He should have known she wouldn’t let his parting shot go. He should have known she’d follow him. That perhaps he subconsciously had known and had wanted her to do so, so that they might continue where they’d left off that first night she’d barged into his room, wasn’t something he wanted to contemplate ever. Because if that did turn out to be the case it would mean his attempts to get a grip on his unpredictable behaviour had utterly failed.
‘What is it with you and knocking?’ he said, practically at the end of his tether with his inability to control the futile attraction he felt for her.
‘Sorry.’
She stepped forward into the light, into his territory, and he saw that she didn’t look sorry. She didn’t look sorry in the slightest. ‘What do you want?’
‘To continue our conversation.’
‘We’re done.’
‘I don’t think we are.’
Before he could even think about striding past her and getting the hell out of his room, with its huge bed squatting there like some giant neon sign advertising sex, she’d walked towards him and planted her palms flat on his chest.
‘What are you doing?’ he said, every muscle in his body freezing while he burned where she touched him.
‘I’d have thought it was obvious,’ she murmured, moving her hands up over the muscles of his chest while staring at his mouth.
His jaw clenched and his fists tightened. ‘I’d advise you to stop.’
‘Why?’
Yes, why? his body screamed while his brain fought to be heard. ‘Because you’re playing with fire.’
‘I’m more than happy to be burned.’
‘You’ve been ill.’
‘I’m much better now.’
But she still had some way to go. He’d done the research and witnessed her occasional off day. She was by no means totally well yet. ‘That’s irrelevant.’
‘All that’s relevant right now is that I want you and you want me.’
Not much point in denying it, really. He needed her so badly he was in physical pain and it was becoming blatantly obvious. Nevertheless...
‘What I want doesn’t come into it,’ he muttered though gritted teeth.
‘Yet here we are, all partnered up.’
‘For the sake of our son.’
She tilted her head as she lifted her gaze to his, her brown eyes shimmering in the soft light. ‘Are you sure about that?’
He had been once. Right now he wasn’t sure he could even remember his own name. Her scent and her warmth were destroying his faculties. All he could think of was how good it had been between them and how desperately he wanted to find out if it still could be. ‘One hundred per cent.’
‘So selfless,’ she said with the hint of a smile.
‘Don’t patronise me.’
‘The tension is driving you nuts, isn’t it?’
‘What tension?’ he ground out.
‘We could make it go away. I could make it go away.’
She ran her hands along his shoulders and down his arms and he shuddered. He had to take a step back, out of her orbit. He had to break the spell she was weaving around him. His thundering heart couldn’t take much more and his self-control was fast unravelling. But he couldn’t move. His feet appeared to have taken root. And his grip on his sanity, already loosened by weeks of frustration, was slipping away.