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“Kiss me,” he demanded.
“No.” She wanted to, but somehow she held out. Somehow found the strength to pull away from him again. Probably from the hurt she felt at the regret she’d seen in his eyes. How could he look at her like that and then ask her to kiss him as if nothing had happened? They couldn’t have sex again if he was only going to regret it afterwards.
“Yes.” He lifted his head, straining to meet her lips, but Darby held just out of his reach.
In a quick roll, Blake pinned her beneath his long frame. His eyes dark, filled with fire, he lowered his mouth to hers, kissed her deeply. Kissed her until she was breathless and clinging to him, until she burned from the inside out.
“I want you, Darby.”
“You said we needed to finis
h our conversation,” she stubbornly reminded him, scared of how much she wanted him.
“Maybe we don’t need words to communicate,” he murmured against her mouth, his gaze locked with hers, waiting for her acquiescence. Why was she fighting him? Even if she never had anything beyond this day, she’d have this moment in time when Blake had wanted her. He must have seen the capitulation in her eyes, felt the softening of her body, because he claimed her mouth, body, and soul.
For the next half-hour, they didn’t need anything but each other. Words would only have gotten in their way.
CHAPTER EIGHT
FRESHLY showered, and finished packing the last of her belongings from the hotel closet, Darby frowned at the number on the cellular phone in her hand.
Jim. Was he calling to invite her and Blake to her mother’s Sunday lunch? Her mom always cooked big on Sundays, so the entire family could gather after church services. Darby had called and checked on her yesterday, but guilt slammed her. She should have gone by prior to the picnic.
Now, the last thing she wanted was her family witnessing whatever was happening between her and Blake. She hit the answer button on her phone anyway. “Hey, what’s up?”
“I know you’re probably already headed out of town, but I think you need to check on Mom.”
The hotel room door opened and Blake stepped into the room. He’d carried his bag down to his SUV and come back for hers. His gaze met hers, but quickly glanced away. No smile. No wink. Just regrets. So far today, in bed, their bodies tangled together, was the only time he’d seemed comfortable with her.
“Why?” she asked her brother, watching Blake move around the room, checking to make sure they hadn’t forgotten anything. “Is her shingles bothering her more today?”
“Dad called to say she didn’t feel well and could I feed the livestock. I stopped in to check her after finishing.”
A cold chill of premonition ran down Darby’s spine. “And?”
“She doesn’t look right. Her skin is pale and she keeps clutching at her chest. She says she can’t catch her breath, and when she stands she feels like she’s going to pass out. She’s barely been off the sofa all morning, but she refuses to let me take her to the hospital in Pea Ridge.”
Darby’s blood ran cold. “Call the emergency services. Give her an aspirin. I’ll be right there.”
Blake tossed Darby’s bags into the back of the SUV.
“Since I know the way, I’m driving.” She held out her hand. “We’ll get there quicker.”
Although he’d have preferred to drive, especially with Darby looking so shaken, he didn’t argue, just handed over his keys and got into the passenger seat.
He understood she needed to be doing something. Anything. He’d felt similar emotions when he’d been six and his grandfather had died. Wasn’t that when he’d decided to become a doctor? When he’d watched his mother, crying over his grandfather’s body, neither of them knowing what to do?
Throughout his aimless, spoilt life that had been the one constant: his desire to become a doctor.
His mother hadn’t understood. His grandfather had been a wealthy man, had left that wealth to his daughter and grandson. To his knowledge, his mother had never worked a day in her life, just flitted from city to city, from one social scene to the next.
Blake had hated the constant moving, never having roots. But for the first time in his life he’d awakened this morning understanding his mother’s drive to move. He’d wanted to pack his bags and take off and not have to face what he’d done. What he’d ruined with Darby.
A night of sex—damn good sex—would lead them into troubled waters that were sure to prevent them from ever returning to their former relationship.
The fact he’d taken her virginity—and he knew he had, despite what she’d said and his momentary lapse of blinding jealousy over Nix—complicated things even more.
Darby had been a twenty-eight-year old-virgin and he’d taken that from her. What the hell had he been thinking? He should have stopped the moment he’d realized.
