He wasn’t used to being dismissed, certainly not by the woman he wanted. “Found another willing male to help you out?” he said cynically.
She bristled with indignation. “I resent that remark. I’ve never once asked for your help. You forced the car on me. I didn’t want to take it, remember?”
“You needed help for your baby.”
“We would have survived without it.”
“No doubt.” This woman was a survivor of the worst kind. She survived on other people’s money.
“You don’t seem to understand that my independence is important to me,” she said, the proud tilt of her head at odds with what he knew about her.
“Don’t I?”
She drew herself up as she tightened her robe. “In the future I’ll thank you to stay away from me. I accepted the car but that doesn’t give you the right to walk into my apartment anytime you like.”
His mouth pressed into a grim line. “That isn’t why I’m here,” he pointed out.
“Sure it isn’t,” she mocked, trying to turn the tables on him, looking so darn beautiful that she grabbed his breath away. If he didn’t get out of here soon he was going to march up to her, pull her into his arms and kiss her until she surrendered to him completely.
Drawing a sharp breath, he twisted on his heels and headed toward the front door. The woman was a danger to herself and to every man she smiled at. Even the ones she didn’t smile at would succumb to her beauty. All men were suckers for a beautiful lady with charisma.
“I’d better check that lock,” he said roughly, not believing that it was faulty but needing to make sure.
“There’s no need,” she said quickly, coming up behind him. “The landlord will fix it if there’s a problem.”
He stopped dead, and so did she. “I thought you’d want to fix it yourself,” he scoffed. “Seeing you’re so independent and all.”
Her enticing lips tightened. “You’re taking that out of context.”
He didn’t think so. “Anyway, if it is faulty—” and his tone said he very much doubted it “—you won’t get the landlord to look at it before Monday. And I don’t want to get up tomorrow morning and find your murder front-page news.”
“Don’t be silly,” she scoffed, but all at once her voice sounded uncertain as she touched her stomach.
A shiver went down his spine again. “I’m checking the lock whether you like it or not.” He strode to the door.
Unfortunately it didn’t take him long to spot a problem with the catch. He swore, not liking the sudden feeling of guilt. And not liking that perhaps he had been wrong about her.
This time.
“What is it?” she said behind him.
“Looks like I owe you an apology.”
She expelled a little sigh. “See. I told you I was telling the truth.” She moved closer. “What’s wrong with it?”
The exotic fragrance she’d rubbed all over her body was suddenly blinding him to all the reasons he should step back and leave this apartment before it was too late. “It isn’t catching properly.”
“Where?” she said, moving even closer.
And that was it.
All at once the air hummed with electricity. As if she felt it, she turned to face him. Their eyes met and she gave a soft gasp, and in that heartbeat, Flynn knew he had to kiss her or regret it for the rest of his life.
“Don’t stop me, Danielle,” he growled and didn’t give her time to argue. He lowered his head, his eyes homing in on her mouth. For a moment she held out against him and he knew she was fighting herself rather than him. Then her lips quivered and opened on the smallest sigh of surrender.
Adrenaline pumped into him and his tongue slipped inside her to taste the moist, dark warmth of her. She tasted superb. Just as he’d expected. Just as he’d imagined since the first time he’d seen her.
Without warning, her arms inched up and slid around his neck, pulling him closer. He could feel her against him, arousing him, and suddenly everything was getting out of control. His control. She was pregnant, for God’s sake. He had to stop.
He broke off the kiss and swore, “Hell.”
“Flynn?” she whispered, her eyes darkened with that smoky hue again.
Heat engulfed him and he groaned. “Just one more kiss,” he muttered, pulling her to him.
A goodbye kiss.
A farewell kiss.
A kiss to end all kisses.
Only, when their lips met for a second time, it suddenly didn’t matter that she was pregnant. Nor that she was a woman out to get all that she could. Nothing mattered except the delicious taste of her, the glorious scent of her, the explosive feel of her in his arms, rubbing up against him, turning him on.
Shuddering, he let his mouth slide along her cheek to her ear, catching her delicate earlobe between his lips, then his teeth, laving it with his tongue.
“Flynn, we have to stop.” She moaned with pleasure, inflaming him further.
He pushed some wet strands of her hair aside with his lips and trailed kisses down the column of her throat, pressing his mouth against her wildly beating pulse. “Must we?” He just needed to touch her some more. Maybe then he’d get enough of her.
“We…have to.” Her husky tones told him she had her eyes closed, savoring each precious moment. He did the same as he inhaled against her collarbone. Her scent was driving him wild.
“Let me love you just a little,” he murmured, deciding to damn the consequences just for a moment more and moved back to push the silky robe off her shoulders, exposing the tips of her ni**les. He looked down at her full br**sts and sucked in air. “Beautiful. They’re made for a man’s hands. My hands.”
She lifted heavy eyelids. “Yes.”
“And for my tongue.”
“Oh, yes!”
He slid the material off her shoulders, fully exposing her in a way that highlighted each golden globe. An aching need hit him right in the gut, then lower to where his erection strained against his trousers.
He ran a finger from one nipple to the other, her silky soft skin puckering to his touch as she rested her head back against the wall, giving short little puffs of breath. He repeated the action.
Then he ran his thumbs across each brown peak, before squeezing those little pebbles between his fingers. She moaned and her eyes feathered shut, and something deep inside him abated, filling him with a sense of rightness. He was meant to be here, with her in his arms. Right now, in this moment of time.