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Need blazed through her. Clutching his T-shirt, she dragged him closer. ‘I know.’
Then all coherent thought fled as his mouth descended on hers.
His kiss this time was nothing like the one in the kitchen over a month ago. Not gentle or seeking or coaxing. This time his lips, his tongue, were avid and demanding, exploring and exploiting every inch of her mouth. His fingers sank into her hair, sending the pins she’d used to keep it up pinging off the concrete floor like missiles.
The sting of having her hair pulled only made her feel more alive, more needy, as everything concentrated in her core, the ache building like wildfire. One large hand covered her breast.
He rolled the rigid tip between his thumb and forefinger through cotton and lace. Sensations shot through her, painful darts of longing, terrifying in their intensity.
She tore her mouth away from his. ‘Stop, Art. We have to stop.’ She flattened her hands on his chest, her cheeks stinging from the abrasion of his stubble.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I can’t do this. I’m married.’ She dropped her hands, hoping the excuse didn’t sound as lame to him as it did to her.
Because the truth was, she’d never felt less married in her life. It wasn’t loyalty to Dan that was stopping her from doing the wild thing with Art. It was something much more basic than that. Something she would have to examine later – when she wasn’t about to spontaneously combust.
He stood silently, the outline of his erection against his cargo shorts evidence that he was as affected as her by the madness which had consumed them.
‘It’s a monumentally bad idea,’ she said, but even she could hear the uncertainty in her voice, the desire to be persuaded otherwise. ‘I should go.’ She swallowed past the ache in her throat, feeling like the worst kind of fraud.
She didn’t look back, didn’t dare, but he made no move to stop her, the silence deafening as she shot out of the door.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
‘Josh, sweetheart, can I come in?’ Ellie pushed the door to her son’s bedroom open when the invite wasn’t forthcoming.
He lay in bed, his hair damp from his shower, his expression tense and wary as he looked up from the Harry Potter book he was reading.
‘Hey,’ he said, but the smile he usually gave her when she came in to wish him goodnight was noticeably absent.
She perched on the side of the bed. ‘I’m sorry I snapped at you in Art’s workshop.’
‘OK.’ Josh’s eyebrows wrinkled, but then he smiled, the bright boyish smile she had become addicted to over the years. ‘So can me and Toto go to Gratesbury now?’
Ellie sighed. They’d had another stand-off about the trip over supper, with Toto looking on and Ellie suspected probably judging her the worst mother in the world.
Art hadn’t appeared, but for once she was grateful for his avoidance tactics. With her cheeks burning from what she was sure had to be the visible evidence of his kisses in the workshop and her own emotions still all over the place, having him there would probably have sent her right over the edge. But because he hadn’t been there, and hadn’t appeared after supper either, Ellie had been the one who had to tell the children that neither of them were going to Gratesbury tomorrow.
‘I’m sorry, Josh, no, it doesn’t. Art and I agreed it wasn’t a good idea for you two to go in on your own. As I said, I’ll take you on Sunday.’
The hopeful smile flatlined. ‘But the good shops aren’t open on Sunday.’
‘Then we can go on Monday,’ she offered.
‘That’s three whole days away.’ It wasn’t like Josh to whine, but he was pushing puberty. She needed to prepare herself for the fact that he wasn’t going to be her sweet, uncomplicated child for ever.
‘I don’t believe Art said that,’ he continued. ‘He’s cool. He lets Toto do stuff when she wants to.’
‘Josh, please, can we not have another argument about this?’
‘I like Art,’ he said, the accusatory stare challenging her to disagree with him.
‘So do I,’ she countered.
Unfortunately, I like him a bit too much.
‘No, you don’t,’ Josh replied. ‘You shouted at him.’
‘What? No, I didn’t.’ What was Josh talking about? She hadn’t shouted at Art since that first day.
