his father.” He continued to rub the center of his chest, his voice raw with the wounds that had never healed. “Then he revealed that he had feet of clay and I couldn’t forgive him. No matter how much I loved him, there was a part of me that always resented what he stole from me.” He clicked his tongue. “Selfish.”
“No, just human.” Not giving herself time to consider her impulsive need to comfort Kir, she crossed the floor to wrap her arms around his waist. Then, laying her head against his chest, she sucked in the warm, citrusy scent of his soap. “Do you want to know what I think?”
He stiffened, as if she’d managed to shock him with her impulsive hug. Honestly, she’d shocked herself. Then, slowly he relaxed.
“Tell me.”
“I don’t think you’re beating yourself up because your father wasn’t perfect, but because you weren’t,” she murmured. “You’re afraid you failed as a son.”
She heard his heart miss a beat, as if her words had touched a nerve. Had she gone too far? He was, after all, grieving Rudolf ’s death.
Then she felt his arms wrap around her and his lips brush the top of her head. “How did you get to be so smart?”
She nestled closer. It felt good to be cocooned against him. Safe. “I spent my childhood convinced that my mom left because she didn’t want a child. I knew that if I hadn’t been born, she’d still be here. And my father wouldn’t have been so sad.”
His arms tightened around her. “And now?”
“Now I try to accept that I’m responsible for my own decisions and actions,” she told him, her sense of comfort being slowly replaced by a potent awareness. His muscles were deliciously hard as she pressed against them and his citrusy scent was causing her blood to tingle in all the right places. “I can’t control other people,” she forced herself to continue. “They have to do what they have to do.”
His hand lightly skimmed up her side. Lynne trembled as his fingers tunneled beneath her hair that tumbled over her shoulders. She’d taken it out of her usual ponytail before Kir had arrived at the clinic to pick her up for dinner. She’d also dug through her purse to find the old tube of lipstick she hadn’t used in months.
She hadn’t asked herself why she was going to such trouble. It wasn’t like Bella’s restaurant was fancy. Just the opposite. Now she knew why. His fingers cupped her nape. Another shiver raced through her body.
“Does that work?”
She licked her suddenly dry lips. “Sometimes.”
His mouth brushed the top of her head. “Sometimes is a start.”
Lynne tilted back her head to meet his smoldering gaze. She’d heard about a passionate haze, although she’d never actually experienced it. This, however, was just the opposite.
Oh, there was passion. It churned through her as if it was about to explode. But there was no haze. Instead she was acutely aware of the world around her. As if her senses had all been dialed to hyperdrive.
She was vibrantly conscious of the heat of his fingertips as they pressed against the bare skin of her throat. The accelerating beat of her heart that made her breath quicken. The rush of blood that seared away the lingering chill.
It all combined to offer a sense of magical anticipation.
Even the warm, familiar scent of her home and the faint snoring of King added to the sensation that this was a rare and precious moment.
“It is,” she managed to croak.
She reached up, pulling down his head to claim his lips in a kiss that scorched her to the tips of her toes. They curled in her boots.
There were kisses, and then there were soul-destroying kisses. This was one of those soul-destroying ones.
Lynne leaned heavily against his body, her hands burrowing beneath his sweater to skim up his back. He was so warm. Fascinated by the contrast of his hot, silken skin stretched over rock-hard muscles, she inched her hands up to his broad shoulders.
Kir moaned, using the tip of his tongue to widen her lips so he could deepen the kiss. He tasted of the wine they’d shared at the restaurant, and something else. Need.
Pure male need.
The taste sent her stomach somersaulting, like when she was twelve and she finally worked up the nerve to ride her first roller coaster. It’d been terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.
Just like this.
Wanting more, she grabbed the hem of his sweater and with an