She knew this man.The scent of him.And the feel of him.Those tiny hairs on the back of his neck, the strong line of his jaw, the sensation of a day’s worth of stubble rasping against her fingertips.The taste of him.He grew tired of his game and slipped into her mouth.
“Yes,” she whispered.
At last.His tongue moved delicately past her teeth to meet and embrace hers.They touched, tip to tip, then circled, rough to smooth.Long strokes imitated the act of love, whirlpool-like plunges dueled.He tasted exactly as she remembered.Sultry sweetness with a hint of the forbidden.His hands dropped from her arms to her waist, then lower and behind to her derriere.He cupped her curves.
Yes, she cried in her mind.She wanted him.He’d aroused her before, but always there had been the fear.Her body wasn’t curvy enough.She didn’t know how to please a man.She felt embarrassed by his looking and touching her.
She hadn’t been taught by anyone but him, and now the fear was gone.She was a woman, ready to be taken by this man.When he pulled her hips close, she felt the length and breadth of his arousal.An answering heat rose between her thighs.He had readied her with a kiss.
“Adam,” she breathed against his mouth.
It was as if his name had broken the spell that held him next to her.He stiffened in her embrace; his arms fell to his sides.
Don’t, she thought frantically, as the haze of passion lifted and allowed her to recall the difficulty of their situation.He still hated her for what she’d done to him.She continued to withhold the truth of his daughter from him.An impossible circumstance.
She stepped back before he could completely reject her.Her eyes searched his, hoping for a lingering sign of arousal, a hint that his wall of control had been bridged.He stood tall, with his arms at his sides and his hands balled up in fists.There was nothing soft about him.Nothing forgiving.If it were not for the memory of his body next to hers, the sweet taste his tongue had left inside her mouth, she would have wondered if she’d imagined the moment.
Coldness invaded his eyes, stealing away whatever desiremight have stayed.He stared directly at her.“That should never have happened.”
Of course it should have, Jane thought touching her fingertips to her still-trembling lips.Didn’t he get it?She wasn’t afraid of him.A liberating thought, heady even.No fear.For months, years after she’d left Orchard, she’d carried around the weight of that fear.Her uncertainty, her knowledge that she wasn’t woman enough to please Adam or strong enough to tell him what she was feeling had convinced her that she was so much less than everyone else.As she had survived and raised a child on her own, her confidence had grown, but she’d still shied away from men.
Her gaze dropped to his mouth.They should do it again, she decided, wondering if the passion and fire had been real.Had he felt it?Her stomach and thighs tingled with the memory of him pressing hard against her.Hehadfelt something; she’d been touched by the proof of that.
She thought about stepping closer, of trying to tempt him.Even as she took one step toward him, he spun and walked to the window.
“I don’t have an explanation,” he said, staring out into the darkness.“I don’t usually lose control like that.It won’t happen again.”
He sounded so angry and final.His words battered at her newly discovered passion until she was ashamed.He’d wanted to punish her, make her suffer as he had.The kiss had been about retribution, not affection or desire.The thrill and excitement began to die within her.She tried to hang on to the feelings.The moment had been important to her.Don’t let it go, she told herself.
It was too late.
Defeat hunched her shoulders and she folded her arms over her chest.“See that it doesn’t,” she said, in a flash of self-preservation, then wondered if he knew she lied.
He stood so proudly, she thought as she stared at his back.Strong and broad.A man.He wore his power easily.The athletic prowess from his youth had stayed with him, adding grace to his movements.Tonight, however, he stood stiffly.The past weighed on him.
“Once your furniture arrives and you move into your own house, I don’t want to see you again.”
It hurt, she thought with a flash of surprise.It hurt that he could dismiss her so easily.Not seeing her wasn’t an option.Not if he wanted to get to know his daughter.But then Adam didn’t know he had a daughter.She’d have to tell him.
Not yet.She again touched her fingers to her lips.The sensitive skin quivered from his kiss.In a few days.When she was stronger.When the bridge between them didn’t seem so long and dangerous.
“Good night, Adam.”
“Good night.”
She turned to leave.Before she could open the door to the hallway, he spoke.
“Jane?”
“Yes?”Oh stop, she told herself, hating how hopeful she sounded.
“It won’t happen again.”
The kiss.Of course not.Why would he have thought she’d think otherwise?
“I know.”That was the hell of it really.She did know.
Chapter Six
