“If you don’t walk away,” he said quietly, “I might do something neither of us can take back.”
Her breathing became choppy, those full lips of his taking up all of her attention. “Just because you can’t take something back, doesn’t make it a mistake.”
Fire. It lit his eyes, darkening the blue.
Then his mouth crashed to hers.
The kiss was instant heat, and even though it was firm, his lips were surprisingly gentle. They grazed across hers, exploring, and when she opened her mouth, his tongue slipped inside, dueling with her own.
She groaned, a deep, primal sound that slipped into the air, cutting through the quiet of the room.
Then his hands were on her hips, sliding beneath the material of her shirt and touching bare skin. Instinctively, she leaned back, tugging him down with her. His weight settled over her, heavy and hard, causing a dull throb to beat into her lower belly.
He made her feel small and vulnerable and safe…yes, so safe under his large frame.
She curled a leg around his waist and tugged him closer as one of his hands inched higher, teasingly close to her breast.
His tongue swiped across hers one more time before his hand closed over her breast. Even though there was material between his hand and her flesh, it felt like he was touching bare skin, the roughness of his skin in complete contrast to her softness.
She arched as he palmed her, the throbbing in her core intensifying. Consuming and blacking out the world around her until it was just them.
Desperately, she slipped her fingers into his hair, tugging at the roots as she arched into his touch. He found her hard nipple and rolled it between his thumb and forefinger, drawing a guttural groan from her throat.
She was right on the verge of asking—no, begging—for more, when he suddenly released her, his mouth lifting, his hand disappearing from her breast. He stood quickly. Then his hands were in his hair, pulling, and the expression on his face…it was almost agonized.
“Shit, Sadie. I shouldn’t have done that.”
The words, combined with the separation, were like ice in her veins.
Her heart still beat at a million miles an hour as she tugged down her shirt and rose from the couch on shaky legs. “You don’t have to keep apologizing for touching me,” she said quietly, voice not nearly as steady as she would have liked. “We both wanted to do that.”
The shake of his head felt like a kick to her stomach. “No. It’s not appropriate. You’re my nanny, and I’m older than you.”
“I’m twenty-five. I’m hardly a child, Eastern. We’re both consenting adults.”
When he continued to stand there looking tortured, as if he’d just made the biggest mistake of his life, she forced her spine to straighten, refusing to let the hurt show on her face.
“I’m going to go.”
She grabbed her phone and bag, then headed to the door, suddenly wanting to be anywhere but here. She was outside and almost at her car when strong fingers wrapped around her wrist.
“Sadie, I’m—”
“Don’t.” Her whispered word barely reached air. “Don’tsay you’re sorry for kissing me. Having you say you shouldn’t have done it already hurt enough. Having you say you feelsorryabout it… No. I don’t want that.”
“Whatdoyou want?”
Wasn’t that obvious? Hadn’t shemadeit obvious by the way her body responded to him?
Instead of answering his question, she gave him a small smile that she knew went nowhere near reaching her eyes. “I’ll see you later, Eastern.”
CHAPTER 8
“Get off me, ya big plonker!”
Eastern didn’t ease his hold on Denny’s elbow as he marched him from the car to the station doors. “Plonker? Haven’t heard that one before. You make it up?”
“No, it’s British, ya wanker.”
