They weren’t touching in many places, and she longed to lean against him. That’s what she always read about. Couples pressing together, breasts straining. She had never understood how breasts could possible strain, but now she did. Hers ached. She would have sworn they were swollen, too, longing to be flattened against his broad chest. Shivers rippled through her, starting at her toes and working their way up to her scalp. Her fingers tingled; so did that secret place between her thighs. She thought—
His mouth parted, and he touched the tip of his tongue to her lower lip. Instantly her mind shut down, as did her ability to breathe. None of that mattered. She focused all her energy, all her senses, on that single damp spot.
He touched her there again, this time pressing a little more as if urging her to comply with his wishes. Before she could figure out what to do, her mouth parted, almost without her realizing it, and his tongue slipped inside.
He was warm and sweet and tasted better than any chocolate she’d ever had. He didn’t attack or act as if he was there to map out the points of interest in her mouth. Instead, he moved slowly, almost reverently, first exploring the tender skin on the inside of her lip before gently stroking her tongue.
She supposed the fire was inevitable. Between the shivers and the sparks and goodness knows what other sensations, she already felt as if she were in danger of going up in flames. So when the heat licked against her skin, she simply surrendered to the hot need. She leaned against him, at last giving her breasts what they’d been screaming for. The relief was instant, and over just as quickly. For as her breasts nestled against the hard planes of his chest and the aching eased, her hard, sensitized nipples began to tighten even more. She’d never felt anything like this in her life. She wasn’t sure what was happening or what it meant. She only knew she didn’t want Stone to ever stop kissing her.
As if he read her mind, his arms tightened around her. She had leaned into him, but he pulled her even closer. Their bodies pressed together, just like she’d read about. Hewashard to her soft, just like those authors had promised. It was so incredibly perfect. Especially the hardness she felt pressing into the spot between her stomach and her left hipbone. He was aroused and ready. Kissing her had done that to him!
She must have made a sound of pleasure and gratification, or somehow indicated something had changed, because Stone pulled back. He broke the kiss gently, cupping her face as their lips parted. Still, she was loath to let him go.
“Wow!” she said without thinking.
Fortunately he grinned. “Yeah. Wow.” Then the smile faded. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t usually welcome employees to the company like that.”
His words had the effect of an ice bath. She forced her smile to remain in place even as she took a step back. “I guess a lot of the guys would really object, huh?” She waved as if it had meant nothing to her, either. “Don’t worry about it, Stone. We’re friends, right? It was a very nice kiss.”
“I agree. And I promise it won’t happen again.”
Great. He was probably the kind of man who gave blenders and vacuum cleaners for birthday presents, too. She sighed. Well, it had been a wonderful experience. She would have a lot to think about when she was alone in her room that night. In the meantime, she must never let him know that her knees were still weak and her breasts would probably be aching for days.
So this was desire, she thought. At least she knew what it felt like. For a while, she’d thought she might go her whole life and never experience it.
“Thank you for understanding,” he said.
“Sure. No problem.”
She left his office with a promise to see him at dinner. Once out in the hall, her good humor faded and confusion took its place. What exactly had happened back there? If he didn’t mean it, why had he kissed her like that?
“So much for being a grown-up,” she whispered as she started shaking. She felt strange inside. Tense, but not tense.
Now she was supposed to work for the man. Fine. She would figure out a way to put this behind her and she would work for him. She wanted the chance. She would be a fool to mess that up by getting too caught up in what had obviously meant different things to her than to him.
He’d thanked her for understanding. Great. The problem was she didn’t understand. Not even for a minute.
Chapter Nine
Stone walked the few steps to his chair, then collapsed. Every cell in his body ached with a need he couldn’t control. He’d wanted before—he’d even wanted Cathy. But he didn’t remember ever feeling this overwhelming desire. He was having trouble focusing on anything but how she’d felt in his arms and the way his world had exploded into passion when he’d kissed her.
Talk about stupid, he told himself. First he asked the woman to work for him. A smart move. After all, she was bright, energetic and willing to get the job done. The way she’d tackled her recovery and physical therapy had shown him that. Better yet, he sensed he could trust her. There weren’t many people he could say that about. But then he had to go and blow it by kissing her.
It had been the hug. He knew that, but told himself it was a pretty poor excuse. Women had hugged him before. Admittedly none had since the accident. Not that there had been any opportunity. So maybe that was the reason he’d overreacted. He’d been caught off guard. The unexpected contact with an enticing female had left him vulnerable to his physical needs. Apparently that part of him wasn’t as dead as he’d imagined.
That’s all it was then—animal lust. Nothing more. A physical sensation, be it desire or pain, could be controlled. He’d done it all his life.
Stone sucked in a breath and exhaled it slowly. To be completely honest, he had a lot of experience controlling pain and virtually none controlling desire. Wanting had never been an issue in his life. In college he’d had a string of steady girlfriends more than willing to be intimate with him. He’d experienced desire, but nothing like this soul-wrenching wanting. Marriage to Evelyn had been difficult because he hadn’t felt any sexual connection with her. So this experience with Cathy was new territory. Still, hewouldconquer it.
He pressed one foot against the floor and pushed until he’d turned his chair around and he could stare out the window. So far the lecture on managing the need wasn’t helping. Every inch of him was still on fire. His groin throbbed to the point of pain. Part of the problem was his body sensed the possibilities. Cathy had responded to the kiss as if she, too, had felt the same passion flaring between them. Without closing his eyes, he could put himself back there—holding her, kissing her, bodies pressing, tongues stroking.
He groaned low in his throat. His hardness swelled to the point of explosion.
He could never do it again. Cathy had to be completely off-limits to him except as an employee and a friend. She was too softhearted. She only saw the scars on the outside, and they would never bother her. Even though he’d tried to warn her off, she thought he was a normal, decent guy. She didn’t have the life experience to know that inside he was little more than a monster. An empty shell of a man who had lied to and betrayed the best person in his world.
If she knew the truth—He shook his head. He was a coward, as well, he realized. He didn’t want her to know the truth about him. She would think less of him, and he knew he couldn’t bear that. She was important to him and if she were gone, he would have nothing of value left. Work had long since ceased to be much of a challenge.
So he wouldn’t tell her how he’d married Evelyn for all the wrong reasons. How he hadn’t had the common decency to love or even desire his wife. How in the end, he’d allowed her to catch him in an act of betrayal and that she had died because of it.
