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They stood facing the stage and the floor below them. He was aware of every inch of her. Especially when she shifted again, this time to lean back against him slightly. He knew she might not even be aware of it. She was seeking a position that would take weight off her sore leg and leaning against a support would help with that. But the position, thanks to her heels, put her butt right against his fly.
He held his breath and tried to ignore it, making his mind focus on searching the crowd for his son.
Then she wiggled.
Whether she meant to or not, he couldn’t handle that. He put his hands on her hips to stop her squirming and moved her an inch forward. That was all he needed. An inch of space between their bodies.
He felt the tension in her body immediately and assumed that meant she either hadn’t intended the position to be what it was, or his hands made her stiffen up. Which could be good or bad.
After several seconds, he started to relax. But right when he thought maybe he was safe and again began his search for his son, Emma turned.
His hands skimmed over her body as she spun, and when she faced him, he wasn’t inclined to remove them.
“You want to make both of us feel better?” she asked.
He could hear her, but he didn’t want to miss anything. He put his hand to the back of her head, holding her still, and leaned in. “Tell me.”
She lifted onto her toes, her mouth right against his ear. “We try some of the high level things I want to do…together. Then you can see that it is actually hard for me and get off my ass about it…or you show me that it’s fine and alleviate my fears and then I’ll listen to all your instructions from here on out.”
He worked on simply breathing. He wanted to press her more firmly against the railing and test some of her hip range of motion right here and now. And he couldn’t deny that the idea of her listening to all his instructions from here on out was really fucking tempting. “I’m guessing we’re not talking about jogging now.”
“I hate jogging.”
“I don’t know much about yoga.”
“Then we’ll stay away from the yoga.”
He pulled back to look down at her. Dammit. He couldn’t sleep with her, but there were so many reasons that he wanted to and with her standing so close, the dark and the music and her scent and her lips right there…the reasons why it was a bad idea were fuzzy.
Nate didn’t do fuzzy. A woman who muddled his brain and distracted him so easily was the last person he should—and would—get involved with.
He liked to be in control in his relationships.
It came from a history of a controlling son-of-a-bitch grandfather and two women who had made choices, without his input, that had changed his life profoundly.
He was never going to be in a position again where someone else made decisions that affected his life and his loved ones.
Staring at Emma now, he shook his head. It was ironic, but he loved strong, independent women and knew that none of the women he was attracted to would put up with his chauvinistic, controlling tendencies in a full-blown relationship. Therefore, he kept women specifically compartmentalized to the bedroom. There they didn’t seem to mind him being demanding.
Bringing Emma into his bedroom seemed inevitable. But he knew Emma Dixon would not stay compartmentalized. Keeping Emma to one part of his life would be like telling a tornado to only tear apart a room instead of taking the whole house. It would never work and he’d be left with a big mess to clean up afterward.
“You’re thinking about it too hard,” Emma told him.
She gripped the front of his shirt and pulled him down for a kiss.
The moment their lips met, as heat and desire and need swirled in him, Nate knew the tornado comparison was exactly right. And that it was futile to try to resist its force.
Nate had been fighting this for months. There had been opportunities before this. He could have had her before this; he knew that. But he’d fought it. Fought against his natural instincts. Fought against his body clamoring for hers whenever she was within a few feet of him. Fought because her brother, his teammate and a damned good guy, would want to kick his ass. Fought because there was no way they could make this more than a night. Or two. Maybe a long weekend.
Now it was happening, in spite of all that, and he couldn’t fight anymore.
He was going to let the tornado sweep him away this one time. For just a moment.
He slanted his mouth on hers, taking over the kiss. One hand still held her head, the other gripped her ass and brought her fully against him. He stroked his tongue deep, tasting her mouth fully, reveling in the feel of her lips against his as she arched closer.
Her hands went from his shirt front to his neck, holding on tight and he backed her up the two inches to the railing, the firm support behind her enough that he could press his hips into hers.
He felt her groan more than heard it and he wanted to see her face, to see how he was affecting her. He held her face in both hands and pulled away.
