And she was swept away by the storm.
Chapter Four
He’d approached her like a conqueror, his mouth firm and very persuasive. But as soon as he felt her melt against him, he gentled, as if he were apologetic for the onslaught on her senses. He used his lips like a blind man uses his fingertips to know his world, discovering the shape and texture of her mouth through his sense of touch. He sipped, he nibbled; he sucked at his leisure. His mouth slanted unevenly over hers, sandwiching and caressing first her upper and then lower lip. She shivered uncontrollably when he bit with exquisite care and dragged his white teeth over the sensitive skin of her lower lip.
He took advantage when her lips parted with a sigh and entered her neatly, his tongue searching, seeking, stroking. She found herself responding in kind, stroking him back tentatively at first…then not so tentatively.
The kiss turned hot and wild, like a spark igniting in a forest of dry timber.
Liam shifted his hips, pressing her bottom against the trunk of her car. A wave of heat flooded her body, making her dizzy. He continued to kiss her as if his existence depended on it. Maybe it was that imperative, because if he stopped, Natalie wondered if she’d be able to draw breath from the unpleasant shock.
His hands swept down her body, skimming her ribs and the sides of her breasts before they encircled her waist and finally settled on her hips. He hooked his fingers into the belt loops of her jean shorts and tugged. Their bodies slid against each other as he gave a low, vibrating groan, and Natalie thought she knew why. He’d just cradled his hardness against her softness. It’d been like he’d shifted them into a perfect template…a divine fit.
Natalie touched his shoulders as their tongues dueled. Excitement surged through her when she felt how tense he became in response to her caress, how he pulled her gently, but also almost desperately against the hard angles of his body.
She felt strange—as if she’d been plunged into the middle of a carnal dream. The sun broke through the clouds and warmed her skin, but Natalie hardly noticed when Liam heated her so effortlessly. A tingling, hot feeling of excitement curled in her lower belly. Her rational nature and tight control receded into a misty background under the influence of Liam’s hands and mouth. She tangled her fingers in the hair at his nape and then explored the bare skin and corded muscles of his neck.
It thrilled her to feel a shudder run through him at her touch.
Amazing…awesome, even, that she could make such a strong man tremble with just a caress. He was having the same effect on her, causing her to quiver by spreading his big hands over her hips and rubbing her in a slight circular motion, increasing the already taut friction between their straining bodies.
She perfectly felt his arousal but she wasn’t offended. It all seemed so natural…so good, despite the newness of the sensation. She gloried in the knowledge that she could evoke such a strong response from him. A hazy fog of sensuality encapsulated her. For a brief, magical moment she knew only the taste of Liam, the feel of him…and the fierce need to experience more.
She was so overwhelmed by the power of Liam’s kiss, that it didn’t really penetrate her awareness that a car was approaching until Liam pulled away. She opened her eyelids sluggishly, feeling like there was a weight pressing down on them. His face hovered just a few inches above her own. He studied her through a narrow-eyed gaze, his eyes gleaming crescents.
She started when a car door slammed just feet away. A sound of distress leaked out of her throat when she saw Brigit Kavanaugh, Liam’s mother, hesitating by her dark blue sedan.
“Liam?” Brigit asked uncertainly.
“Yeah, Ma,” Liam replied without removing his gaze from Natalie. How could his voice sound so even? Natalie wondered, disorientated. She jerked her hips and dropped her hands from his shoulders. She’d been holding him as if he was a life preserver and she’d been drowning.
What the hell had just happened?
Liam’s mouth flattened and he stepped back.
“I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to intrude,” Brigit said, sounding contrite. “I brought over the buffer for the floors. I tried to call first, but—”
“It’s okay,” Liam said gruffly, glancing away from Natalie for the first time since his mother had arrived. Natalie’s gaze flickered over Brigit Kavanaugh as embarrassment began to zoom through her veins like a toxin. Her cheeks flamed hot, and she felt slightly dizzy.
She knew who Brigit Kavanaugh was, of course, even though they’d never officially met. Liam’s mother was in her late fifties or early sixties, Natalie would have guessed, but she appeared ten years younger. She still had an excellent figure—petite and fit. Her blond hair was styled in a fashionable cut that emphasized Brigit’s high cheekbones and a pair of striking cornflower blue eyes. Despite all the cold shoulders Brigit had received from some Harbor Towners when she’d moved here with Liam and Colleen fifteen years ago, she’d managed to win the townspeople over with her hard work on philanthropic projects and her willingness to always help out people in need.
Brigit w
as the type of woman who commanded attention even from a distance, but she was downright formidable up close. Even though Brigit’s glance at her was mild enough, Natalie sensed the power of her personality.
“It’s really turned lovely after that rain, hasn’t it?” Brigit directed her question toward Natalie with friendly politeness.
She doesn’t know who you are, a voice in her head shouted. If she did, she wouldn’t be so civil.
She recognized that Liam’s mother was trying to ease Natalie’s discomfort, but Brigit’s attempt had the opposite effect, for several reasons, one being that Brigit seemed perfectly comfortable with the idea of coming upon her youngest son while he was making out with a woman. Of course, Brigit had probably witnessed him dallying with countless females since he was old enough to date. Natalie was just another forgetful face in the ongoing stream of women that paraded across the stage of Liam’s life.
She’d hired him to do a job. One second, their arrangement had been going fine—professional, if tense—and the next she’d been melting beneath Liam’s kiss like a piece of chocolate dropped on the pavement beneath a scalding summer sun.
“Excuse me,” Natalie murmured throatily as she threaded her way between Liam’s body and her car. She felt Liam’s stare tingling on her neck, but she got in her car and shut the door without another word. Casting a furtive glance at Liam and his mother, she turned her vehicle in the circular turnabout and drove off. Brigit looked a little confused, but Liam’s face looked fixed and somber. Undoubtedly, he was already regretting that kiss.
Why had Liam kissed her? Natalie wondered for the thousandth time as she locked up the office two nights later.
Once again, she was the last one to leave. Out of her two officemates, both attorneys, she was the only single one, and her work habits reflected the fact that she had no one to rush home to at night.