Happy Mother's Day! - By Sharon Kendrick Page 0,88

same room?’

Erin blinked, confused by the emotions that were rolling off him in waves.

‘I invite you into my bed because it is where you belong.’

The blunt pronouncement made her stomach dip and flutter.

‘I find it hard to function when all I can think about is sinking into you.’

For a moment their eyes clung. The raw need in his drove the air from her lungs. From some hidden well of reserve she discovered the strength to break that searing contact.

With a cry she ran from the room, not caring if her flight confirmed his accusation that she was too immature to confront her feelings.

CHAPTER NINE

ERIN went straight to her room. It took her less than five minutes to pack her bags, throwing things in a blind panic. She didn’t see another person in the apparently deserted house until she had reached the hallway.

‘Isn’t this becoming a habit with you, cara?’

Erin dropped her case as she spun around in time to see a tall, lithe figure peel away from the wall.

‘There is a problem you don’t want to confront. So you run away.’

‘I’m not running away.’

‘No?’ He arched a brow. ‘What are you doing, then?’

Erin drew a deep startled breath and stiffened when without warning his long brown fingers brushed her skin as they slid into the neckline of her shirt.

The contact sizzled like a flame fizzing along her nerve endings all the way down to her curling toes. She closed her eyes, her nostrils flaring in response to the male scent of his warm body so close now that all she had to do was lean forward and their bodies would be touching.

She wanted that contact so much that it was a physical pain. She wanted to feel his hands on her, his mouth.

She had begun to sway towards him when she heard him say. ‘Why do you wear this?’

Her eyelids felt heavy as she forced her eyes open and, blinking in a bemused fashion, she focused on his lean dark face so close to her own that she could see the fine mesh of lines that radiated from the corners of his incredible eyes. ‘What? I.’

Then she saw it.

The gold ring still warm from her skin resting in the palm of his cupped hand. The heat of arousal drained from her body.

Francesco’s expression was inscrutable as he stared at the circlet of gold on his palm, still warm from its hiding place in the valley between her breasts.

His eyes darkened and a muscle alongside his sensually sculpted mouth clenched as he recalled how perfectly her breast fitted into that same palm.

‘Why did you not throw it away? Surely it represents a memory that can give you no pleasure?’

Francesco did not attempt to stop her as she snatched the ring from his hand and drew back a clenched fist pressed to her chest. Her angry eyes held his defiantly as she allowed it to slide back into its hiding place between her breasts and then fastened the top two buttons of her blouse.

‘I keep it as a reminder, just in case the unthinkable happens and I suffer another bout of temporary insanity and even consider getting married again.’

‘You are married.’

Her eyes dropped from the anger in his. ‘I need time to think, Francesco.’

‘There is nothing to think about—a child needs two parents.’

As she moved towards the door so did Francesco, his intention obviously to cut her off. She might have reached it before him if the strap of the bag she had looped around her neck hadn’t got caught up on a heavy ormolu clock that took pride of place on a console table.

As she was pulled backwards, half strangled by the strap around her neck, her elbow caught a large vase filled with water and before it shattered noisily it managed to tip its contents all over Francesco.

It was the look of shock on his face as he stood there with water dripping from his drenched shirt and trousers onto the floor that drew the laugh from Erin’s throat and once she had started she couldn’t stop. The laughter gradually morphed into sobs, tears ran unchecked down her cheeks as the deep racking sobs; shook her entire body.

‘Per amor di Dio!’ Francesco groaned, his face contorted as though in pain as he watched her.

Erin did not resist as he gently removed the leather strap from her neck, but when he tried to drag her into his arms she shook her head and pulled back, wiping the tears from her face