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His body was magnificent. The height and breadth of him was all around her, consuming in its maleness. He was magnificent. And the primitive raw excitement he induced when he so much as touched her was magnificent too. She had never imagined human beings could feel something as elemental as this.
‘You’re so beautiful,’ he murmured huskily against her hungry mouth. ‘Incredibly, fantastically beautiful.’
His lips moved to the silky hollow of her throat and she arched back her head, the thick fall of her hair like a shimmering curtain. She could feel the hot hardness of his erection against the softness of her belly and knew he was hugely aroused, but her emotion was one of fierc
e pride and power that she could make this man, this hard, ruthless, cold man, shake with passion.
And then they both heard it from the bedroom upstairs; a small but determined voice calling, ‘Mummy, Mummy. I want you to read my story now.’
He raised his head very slowly and only after a trail of kisses ending at her half-open mouth. ‘Saved by the bell?’ he murmured quizzically against the smooth flushed skin of her cheek.
She stared at him, her eyes huge and seemingly unable to tear themselves away from the carved lines of his mouth and the dark stubble of beard on his chin. ‘Your…your dessert,’ she managed faintly. ‘I came to give you your dessert.’
‘It looks good enough to eat,’ he said softly, and they both knew he wasn’t talking about the cake.
‘I need to go.’ She gestured vaguely with one hand but still without taking her eyes off his hard, handsome face. ‘Melody is waiting for me.’
He smiled, dropping a warm, featherlike kiss on the tip of her nose but without loosening his hold of her by the slightest. ‘I know how she feels,’ he said huskily. ‘I feel like I’ve been waiting for you all of my life. I came straight from the airport tonight and if you hadn’t been here I’d have camped outside until you came back. How come you’ve done that to me, woman?’
There was a note of real bewilderment in his throaty voice that almost made Kim smile. Almost. But now his mouth had left hers reality was rushing in, and with it the knowledge of how close she had been to losing control. Who was she kidding? she chided herself savagely in the next instant. Her control had been nonexistent. If it hadn’t been for Melody calling…
‘Lucas, you don’t know me.’ She tried to prise herself out of his arms as she spoke.
‘The hell I don’t.’ It was soft and intent. ‘What do you think the last five months have been all about? I know you and you know me, Kim. Don’t try and kid yourself. We’ve spent most of the last one hundred and fifty-odd days together, damn it.’
‘But not intimately,’ she blurted out confusedly.
‘I’m more than willing to rectify that at the earliest opportunity.’
‘You know how I feel,’ she muttered weakly, managing to move away from him as Melody’s voice called again.
‘Yes, I do,’ he said with deadly certainty. ‘And it’s quite different to what you’re telling me, isn’t it, Kim?’
‘No.’ The protest was weak and the silver-grey eyes reflected their recognition of it.
‘You want me, Kim, and I want you. It’s as simple as that.’
‘Nothing is as simple as that,’ she shot back shakily. ‘You’ve got no idea, have you? You think falling in and out of bed is just a grown-up game but it’s not. It’s not! I’m not like that.’
‘Like what?’ he bit back angrily, his face straightening and becoming as severe as the wintry hue of his eyes. ‘I’m not suggesting a one-night stand, for crying out loud. And while we’re on the subject, promiscuity has never been a habit of mine, in case you’re wondering—neither have I ever fallen in or out of anywhere, to my knowledge!’
‘I didn’t mean…’ Her voice trailed away as he surveyed her from narrowed unblinking eyes. ‘Look, I have to go up to Melody.’ She pointed to the cake with a trembling hand. ‘Eat your cake.’
She heard him mutter something very rude as she turned and escaped from the room, but she didn’t stop in her headlong flight.
Melody was all pouts and frowns when Kim entered her daughter’s bedroom, but after establishing that no, Lucas could not come and read her story, and yes, Kim would stay with her until she was asleep, Melody snuggled down in bed and was asleep before the story was finished.
What had she done? Kim sat in the shadowed bedroom watching Melody as she slept, her eyes lingering on the small rosebud mouth and the thick lashes on the porcelain skin, the way Melody’s fine silky hair tumbled over the pillow like spun gold.
She had to tell him, as soon as she went downstairs, that she wanted him to leave. Moreover, that if their relationship couldn’t be constrained to a purely platonic working association, then she would have to leave Kane Electrical.
Her heart gave a massive thud and then raced for a few seconds, reminding her—as if she needed it—that the thought made her feel sick. But she would do it, she told herself firmly. This was survival. He’d got too close.
She wasn’t quite sure when and how it had happened but it didn’t really matter now. The end result was the same. She had let him work himself into her life and that meant the potential of pain and misery. It was a road she just wasn’t prepared to walk down.
She sat for another five minutes in the quiet room, listening to Melody’s steady regular breathing and watching the peaceful baby face. Lucas’s bear was tucked under her daughter’s arm and the toy confirmed every fear she had, somehow. This had to end, now, tonight. Never mind it had never really started.
Her step was purposeful as she walked downstairs and she had the words trembling on her tongue as she opened the sitting room door.
