A Clandestine Corporate Affair - By Michelle Celmer Page 0,25

her. And despite everything else that had happened between them, as much as she’d tried to fight it, to be smart about this, she wanted him, too. But she didn’t tell him that. Instead she did something even worse. Something monumentally more stupid.

She pushed up on her toes and kissed him.

For one tense and terrifying instant she wasn’t sure how he would react, if she was making a huge mistake. But Nathan’s arms went around her, his hands tangling through her hair, and his tongue swept across her own in that lulling, bone-melting way of his.

Her knees went soft and her pulse skipped and everything in her screamed yes!

He should be telling her that this would only complicate things, and the important thing right now was to keep it civilized, for Max’s sake. He should be, but he wasn’t.

He broke the kiss and pulled back to look at her, cradling her face in his hands, searching her eyes.

Her heart sank. “Having second thoughts already?”

He smiled and shook his head. “No. Just savoring the moment.”

Because it would be their last. She knew it, and she could see it in his eyes. They would get this one night together, then things would have to go back to the way they were. They would have to go back to just being Max’s parents. There was no other way. Not for him, anyway. It sucked, and it hurt—boy, did it hurt—but not enough to make her tell him no. She wanted this, probably more than she’d ever wanted anything.

“You’re sure this is what you want?” he said, always the gentleman, always worried about her feelings, and her heart, even when he was breaking it. But this one was worth a little pain.

She stepped away from him, grabbed a quilt from the back of the couch and spread it out on the rug in front of the fire. Nathan watched, his eyes dark, as she stripped down to her bra and panties then laid down on the blanket. He had this look, as though he wanted to devour her, and every part of her hummed in anticipation. Her skin heated and her pulse jumped.

He tugged his polo shirt up over his head, then shoved his jeans off and kicked them aside. He was perfect. Lean and strong and beautiful. The glow of the fire licked and danced across his skin as he got down and stretched out beside her. He propped himself up on one elbow, gazing at her.

“My body is a little different than the last time you saw it,” she said.

He touched her stomach, stroking it with the backs of his fingers, and the skin quivered under his touch. “Does that bother you?” he asked.

She shrugged. “It’s just a fact.”

“Well,” he said, leaning over and pressing a kiss to the crest of her breast, just above the lace edge of her bra, “I think you’re even sexier than you were before.”

As long as he kept touching her, she didn’t care how she looked. He eased the cup of her bra aside, exposing her breast to the cool air, and her nipple pulled into a tight point. He teased it lightly with his tongue, then took it in his mouth and sucked. Ana moaned softly and closed her eyes. Nathan reached around to unfasten her bra, working the clasp with a quick flick of his fingers. The low growl of satisfaction as he pulled it off said he either didn’t notice that her breasts weren’t quite as firm as they had been before, or he simply didn’t care.

For a while he seemed content to just touch and kiss and explore her, and oh, could the man do amazing things with his mouth. The problem was, he was only doing them above the waist. And though God knows she loved kissing him, and putting her hands on him was like pure heaven, she was crawling out of her skin, she was so hot for him. But every time she tried to move things along, he would cut her off at the pass.

She enjoyed foreplay as much as the next woman, but even she had limits. But hadn’t that always been his M.O.? For him, foreplay wasn’t a means to an end. It was an art form. And sex had always been not only satisfying, but fun.

“You know you’re driving me crazy,” she said.

His grin said that he knew exactly what he was doing. “There’s no rush, right?”

“I wouldn’t exactly call this rushing, Nathan.”

“Because I know