Matilda Next Door - Kelly Hunter Page 0,37
that offer one week later, probably out of guilt.’
‘My offer was genuine. But you never did visit and I never did push, and now that I have a daughter to provide for it doesn’t exactly seem like the right time to make my interest known. You might think I’m opting for convenience, rather than finally acting on a long-held attraction towards you. To take on a difficult man, and a motherless child, is a lot to ask of any woman.’
Her eyes met his in the window reflection. ‘I wouldn’t mind.’
He came up behind her and she set her glass down and clutched at the rim of the sink instead, as she watched him draw closer. ‘Turn around,’ he ordered quietly, and she did and he boxed her in with an arm either side, watching her face and reading her body for any signs of resistance. ‘I’d like to kiss you now, and then I’ll say good night and turn in, because what I don’t want to do is pressure you into something you’ll regret tomorrow. You’ve had a crazy few days. So have I. So we’ll take this slow and get it right. That okay by you?’
She nodded, her cheeks flushing and her gaze skipping to his lips, and that was all the encouragement he needed.
Her lips were warm and soft and he started slow, as slow as he could with the fierce need for more riding him hard and turning every muscle in his body taut as an overwound violin string. And then her lips parted beneath his and her hands came up to hold his face in place as she melted against him and feasted, and this time it was his turn to hang onto the edge of the sink as if his life depended on it.
One kiss, just one kiss, and then he’d leave, but his mouth never left hers and the kiss grew deeper and ever more soul consuming, and breathing was for fools. She wasn’t coy. She didn’t hold back her delight. No games. Be it with words or with kisses, her simple honesty floored him.
All he wanted to do was push for more, pin her to the counter and let her sweetness engulf him.
Instead, he pulled back, loving the tousled, freshly kissed look of her. ‘I’m hard work. I’m no one’s prize catch. I’ve been told repeatedly that I don’t trust easily, and nor do I love without reservation. If people are being blunt, they’ll say I don’t know how to love at all.’
‘They’re wrong.’
Stubborn Tilly. Always prepared to believe the best of him. She made him want to believe it too. ‘I want to get this right.’ He kissed her hard and fast. ‘If you hear Rowan fussing tonight, don’t worry about it. I’ll get up for her and, fingers crossed, I’ll deal with it. Consider this step one in my courtship plan. Prove to Tilly that I’m on top of the single fatherhood gig and don’t need rescuing.’
She nodded, bemused. ‘But you do need rescuing. Isn’t that why I’m here?’
‘Not anymore. You’re backup only. I’m a man with a plan.’
She raised her eyebrows but said nothing.
‘Good night, Matilda. Sleep well.’
‘I won’t you know.’ He was halfway down the hall before her tricksy words reached him. ‘I’ll be too busy planning how to seduce you.’
*
Tilly got ready for sleep in her third unfamiliar bedroom for the week. Not that it bothered her this time around and the reason for that was across the hallway in a nearby bedroom. Who knew that all she needed was the presence of Henry in order for the unfamiliar to feel a whole lot like home?
Henry, who may have been labelled mad during his teenage years, but he had never not also been hot. Mad Hot Henry—she saw no reason whatsoever to rethink that assessment. And he was here and now and home for who knew how long, and he wanted her in a romantic way and not just as a babysitter. She wanted to believe that so much.
The way she saw it, she had two choices. Run away and protect her heart, which, admittedly, had been the choice behind her decision to leave Henry to it in Melbourne. Or open herself wide to the possibilities Henry presented. Believe him when he said he didn’t need an insta-wife. Trust that he was following his feelings and not his need for a nanny for his motherless child. Hope that he’d find the kind of happiness in Wirralong that he’d