say yes, Victoria.”
Too tempting.
And the emptiness would be forever filled by Connor…and Dylan. A family. A chance to have what Suzy had had. What she’d never dared hope for.
Before she could think better of it, she leaned forward and placed her lips against his.
He froze.
She parted her lips. Lightly, delicately she traced her tongue tip over his mouth. His chest lifted against her, rising, pressing against brea**sts that were suddenly tender.
She tasted him, sipped at him, until his breath escaped in short, jerky gasps. His arms came around her, engulfing her, holding her close. He was hard, all male. The snug fit of his jeans couldn’t hide the erection that had sprung to life, a rock-like ridge against her lower belly.
He cupped her bottom, pulled her up against him and took her mouth. It was her turn to shudder with desire. He thrust his tongue deep, and the act of possession sent a primitive thrill through her.
Stroking the inside of her mouth, his tongue searched out the smooth skin inside her cheeks, the highly sensitized roof-arch.
She groaned, a hoarse, wanting sound.
No longer aware of where they were—barely aware of how long it had been since the kiss began—she focused on the hunger that raged between them.
He moved closer, his leg pushing between hers, the harsh fabric of his jeans rough against her skin. But that was sexy, too.
Until Dylan mumbled in the cot behind her and she leapt away from Connor as if she’d been scalded.
Connor stood rigid. His eyes were wide and, for the first time since the night he’d come to tell her of Michael’s death, she recognized the emotion in his eyes.
Shock.
Her heart hammering, she balled her hands at her sides to stop them from reaching for him. “See what you made me do? That was monumentally stupid.”
He swallowed, and she fixed her gaze on his Adam’s apple, watched it bob up and down, avoiding his too-astute eyes. Hurriedly she added, “You irritated me.” And flicked her gaze up.
Then wished she hadn’t.
White-hot. That’s what his eyes were. Enough to incinerate her.
“I overreacted—and so did you.” Silence. “Don’t you agree?” More silence. “I don’t want to make love without it meaning anything,” she protested, more to convince herself than him, wishing she wasn’t having this wretched one-sided conversation with a man she simply didn’t understand.
“I’m not asking you to.” He sounded so reasonable. “I only asked you to marry me.”
Her heart sank. “So you’re proposing a marriage in name only? Absolutely no sex?” She risked a look at him. His expression was indecipherable.
“Do I understand you correctly?” He drew a deep, audible breath. “If we take sex out of the equation you’d marry me?”
“Maybe…” It was a croak of sound. But her body was urging more, more, more.
“This is no time for maybe, Victoria. Yes or no?”
They weren’t touching. Yet over the gap that separated them she could feel the heat of his body, the force of his power.
Victoria started to tremble. She was ready to say anything to stop the sizzle.
“Yes,” she sighed.
Nine
C onnor discovered over the next few days that getting married solely for Dylan’s sake wasn’t what he wanted. He wasn’t that noble. He wanted more.
She was driving him crazy. Once or twice as she sashayed past he considered yanking her off her feet, into his lap, and repeating the experiment.
Their no-sex agreement had to be the most idiotic thing he’d ever done. Hell, she was going to wear his ring. That would brand her his for the world to see. Yet he wouldn’t be allowed to touch. Sooner or later something was going to have to give—and it would be Victoria. He was quite confident that he would achieve that. She would come around. He’d see to it because he sure as hell had no intention of sticking to their stupid pact.
In the meantime, he made up for it by looking. Surreptitiously, carefully and at every opportunity he got.
It was torture.
Several times each day he would call Victoria at work—ostensibly to talk about Dylan. But he found himself looking forward to those segments of time when her husky voice came over the line, especially when he managed to get her to laugh.
Lust had turned him into something pathetic.
It was a sign of how entangled he’d become with his new life that, when Iris came into his spacious corner office with his coffee and announced that she’d heard Dana and Paul were getting married, Connor felt one brief flare of resentment and then…nothing.
