Summoning up a strength she hadn’t known she possessed, she put a hand on his chest. ‘Stop,’ she said, her voice sounding breathy and husky as if she’d just tumbled out of bed. ‘We have to stop.’
Will lifted his head and took a step back, his eyes dark and glazed. ‘You’re right,’ he said, dragging his hands through his hair and nodding briefly. ‘This isn’t the time, and it really isn’t the place.’
‘No,’ she said, more firmly this time. ‘I mean we can’t do this.’
He stilled. Looked at her in disbelief. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Deadly.’
‘I see.’ His brows snapped together. ‘And why exactly can’t we do this?
‘It’s complicated.’
‘What’s complicated about it?’ he said, all traces of passion evaporating. ‘I want you and you want me. What could be simpler?’
‘I wish it was simple,’ she said, her heart sighing with longing while her body yelled that it was precisely that simple.
Will thrust his hands into his pockets and let out a deep sigh of frustration. ‘I don’t understand.’
Of course he didn’t, she thought with some despair. Why would he be aware of the turmoil churning around inside her? Or the battle that raged between her body and her head? The battle that if she wasn’t really careful her head could well end up losing. She barely understood it herself.
But there was one thing she did understand. And that was that Will had been right. She did owe him an explanation. More than that, after the stupid games she’d tried to pretend she hadn’t been playing, she owed him the truth.
*
Will watched Bella pull her shoulders back and set her jaw and felt like giving himself a good kicking. Why, oh, why had he had to say anything? If he’d kept his mouth glued to hers instead of foolishly using it to express what he was thinking, he was pretty sure that he and Bella would now be ensconced in the cupboard he’d spotted earlier, and satisfying the craving that he knew clawed away at both of them.
Instead he had a stomach-sinking feeling that the only thing going to be satisfied this evening was his curiosity.
Dredging up enough control to rein in the desire still rocketing around inside him Will frowned and braced himself for whatever was coming.
‘Tell me, Will,’ she said, her face so earnest that he was tempted to haul her back into his arms and set about switching it back to flushed and dazed, ‘where do you see this going?’
He tensed. Oh, yes. There went his stomach, plunging south like an anchor through water. With an ease born out of habit, he arranged his features into a mask of neutrality that didn’t show even a hint of the alarm that scurried through him. ‘See what going?’ he said evenly.
‘This.’ She waved a hand between them. ‘Us.’
Will frowned. ‘We’ve only just met.’
‘So?’
‘So there isn’t an us.’ They’d never be an ‘us’. He didn’t do ‘us’es.
She shrugged. ‘Humour me.’
Will stifled a sigh. ‘I don’t see the point. Whatever there might have been barely started. You’ve seen to that.’
She tilted her head. Considered his reply. Then bit her lip and nodded. ‘I see. Well, I guess that’s my answer. As I suspected.’
As she suspected? What was this? Another one of her games? ‘Why does it have to be going anywhere anyway?’ he said, frustration and bewilderment churning around inside him. ‘What’s wrong with just having incredible sex?’
‘I’m not interested in incredible sex.’
‘You were on Thursday.’
Her jaw tightened and she closed her eyes for a brief second. ‘That was then.’
‘So what’s changed?’