Rock Wedding (Rock Kiss #4) - Nalini Singh Page 0,18

it on the counter. “I kept the incident from my mother… but she knew. I could see it in her face when we next spoke, could see her breaking as she prepared to bury another child.”

“Oh, Abe.” Sarah’s eyes burned; she understood Diane Bellamy’s pain far better now than she had before she lost Aaron. “That had to be awful for your mom, but I’m so glad it made you realize what you were doing to yourself and to her.”

“Yeah.” Leaning back against the counter with his hands gripping the edges, he held her gaze. “I’ve been totally clean since. Not even a Sunday beer or a pill to take the edge off.”

The intensity of his focus made the tiny hairs on her arms rise. “You look better than I’ve ever seen you look,” she said, taking in his healthy, glowing skin, his gorgeously defined biceps, the clean line of his jaw.

A flame flickered in his eyes. “So do you.” His eyes skimmed over her body as if she were dressed in skintight leather rather than a simple sundress.

Flushing, she went to pick up a mug for the coffee, but Abe was suddenly right next to her, his heat blazing against her skin. He cupped her cheek with one hand, just held it there in silent invitation until she turned her head to look into his eyes.

She shivered at the molten heat that awaited her.

Electricity arced between them, formed in the raw passion that had never died even when everything else collapsed into ruins. Sarah knew she shouldn’t, that this was a bad, bad idea, but she’d hurt so much today, and it had been so long since she’d been held. So long since she’d felt like a woman and not just a shattered thing that had once been Sarah.

When Abe bent toward her, she tilted back her head, parted her lips. His heat branding her, his scent sinking into her, his lips touching hers… and ignition. Her entire body went up in flame, her pulse rocketing. Moaning in the back of her throat, she gripped at his T-shirt and rose on her tiptoes to deepen the kiss, the craving inside her a feral thing.

A rumbling sound in Abe’s chest that vibrated against her hands, and then he was spinning her around and picking her up to put her on the counter. All without breaking the kiss. Pushing her thighs wide apart without apology, he settled in between and, stroking one hand up her back to grip her nape, used the other to shove up her dress so that his palm was on the bare skin of her thigh.

He’d always been demanding, always handled her during sex.

Sarah liked it, liked how it made her feel small and feminine when she’d grown up being the big girl in every one of her classes, instinctively hunching in a futile effort to make herself smaller. She never felt too big or too tall with Abe. She felt exactly the right size. God, he was so strong, so hot.

Since Abe had shaved off his hair, she gripped at his neck, his shoulder, all the while sinking deeper and deeper into his kiss.

He moved his hand higher up her leg, onto the hypersensitive skin of her inner thigh, bare inches from her panties.

Sarah whimpered.

Chest heaving, Abe broke the kiss, said, “You want to do this?”

Sarah’s nod was firm even if her breath was ragged. She wanted this more than anything. For the first time in eighteen months, she didn’t feel numb inside. She felt alive and real and full of something other than sorrow.

“You sure?” He ran his thumb over the skin of her inner thigh and the slight roughness of his touch rasped sparks straight to her nipples. They tightened almost too much, until the sensation straddled a fine line between pleasure and pain. He stroked again, a man with a pianist’s gifted hands but who played guitar enough that his fingertips weren’t smooth.

She’d always loved his touch.

“You’ve had a tough day.” Abe’s deep voice, his hand going still on her aching flesh.

Sarah found her voice in the need that clawed at her. “I know you’re trying to be a good guy, Abe, but don’t.” She kissed him again. Hard. “I want this and I’m an adult. I don’t need babying.”

A smile curved his lips, the kind of smile that would’ve made her clench her thighs if he hadn’t been between them. “Oh, I know you’re an adult, Sarah.” Lifting his hand from her