A Brother's Honor (Grangers) - By Brenda Jackson Page 0,88

no interest on his part. There was none of the gut-stirring attraction and desire he’d felt for Shana from the start. He had been on his way home, halfway there, when the need to see her again had tugged inside of him so badly that it became an ache. He’d then made a U-turn and come here.

Jace was well aware of the brief amount of sleep they’d both gotten the night before and figured Shana needed her rest; that was fine. All he wanted to do was hold her in his arms for a while. “You were about to go to bed?”

“Yes.”

“Come on, then, and let me tuck you in before I leave.”

Shana quirked her eyebrows questioningly. “Tuck me in?”

“Yes, and then I’ll leave.”

This I got to see, Shana thought. No man had ever tucked her into bed without staying the night. “Okay.”

He took her hand, and she thought he would walk her up the stairs. She gasped when he swept her off her feet and into his arms. “I can walk, Jace,” she said, looking up at him.

“Why do so when you don’t have to?” was his reply.

He took the stairs with ease while holding her, and Shana felt cuddled firmly in his strong arms. When they reached the bedroom, he set her down beside the bed. He then began removing his jacket. After placing it across the wingback chair in her room, he pushed back the bedcovers and then glanced over at her. “In.”

Like a dutiful child, she moved to crawl between the covers, and then he kicked off his shoes and joined her on the bed, stretching out his legs. “I want to hold you until you doze off to sleep.”

She nodded and, filled with an emotion she tried and failed to push back, she eased toward him, and he held her in his arms with her head pressed against his chest. She could inhale his masculine scent and could hear the steady beat of his heart. For some reason, she was comforted by the sound. His arms were wrapped around her, and she thought that she could lie in his arms like this forever.

She glanced up at him, parted her lips to say something...what, she wasn’t sure...and instead she tipped her mouth up for a kiss she desperately wanted. He lowered his head and complied.

The stroke of his tongue against hers was soothing, passionate, and her body responded by stretching upward for more. And he delivered, deepening the kiss, intensifying those strokes, and she heard herself moaning out her pleasure.

He broke off the kiss, and his breath seared across her parted lips when he whispered, “Don’t tempt me, Shana. Go to sleep.”

Drawing in a deep, satisfying breath with the taste of him still embedded on her tongue, she settled back down in bed and he wrapped his arms around her again. Held against him moments later, she heard it...a steady hum...and realized what he was doing. Not only was he holding her, but he was humming her to sleep, as well. She recognized the tune, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. She smiled as she closed her eyes, and that was the last thing she remembered.

* * *

Jace stopped humming and glanced down when he heard the steadiness of Shana’s breathing. She had fallen asleep. A part of him had felt guilty most of the day knowing he had robbed her of sleep Sunday night. Hopefully, this would make up for it.

Carefully, he eased away from her and smiled when she whispered his name in her sleep. He couldn’t resist leaning over and placing a tender kiss on her lips. Then, covering her up completely, he moved away from the bed, slid back into his shoes and put on his jacket again. He glanced back over at her one final time before turning out the lights and quietly moving downstairs.

A part of him knew he should not have come here, but then another part knew he had no other choice. Shana had gotten under his skin from day one, and although he’d tried, there was no eradicating her. This affair they’d agreed to would eventually run its course. This fierce attraction and desire would one day be a thing of the past. They were merely enjoying each other for now. It was about sex and nothing more.

If all those things were true, then why did he feel possessiveness toward her that he hadn’t felt for a woman in a long time? He’d felt possessive toward Eve, but then