in close. His mouth found her nipple and he strained up to suckle, molding her other breast with his hand.
They found their rhythm right away, rocking hard together. Emma planted her hands on the headboard and pushed her hips into Darcy’s, her need an engine that drove and drove and drove—
It was all over in minutes. Short, sharp and intense.
She sagged over him, panting and damp with perspiration. And ground her hips into his again to capture the aftershocks. “Did you come?”
He gave a low dry chuckle. “Yes. Nice of you to ask.”
“I wasn’t just using you. Honest.”
“I wouldn’t mind if you were.”
She pulled free and lay beside him, draping an arm over his chest and twining her leg with his. In spite of all the reasons making love to him was wrong, it somehow felt right. “Before the nightmare I was dreaming about making love to you. Then it all went wrong.”
“What happened?” He blew softly on her chest, cooling her heated skin and causing her wet nipples to pucker. Her milk was leaking a little and he bent to lick it up, laving her like a cat.
She shivered with sensual delight, unwilling to leave this warm place with Darcy to go back into the nightmare. But he was waiting for an explanation. “In the middle of that dream I heard a siren, maybe out on the highway, and suddenly we were no longer in a sunlit meadow. Instead it was the Saturday of the football final. It was getting cloudy and I was ready to go in. I called to Holly. Only it wasn’t Holly. It was Billy.” She shivered, remembering Kyle leering at her. She should have gone inside and gotten Darcy. If only...
Darcy pulled her into a warm embrace. He felt so good, so strong and loving. The very real sensation of his body against hers—the prickliness of the hair on his shins, the heat of his skin, the musk of their lovemaking—held her in the here and now, safe from loneliness and sorrow, safe from her memories.
“What happened to the ambulance? The siren?” she added when he looked puzzled.
“It wasn’t an ambulance. It was a fire truck. It stopped in the village, right on our street, it sounded like. I was getting up to investigate when you cried out.”
Suddenly wide-awake, she sat up. “This building isn’t on fire, is it?”
“No. The alarm would have gone off if it was. It must be a nearby shop.”
Emma gave him a slap on the shoulder. “You made love to me knowing fire trucks were outside? I don’t believe you.”
“It could have been a false alarm. Besides...” He kissed her on the lips. “You were pretty insistent. I’ll go check it out now. Are you all right?”
She twined a finger through his hair, making it curl in front. “I’m feeling pretty damn good.”
“You’ve been sick. I wasn’t too rough, was I?”
“A smoking orgasm was exactly what the doctor ordered.” Her voice turned husky. “A girl could get used to this.” Oh, God. Had she revealed too much? “I mean the sex.”
“Sure, what else?” He searched her face.
The loving, the caring, being held and comforted when she woke from a nightmare into the waking nightmare that was life without her daughter. She needed to remember this was only an interlude. Before long she would go back to her own apartment and be on her own again. It wasn’t as if Darcy had asked her to move in for good. “Nothing else.”
Darcy eased away a little. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you before. My dad’s being admitted to the hospital. He’s got a golden staph infection.”
“Oh, Darcy.” She felt so self-absorbed, worrying about her dreams when he was experiencing something more scary and very real. “I’m sorry.”
“I want us to go over to the house tomorrow morning, with Billy. I want Dad and Mum to see him.”
“Of course. Whenever you say.”
“I’m going to go check what’s happening out front,” he said gruffly. But before he rolled away from her, he leaned in to kiss her once more, slowly and very tenderly. Then he got up and went out.
Emma lay back on the pillow simultaneously confused and elated, worried and hopeful. Tears leaked from her eyes, and she didn’t know if they were happy tears or sad. Damn hormones.
The news about his father was worrying. Was that why Darcy had been eager to have sex, because his father’s mortality was breathing down his neck?