AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The response struck her as not only unfeeling but hypocritical. ‘But you said...’ She lost what little colour she had. ‘Oh, God, I really could have died,’ she repeated in a barely audible whisper. Less drama and more acknowledgment of her mortality as she saw the image in her head of her parents when there was the knock on the door to break the news...seeing all the things she had never done that she wanted to.
Kate, head full of missed opportunities and regrets, felt her lips respond to some invisible tug and land on his mouth. All the things...said the voice in her head.
She had no more control over the impulse than she would have had over the self-protective reflex that would have had her jerking her hand from a hot surface, except in this instance she was moving towards the danger, theheat.
Her hands were in his damp vest to give her enough purchase to stretch up her body. ‘Thank you for saving me—’ Her lips brushed his.
Danger, yes, she could feel the danger in the pit of her belly, not repelling but attracting, and cool.
Her lashes lifted off her smooth, flushed cheeks and her eyes met his. He grabbed for her, hauling her into his body, all mindless need and no logic.
The rest of her words were lost in the kiss that started out hard and angry and changed to something else, something deep, slow, seductive. Some previously untapped place in her core that had nothing to do with logic and self-preservation took over and she melted into the warm, explorative, heart-stoppingly exciting intimacy of his tongue and mouth, his taste, his scent.
With a small mewling cry vibrating in the back of her throat, she strained upwards to deepen the pressure, tangling her fingers in the dark hair at the back of his head and pushing her breasts against his hard chest.
A moment later, or it might have been an hour, she was standing on her own feet separated from all that warmth and hardness with several inches of cool air between them feelingbereft,her nostrils still full ofthe musky male scent of him.
Then stupid.
Marco stood there, dragging air into his lungs as he pulled back from the heat that had surged through all the barriers that had never failed him before. All it had taken was the touch of her warm lips.
The loss of control was all the more serious, dangerous, because the woman who had instigated this meltdown was in his employ. She worked for him. He’d crossed a line and he didn’t even bother rationalising it, instead he went into damage-control mode. It wouldn’t happen again, he told himself, regaining by painful increments his habitual emotional distance. The few extra feet of physical distance seemed a sensible back-up plan.
When she spoke, he registered she sounded dazed, appalled even. ‘Did I start that?’
Could her action have been construed as an invitation to what followed? She had no words to describe the kiss. She hadn’t known a kiss could feel like that, that you could feelwantand need in your bones, in your skin, in the soles of your feet.
‘Yes, but I finished it, and it is...’ his steely eyes sought and found hers ‘...finished,’ he said, for his benefit as much as hers.
She felt the heat run up under her skin, leaving it washed with soft rose. Oh, yes, she was getting the message loud and clear. Did the man think that she was going to pin him down and...Given half the chance, Kate, who wouldn’t?
‘I was in shock,’ she said, observing with growing resentment that he had recovered his cool with remarkable ease. The idea that anyone could be thathotone minute and then be soclinicalthe next—warning her off. It was mortifying.
‘You kissed me back.’
He could hardly deny it. He said nothing.
‘What areyoueven doing here?’Other than the fact he lives here, Kate, this is all his, you’re just the nanny.‘At least I have clothes on!’ The shrill addition put a dangerous glow in his eyes that made the pit of her stomach dissolve.
‘I’ve been known to wear less when swimming.’
Kate immediately saw him wearing less.
‘Relax,cara mia.’
Kate was too busy staring at her clasped hands and no doubt resenting the languid advice to register that he looked less than relaxed himself, the nerve beside his mouth throbbing extra time.
‘Sexual attraction is not something that can be rationalised so stop trying.’ He had, simply because there was no logical rationale that could explain away the fact,wantedthe taste of her. From the first moment he had set eyes on her he had been ravenous for it.
Now he had tasted her and he could move on. Been there, done that.
He almost laughed aloud at this piece of pathetic self-delusion. As he was mocking himself her lashes lifted, revealing layers of emotion in her golden eyes. Something in her gaze made him feel stripped bare of his normal protective layer.
‘I’m not—’ Kate stopped, her chest growing tight. Was he? The idea excited and frightened her in equal measure.
‘It is, however,’ Marco continued, more to remind himself of the fact that she was off limits, ‘something that can be controlled, so stop worrying. I will save you from yourself.’ He would also do something about the recent imbalance in his work-sex life, which had a way of messing with a healthy man’s head and his control.
Control that showed a danger of slipping every time he thought about how she had tasted, how she had felt... No, he wouldnotremember, because this would be a complication too far.
