you say. Have a nice night, Ginger.”
When he turned to go, she started to relax—but then, just as quickly, he spun back
to face her. And he lifted both hands to smoothly draw loose fabric together over
her chest. She glanced down, gasped softly. To see that a button had come loose. To
see his hands there. Despite herself, her breasts ached to be touched—she felt the
fabric tightening over them far more keenly than made sense. They both watched in
silence as he slowly took his time threading the button through the hole.
“Think this came undone,” he said deeply.
Then he turned and walked away.
* * *
A pril sat in her office the next morning, feeling out of sorts. Partially because she’d
slept badly and had run late, then discovered the blouse she’d planned to wear had
a stain on it, and now she felt tacky for having decided to wear it anyway and just
keep her jacket buttoned all day.
Between clients, pro bono work, and family commitments, she had too much on her calendar
today, as usual. And that reminded her:
Don’t forget to schedule a few minutes with Ellen to talk about Kayla’s divorce and
whether it’s truly feasible for me to handle it.
And . . . then there was the guy who’d kissed her senseless last night. She couldn’t
believe she didn’t even know his name. And she still wasn’t quite sure how she’d let
something like that happen. It was so not her.
Maybe it’s because he was absolutely gorgeous.
She let out a sigh as the revelation whispered its way through her mind.
Okay, yes, he
was
gorgeous.
Probably six-two or six-three, hair black as the night, and an olive complexion shadowed
with the dark stubble that had ever so lightly abraded her face, adding still more
sensation to what had already been extremely potent kisses. He’d dressed simply, wearing
blue jeans and a black T-shirt that had stretched over broad shoulders and a well-muscled
chest. Add in his sturdy grip and she’d been left knowing just how strong he was.
In fact, she could still almost feel his hand on her arm, holding her like a vise
she’d had no chance of breaking free from.
Remembering that—that sense of being trapped, detained, against my will—should horrify
me.
But what actually horrified her at the moment was the realization that instead it
was making her panties a little wet. Good Lord, what was that about?
She had no idea, but she didn’t like it. It made no sense, no sense at all. And April
was a woman whose world made sense. It might be busy as hell, and stressful as hell,
but it always made sense—and she liked it that way.
Maybe it’s all just a reaction to being kissed like that.
After all, it had been a long time since she’d been kissed. Too long, some would say.
The last time she’d dated anyone seriously had been . . . well, years ago. She stopped
to do the math—she was thirty-three now and she’d broken up with Greg when she was
twenty-nine. Wow—okay, so it had been even longer than she’d actually thought. And
she’d dated a few guys briefly since then, but it hadn’t led to sex or even serious
kissing—certainly nothing like the kissing that had gone on in the alleyway outside
the Café Tropico last night. And it wasn’t that she couldn’t get a date—it was simply
that she had other priorities, and possibly also because she didn’t often put herself
in places that easily facilitated the meeting/dating thing. She was just too busy
doing the things she
had
to do—being there for the people who depended on her—and social time came after that.
Which meant usually not at all.
But she was okay with that. It wasn’t a big deal. She hoped to get married and have
children someday, and she figured that when she chose to start making that more of
a priority in her life, then it would happen. But she just wasn’t a romantic at heart,
and she also wasn’t a woman who needed sex all the time. She had