There Goes My Heart (The Sullivans #20) - Bella Andre Page 0,49

and higher. He was only barely holding himself back when she put her hands on his cheeks and stilled as she stared into his eyes.

“I like you so much,” she said, and then she kissed him.

The kind of kiss that was insanely hot and passionate.

The kind of kiss that made his chest swell, and ache, and yearn in a way it never had before.

The kind of kiss that was all magic, from start to finish.

She gasped as pleasure took her over, her release explosive enough to tear his control completely away.

They sat wrapped around each other for a long while, her head resting on his shoulder, his hands still gripping her hips.

“I suppose we should head into work soon,” she murmured, sighing as she sat back.

Rory was hugely tempted to convince her to chuck in her work ethic and spend the rest of the morning in his arms. But not only did he respect her career too much to keep her from her very busy daily schedule, he also wanted to get going on her hope chest. Plus, he had a very special little girl coming to spend the afternoon with him.

“We probably should. I have a new project to start this morning.” He ran his hands up her back, delighting in touching her while they talked. “And I’m also going to be babysitting Ruby this afternoon to help Flynn and Cassie out. My mom usually watches her for a few hours each day, but with my parents away this week, each of us signed up to cover a day.”

“Lucky you,” Zara said, “getting to spend a whole day with that awesome little girl.”

Zara had met Ruby last month when his sister Cassie had brought her along while she dropped off custom candy orders to the other makers in the building. While Ruby was certainly sweet, she’d become downright grizzly by the end of the delivery, letting out some eardrum-popping screams. It was telling that Zara had only been left with the impression of awesome—she clearly loved kids.

Again, it was strange how much that mattered to Rory. Especially when it wasn’t as though he’d been sitting around all these years planning his personal extension on the Sullivan family tree.

“Honestly,” he said, “I’m a little nervous about it. Not because she isn’t a totally cool kid, but because this is the first time they’re trusting me to have her all alone.”

“Look at you,” Zara teased, “finally nervous about something for once in your life.”

If only she knew just how nervous he was about how to be there for her, about getting it all wrong and losing her—

Zara reached up to stroke his cheek affectionately. “You’re actually very sweet when you’re vulnerable.” She kissed him softly, then surprised him yet again by saying, “What would you say about my taking the afternoon off to babysit with you? As long as Flynn and Cassie are okay with it, of course.”

“I would say you’re the greatest girlfriend a guy could ever have.” He didn’t bother to contain his enthusiasm. Not only because Zara’s being there really would take the edge off his solo baby-minding panic, but also because it meant spending another few hours with a woman he was coming to adore. “And I’m sure Flynn and Cassie will be glad to have two of us on duty. He told me last night that Ruby’s become a bit of a handful lately.”

“Temporary girlfriend.” When he gave her a confused look, she explained, “When you said I’m the greatest girlfriend a guy could have, you forgot to use the all-important temporary tag.”

He barely managed to hold back a scowl at her reminder.

“In fact,” she added as she climbed off his lap and took the cake into the kitchen, “now that I’m thinking about it, babysitting Ruby together will be a great way to help us add to our incompatibility list for Saturday’s breakup. I’m sure we’ll have different ideas about how to best entertain her.”

“What are you talking about?” Considering how great he’d felt minutes ago, the words came out extremely grumpy.

She frowned at him as though he were missing a few screws. “Our list of the reasons we could never work as a couple, obviously.” She washed her hands, then put her robe back on before finally tidying away her hope chest.

He would have argued with her—complete with a bullet-point list of a dozen great reasons he now believed they belonged together—had he not been hit with just how vulnerable she looked as she