“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 n**ples. 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.
Groaning, he bent his head and took a nipple in his mouth, flicking it with his tongue.
“Flynn,” she sobbed in a guttural sound that seemed to come from deep within her.
He did it again, then began to suck, harder and harder, wanting to give her more and more. He could hear the pounding of his heart in his ears, telling him to give her everything she needed. That only he could give it to her.
She moved restlessly and a picture of those blond womanly curls came to mind, making his fingers itch to touch her there. Lord knew he wanted to find out what she felt like.
He kissed her again and slowly slid his palm over her stomach, then down to the essence of the woman. God, she was wet and warm against his fingers.
He kissed her deeply, moving his fingers against her soft nub, stroking once, stroking twice. He wanted to give her pleasure. No, he wanted to give her a pleasure like she’d never known before.
“Let yourself go,” he murmured against the corner of her mouth and touched her some more.
At first there was a slight ripple through her body, then her legs began to quiver. She gripped his shoulders, panting heavily, head flung back, eyes closed.
“That’s it, sweetheart.” He relished the expressive emotions flittering across her face as she reached closer to fulfillment.
And then the tremors of arousal began and she cried out his name as she went up in flames. She shattered as his fingers slicked back and forth. If he’d been inside her, he would have felt her grip and release as she rode the waves of ecstasy. It was almost enough to send a man over the edge.
He held her until the turbulence inside her slowed to a halt. She leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder while she caught her breath.
Finally she looked up at him and in her eyes was pure embarrassment. She looked more than beautiful. Stunning. Intense male possessiveness ripped through him, even as he wondered about her self-consciousness.
“Flynn, I—”
“Don’t say anything.” He gathered the sides of her robe together and tied it with the sash.
She licked her slightly swollen lips. “But you haven’t…You didn’t…”
“No, and I don’t need to,” he rasped.
“But—”
“No buts, Danielle.” He gazed at her, forcing himself to concentrate on the moment. “I enjoyed watching you.”
She gave a soft gasp and he bent his head, quickly taking advantage of her open mouth. He parted her lips with his tongue, then spent a long moment absorbing the heady taste of her. It was a taste flavored by a new sensuousness between them.
Then suddenly there was a knock on the door.
Danielle broke off the kiss, pushed at his chest. “Oh, God!” she gasped.
He frowned as the outside world intruded. “What’s the matter?”
“It’s Monica,” she whispered, her eyes darting down the hallway as if looking for an escape.
“Monica?”
She glanced back at him. “Um…my mother-in-law,” she said, then looked away nervously, giving him the impression she didn’t want him to know too much about the other woman.
His jaw clenched at the reminder that Danielle had been married. That she’d belonged to another man. Robert would have touched her, loving her in many ways, making her his own. Flynn was suddenly jealous of the other man. Of every second Robert Ford had spent with her.
“Don’t answer,” he said roughly, keeping his voice low.
Her eyes clouded over. “I have to. She’s coming for dinner. It’s my birthday.”
Something odd kicked inside him. “Your birthday?”
“Yes,” she said almost absentmindedly, then bit her lip nervously. “If I don’t answer the door, she’ll think I’m still at work and…”
He jolted. So she did have a regular job and didn’t just volunteer at the hospital as he’d imagined.
“Then if I don’t come home, she’s likely to call the police.”
“Did you say she was your mother-in-law, or your mother?” he mocked, not liking the sound of this Monica.
“Mother-in-law,” she mumbled, missing his sarcasm.
“Then just open the door and act as if nothing happened.”
And that would be the biggest lie ever.
She moistened her lips, her eyes darting past his shoulder, looking everywhere but at him. “I can’t. She wouldn’t understand.”
The muscles at the back of his neck tightened. “Are you scared of her?”
Her eyes swung back to him. “Of course not,” she said, but there was a hollow ring to her words, and he knew she was definitely scared of something. “She’s just…” She winced. “Well, she’s Robert’s mother. I don’t want her to find us like this.”
“Like what? I was only checking your lock,” he drawled.
She blushed, her gaze dropping to his chest. “Flynn, I don’t think—”
Another knock at the door cut across her words, making her jump. Flynn swore softly. This was a ridiculous situation.
She brushed back her damp hair, then tightened the collar of her robe. She swallowed. “I have to face her.”
He suddenly felt proud of her, so he dropped a light kiss on her lips, tempted to linger. He wanted to say to hell with this Monica, but if he did that, then he’d have to sweep Danielle up in his arms and carry her to the bedroom for a night of hot pleasure.
And then what?
He shuddered. It was as well this Monica would call the police. It was the wake-up call he needed. From this point he would back off and leave Danielle to get on with her life. In about six months time she would become a mother, for God’s sake. And he’d never seen anyone sexier.
“Flynn, I’m ready.”
He gave a nod, then pulled the door open, making the well-dressed woman on the other side almost leap out of her skin.
“Monica,” Danielle exclaimed, pretending surprise, though Flynn didn’t think she did a good job of it, considering she was such an accomplished liar at times. “I didn’t realize you were there.”
The mother-in-law’s gaze traveled from one to the other, then up and down, her obsidian eyes turning colder by degrees. “So I see.”