Did that really come from me?
She tightened her grip over the counter edge, trying desperately to regain control. ‘We shouldn’t do this.’
He closed what little gap remained, his hardness pressing up against her belly and replacing all sane thought with sensation, the pang between her legs instant and desperate. She clenched her thighs tight, nursing it, wanting it to grow and not wanting it to all the same.
His tongue flicked out to tease her mouth apart, his free hand joining the other to hook around her neck and hold her in place. ‘Then tell me to stop.’
He took her lower lip in his teeth and tugged, the effect ripping a moan from her and sending streaks of heat straight to her neglected clit—Christ. She wanted him. Badly.
‘I didn’t think so,’ he murmured against her, his tongue seeking entry as her own dared to taste him. He was so musky and male, gentle yet demanding. He teased around her mouth, testing every curve, stoking the fire inside.
And then he growled, the sound fierce as his tempo changed, his desperation breaking through his control and she ignited with it. Like a switch being flicked on, she came alive to match him, move for move, her own mouth hungry for more. Her hands seeking out the crazy flop of blond, and loving that he let her. That he didn’t care. Not like Charles. Charles would have told her to watch it, be careful...
He broke his mouth away, pinning his forehead against her own, his ragged breath sweeping down her front, down the channel of her V-cut blouse. ‘I think you’re very good at this.’
‘Is that so?’ Wow, was that really her? So heated, so flirtatious?
She looked to him from beneath her lashes, every nerve-ending alert as it craved the hardness ever-swelling against her.
Yes, this was her. And this man wasn’t Charles, he was as lost to the moment as she... Or was he?
Doubt sparked. What was she doing? She had no interest in opening herself up again. Especially with a man she didn’t know. Couldn’t trust.
His mouth closed over hers once more, ravenous and urgent, his hand dropping to lift her against him. She moulded into him, her neck arching under the pressure of his continued kiss, her muddied thoughts warring with the passion racing through her veins. It felt so good to feel this rush again.
Again? Who are you kidding? No one has made you feel this crazy, this hungry, this desired.
And she could trust him enough to give in to this—couldn’t she?
He had heart enough; he wore it on his sleeve for Julia, his sister—her client. Shit!
She stilled beneath him, her eyes flying open.
You’re meant to be working, not getting cosy with your client’s brother!
She pushed him away, ignoring his widened gaze and the hard expanse of muscle that flexed beneath her touch. What the hell was he playing at, pretending to have something to discuss, only to seduce her? ‘That was a dirty trick.’
‘What was?’
She forced her breathing to steady, shifting her eyes away from the seductive fire in his. ‘Coming in here, under the pretence of a conversation, only to make a move.’
She stepped around him and headed to the sink, amazed that she could make her jelly-like body do her bidding. She took up a plastic jug from the drainer and turned on the tap, throwing her focus into what she was supposed to be doing.
‘I wasn’t pretending anything,’ he said, his voice still so near in the closed-in space. ‘I wanted to speak to you without my sister listening in.’
‘Really?’ She raised a sardonic brow at him over her shoulder and regretted even looking. He was ruffled, the evidence of her touch in the state of his hair, his puffed-up lips, the heat to his cheeks. He was too hot before, now he just taunted her with what she knew to be real. What she knew she could have if she chose it.
He grinned. ‘Yes, really. It was your provocation that made me forget it.’
‘My provocation?’ Water overflowed the jug in her hand but she couldn’t care.
‘Yes, you.’ He reached out and cupped her chin, scanning her face with that same curious look he’d been sporting half the morning. ‘There’s just something about you, and I can’t seem to control my reaction to it.’
She couldn’t speak. Wasn’t it how she felt too? Hadn’t he broken through the layers she’d effectively held in place for months, all in the space of a look, a touch...?
But hell, it was hardly surprising when she’d been celibate for so long.
‘Need a hand with that?’ he said, reaching around her to