She dared a side peek at him to catch his intense study of her.
He brushed his fingers through her hair until the ends fell away to fan over her shoulder and tickle her skin. “It was fine.”
“The city or your childhood?”
“Both?”
Her chuckle was light. “Is that a question?” Another shrug from him had her shaking her head with a grin. “Okay.” She shifted around, skin stroking skin to brace herself over him. His eyes morphed to the hunter-green shade she loved. “No more family talk.”
A long kiss obliterated all thoughts but ones of him. She swooped in and savored each slow swipe and little nibble. He still smelled of her, the musky scent clinging to the stubble on his cheeks. It was erotic, respiking the memory of how that bristle had tickled and enticed when he’d been licking her.
She squirmed. Her spread legs left her open and wanting again. It’d be so easy to slide back, filling herself on him. God.
How she wanted this man. This complex, caring man who still baffled her.
The kiss went on and on, a languid exploration that simmered over her skin and eased through her. So easy. So...right.
That single word—one thought—vaulted to the front and shut down everything else.
She broke the kiss and tucked her head into his shoulder, hiding. From him. Herself. Everything she didn’t want to acknowledge.
And he held her. Caressed her back, hair, everywhere he could reach until the tears welled hot and biting behind her eyes. Throat dry and aching, she clamped her lips tight along with her eyes and held it all in. The longing and need. The greedy desire to pull him into her life, despite the ticking clock counting down to December.
She couldn’t do it though. Not if...
“I need to get going,” he said, regret in his voice.
She slid off him without a word. A silent acknowledgement edged with more relief. “I need to leave too.” His hand on her wrist stopped her when she tried to roll away. She turned back, wary.
“I don’t want this to be it.” Meaning rang clear in his steady gaze. “I have tickets to our game tonight. I’d like you to come watch.”
Her heart lurched and pattered along with that twisting churn in her stomach. It took everything she had to plaster on a smile and lean in to kiss him. “Thank you. But I’m working again.”
His head dropped, disappointment rolling off him to kick at her. “Right.” He lifted his head, expression flat. “So it’s just this?”
Defenses had her turning away to hunt down her clothes. “I didn’t say that,” she said as she left the room. Their path of passion was marked across the great room from the piano bench to the sofa.
“Then what?”
He followed her out of the bedroom but didn’t move to dress. She was acutely aware of him watching her slip her panties on. Defiance had her turning toward him, not away.
“What’s wrong with this? I thought we were having fun.”
He crossed his arms, shutters coming down to harden his jaw. His casual lean against the bedroom doorjamb was stiff from his raised shoulders to his bent knee, every stunning naked inch of him on display. “It’s more.”
She frowned and ducked to slip her jeans on. “More how?” He was gone when she straightened, and she quickly found her bra and finished dressing. This sucked. Every part of it. Wanting him and hurting him, which she could see she was doing.
Weren’t men supposed to want a quickie? The no-commitment hookups?
“Here.” His abrupt command shot across the silent room. She jerked around, tensing when she saw him. With a towel wrapped around his waist, he was a vision of masculinity. Any woman would be lucky to have him after her. Any woman except her, evidently.
Her gaze shifted to the box he balanced at his side. The colored picture plastered down the front of the white box showed a keyboard, Yamaha written in bold letters along with a model number.
She stared, stunned, brain clicking through the implications while violently rejecting them as they formed. Her head was swiveling before she consciously realized it. “What’s that?” Her mouth was dry, denial plummeting her heart. He wasn’t trying to buy her, was he? Or worse—pay her.
He motioned to the box. “It’s for you.” His brows lowered, lines stacking up his forehead. “For your music. You said this was your specialty, and the guy at your store said this was the best.”
The guy at her store. Damn it.
She sucked in a deep