It grabbed me when I least expected it and clutched me within the grasp of its claws, holding me at its will, making me see nothing past my need for him to kiss me again.
“No,” I answered breathlessly, the word barely audible over the drumming of my heart.
He leaned closer. “Good, because I’m about to kiss you again. Don’t you dare ask me to forget when tomorrow comes.”
“Kiss me.”
I smiled when he came closer and brushed his lips over mine, just like he had the previous night, touching me like a whisper, the prelude to the kiss.
The caress of his lips over mine set my body aflame, and I thought the simple touch would consume me. It shattered my calm and sent shivers of desire racing throughout my body.
When his mouth moved over mine with urgency, I was sucked into the delicious sensation, the warmth, the heat and passion. His lips became hard and searching, so much more than the previous night, so much more because I was myself, not under the influence of anything other than his passionate kisses and the spirals of ecstasy that tantalized me.
My knees weakened from it, but he knew to catch me before I fell. His hands slid around my waist and crushed me to him. A shockwave blasted through my entire being, rousing passion, possession, and something primal and hot that made me want to consume him.
But the same movement made him pull away.
No.God, I wasn’t ready for him to do that, and I hadn’t expected it either.
“I have to…stop.”
“Why?” I could barely talk. My lips…they still burned from his touch, and I wouldn’t have minded if he’d scorched them.
“The joys of being a single dad.” He pressed his lips together and a look of uncertainty washed over his face.
Aria. Oh God.
Feeling horrified, my eyes darted to his house.Shit.She could have been looking through the window, or even standing outside.
I understood the example he wanted to set for her and just then, just by kissing like that, he had gone over his threshold of what was acceptable.
“I’m sorry. I forgot.”
“She’s, um…I know she’s probably home, and it would just be like her to look through the window and see me…see us.”
“I get it, and if I asked you to come inside, that would probably be very bad.”
“You’d still want me to come in?” His lips arched into a grin that revealed his dimples.
I reached out and touched his jaw. “Mmhmmm.” I nodded.
“A guy with a sixteen-year-old daughter who goes into both cop mode and dad mode doesn’t scare you away?”
“Not so much.” I didn’t have to think about the answer. That wouldn’t be something that would scare me.
“Okay…Brooke, looks like we have a lot to talk about.”
“Looks that way.”
He smiled and did the sweetest thing by taking my hand and bringing it up to his lips to kiss my knuckles.
“Lesson’s over for today.”
He released my hand and backed away.
As I watched him go, my mind raced. A myriad of thoughts coursed through my brain all at once, but one thing stood out.
When will I see him again? And what will we do?
