“Sabrina, look at me,” Ryan ordered, his tone rough with a low command, his breath warm on her lips.
She leaned forward and pressed her mouth to his.
Instantly, his hands framed her face, his mouth slanting over hers, his tongue gently parting her lips. He tasted her deeply, sensually, drawing her into the moment. Coaxing her to forget everything but the way his tongue drew on hers. The way his body felt beneath her palms that had somehow come to rest on his broad shoulders. Another caress of his lips, another slide of his tongue. Her hands slid around his neck.
His hand rested on her hipbones, long fingers wrapping around her waist, fingers that slid intimately over her ribs. Brushed the curve of her breast. Her nipples tightened, she clenched her thighs, suddenly realizing Ryan was between them. Crazy panic overcame her. A picture, a tabloid story. She had to get up. She… Ryan kissed her long and hard, driving away the thoughts before announcing, “We’re here.” She glanced around to realize they had, indeed, arrived at her condo, and, with their arrival, she had escaped the dilemma of the driver, and found another. The moment of truth. There were no barriers, no cameras, no hiding inside her apartment. Not with Ryan there with her.
6
RYAN HELPED SABRINA out of the Town Car and barely contained a chuckle as she darted away. He’d never known a woman so conflicted in so many ways. And difficult. And sexy. He couldn’t wait to unravel the secrets beneath the prim and proper politician’s daughter. And the idea that he’d be the only man to know those secrets well…
“If I’m not back in thirty minutes, leave without me,” Ryan ordered the driver before slamming the door shut.
He turned to find Sabrina gaping at him. She opened her mouth and then snapped it shut, before turning on her heels and marching toward her building. Ryan’s pursuit was instant, and while he could have caught up to her before she entered the building, he waited until she was striding across the fancy black-and-white marble floor toward the elevator inside. Then, and only then, did he grab her hand and pull her around to face him.
“Do you not understand discretion, Ryan?” she huffed out instantly, her cute, pointed chin tilted up, green eyes flashing with warning. Voice urgent but hushed. “My father plans to run for President. If that driver tells the tabloids I’m off in Texas, whoring around, he’ll never get there.”
Ryan scrubbed a hand over his face. President. Okay. He didn’t see that one coming. “The driver doesn’t know who you are. We never mentioned a name, just an address.”
“Maybe he knows who I am and maybe he doesn’t,” she said. “But I don’t have the luxury of taking that risk. My private life has to be my private life. That I can’t change by moving. I wish I could but I can’t. The minute a politician runs for higher office, people crawl out of the woodwork to tell their stories, truth or fiction. I don’t want to be one of those stories.”
He stopped, checked himself. He didn’t want to leave and that was where this was headed. He wanted this woman next to him, beneath him, wanted her calling his name. He vowed to do whatever it would take. It didn’t matter that she was finding herself and would, no doubt, carry her fine little backside right back to New York. There was here. There was now. And there was a father running for President.
Another silent curse followed, as he reined in his control, and gained a new respect for Sabrina in the process. He’d chosen to be a soldier and chosen when not to be. She was hungry to have choices and still felt without them.
“I’ll leave.” But he didn’t let go of her hand; he couldn’t make himself. Instead his fingers gently stroked her palm.
A conflicted look flashed across her face, torment showed in her gorgeous green eyes before her dark lashes swept low on ivory cheeks, lingered and then lifted.
“Right,” she said softly. “You’d better.”
Disappointment, regret, laced the words. And she didn’t move any more than he did. Didn’t make any effort to distance herself from him. She swallowed, her delicate neck moving with the action, her hand—tiny and delicate—still in his.
Ryan studied her, searching for answers with the same intent he would the members in a mission. Analyzing the emotions he saw in her. Understanding. She didn’t want him to go. She didn’t want him to let her go so easily. She wanted an escape. And now, she expected him to turn around and walk out the door. Well, Ryan had never been one to do the expected. He wasn’t going to start with Sabrina. Not with his blood pumping liquid fire.
He tightened his hand on hers and led her toward the stairwell.