“I can smell you.”
She froze.
“You should smell like the hospital. Antiseptic. Sanitizer...something different...but you’re still just like roses. You smell so good. Too good.” The lamp flickered on beside him, but instead of illuminating Cale, it just sent dark shadows chasing across the room. His body was a hard outline against the chair. Powerful. She had the fleeting impression of a predator just waiting for his prey to foolishly walk by.
And here I am.
Only she didn’t feel like prey.
Cassidy took another step toward him.
She saw his muscles tighten. Saw his hands clench around the arms of the chair.
“Cassidy. Where are your clothes?”
Ah, yes, ahem. “I left them in the bathroom.” Because not having on clothes would help with the whole seduction routine that she was trying to have going on at that moment.
He lunged from the chair and stood right in front of her in an instant. Stood right there, but he didn’t touch her. She needed him to touch her. With the chaos of her life, she needed him.
“You’re hurt.”
The man was sounding like a broken record. “So? We can be careful.” Thanks to her dive into the pavement, she’d lost skin on her palms and knees. Her palms had been bandaged, but the tips of her fingers were unharmed. She let her fingertips skim over the powerful muscles of his chest. “I know you can be careful.”
His eyes burned down at her.
She rose onto her toes and pressed her lips to his. Her confidence was a brittle thing right then, and when a naked woman offered herself to her lover, well, she expected him to take her up on that offer.
Not stand there, still as stone.
He wants me, doesn’t he?
Her tongue slid lightly over his lower lip. Her hips pushed closer against his. Oh, yes, she could feel his arousal. But he wasn’t touching her, wasn’t kissing her back.
“Cale?” She pulled back just a few inches in order to stare up at him.
“I’m trying to do the right thing,” he said, voice gravel-rough in the dark.
Her hero. She smiled. “Can’t we forget about right, just for a little while? I want to forget everything—right and wrong—and just be with you.” Cassidy kissed him again. His lips had parted, and she dipped her tongue inside that sexy crease.
He growled. The sound rough with desire.
She liked that.
“Don’t you want to be with me?” Cassidy asked softly.
Then the room was spinning. No, Cale had just lifted her up, and he was carrying her—holding her so gently—back to the bedroom. He moved quickly, and her heart raced even faster.
He put her on the bed. The mattress dipped beneath their weight. She immediately tried to reach for him.
“No.”
The harsh command stopped her. She glared at him in the darkness. Touching him was one of the things she liked the best.
“Sweetheart, if you touch me, I’ll go wild.”
She was okay with wild. More than okay.
“I have to stay in control. I can’t hurt you.”