How many nights had she lain awake, aching for this man after he dumped her?
Pregnancy had sent her hormones into overdrive, intensifying every single unrequited emotion and unfulfilled desire.
Those memories filled her with a kind of dread even as her body strained toward his.
Emma pulled away from the kiss, panting.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“WHAT?” KON ASKED, his pupils blown with pleasure. “What is it? I locked the door. So Mickey wouldn’t just walk in on you crying,” he hurriedly clarified.
Emma’s brain wasn’t working at its normal speed. It took her a moment to realize he thought she might believe he’d planned this.
The kiss. A seduction.
Honestly? Maybe he had. Maybe he hadn’t.
Right now it wasn’t his plans that had her in knots. It was her memories. Her fears.
She gulped in a breath. “Give me a second. I need...”
“What do you need?” he asked when she didn’t finish her thought.
Distance. Control. A steel case for her heart.
Something to protect her emotions.
When they’d been together before, Emma had dived headlong into the sensual tsunami that was their lovemaking.
She’d let her heart rule her head. Her libido had fed her heart’s desires, but that had led to an emotional devastation and loss she never wanted to experience again.
She couldn’t afford to let herself drown in sensation like this.
“What?” Kon repeated. “What is it?”
“I just need to catch my breath.” Emma pulled in air and released it, trying to bring her desire under some kind of control.
“Let’s both get breathless,” he invited, his dark eyes glowing with masculine need. “I want to give you more pleasure than you’ve ever known.”
Emma’s thighs pressed together convulsively, her entire body quivering with anticipation at that promise.
She had no doubt he would keep it.
But her brain, the atavistic part that warned her of dangerous driving conditions and questionable surroundings, sent out a warning claxon.
“What happens after the pleasure?” she asked, baldly.
“Whatever you want to.”
“But...” Her wants had played no role in what happened the last time.
“Emma, this is a courtship. Make no mistake, my end game is marriage, but I need you as I have never needed another woman. I believe you need me too.”
“Sexually,” she clarified, knowing he did not need her heart like she’d needed his at one time.
“To start,” he said and then kissed her softly, almost tentatively. “Yes?”
In a moment of perfect clarity, Emma realized this was the direction they’d been headed ever since his first clumsy, unromantic proposal.