at him. “No, although I don’t understand why you feel the need to act like my protector.”
Was that what she thought? Even when he’d come within a moment of kissing her? “I wasn’t acting like your protector, Regan.”
“Then what?”
He broke eye contact to draw in a deep breath. She had to know, or at least suspect, he desired her. Was she waiting for him to spell things out? If so, then he would. “We’ll talk about it when we get inside. Okay?”
She nodded. “Okay.”
He got out of the car to open the passenger door for her. Then he took her hand in his, and they walked to the front entrance. He let them inside.
“I’d love a cup of coffee while we talk. What about you?” he asked her.
“Yes, I’d love a cup, too, but first I’d like to get out of this gown and shoes. Could you give me ten minutes?”
He nodded as a vision of her getting out of the gown and shoes filtered through his mind. “Yes, I could use ten minutes, as well.”
Garth noted he was still holding her hand. Looking down at their joined hands, he lifted them to his lips. That wasn’t enough. Releasing their hands, he placed his at her waist while staring down at her. He needed to do the one thing he’d almost done on that dance floor. The one thing he’d dreamed of doing to those lips for quite some time.
“Garth?”
He saw mixed emotions in her gaze and knew there was only one remedy. He lowered his head to hers.
She released a moan the moment their mouths connected. He heard it and the sound shook him to the core. When their tongues mingled, dueling like they couldn’t get enough of each other, his control shattered.
Tightening his arms around her waist, he drew her closer as he deepened the kiss in a way that had him moaning right along with her. He was deliberately mating their mouths and he didn’t want her to concentrate on anything other than the way his tongue was stroking hers. Fire stirred in his loins, arousing him in ways he hadn’t experienced in years, if ever.
Knowing they couldn’t stand here and kiss forever—although he wished like hell they could—he reluctantly brought the kiss to an end. He saw the desire in her gaze and was tempted to kiss her again. Instead he said, “We meet back here in ten minutes, right?” He dropped his hands from her waist and slowly backed up.
“Can we make it twenty?” she said softly, as she also began slowly backing away.
“Yes.”
She turned and quickly walked to her bedroom and he walked toward his. Entering the bedroom, he eased the tuxedo jacket from his shoulders and then removed his tie. He wondered if Regan still thought he was acting like a protector. Would a protector kiss her the way he just had? He couldn’t help wondering what she was thinking right about now.
Regan leaned against the bedroom door. Breathing in deeply to slow down the wild beating of her heart, struggling to come to terms with what had just happened.
Garth had kissed her. He had actually kissed her.
Nobody knew the number of times she had fantasized about him doing what he’d just done. Should she pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming? Should she regret it, since technically he was her boss? Common sense told her that maybe she should do both of those things, but common sense was something she lacked right now.
She moved away from the door to the mirror on the wall to take a look at her reflection. Namely, her mouth. She smiled when she saw a pair of lips that had been thoroughly kissed by Garth Bartram Outlaw. A kiss that had shaken every nerve in her body. Even now, she felt her insides quivering.
Moving from the mirror, she slid out of her shoes and then danced around the room, on top of the world. What had Garth meant by the kiss? He had certainly put to rest her assumption that he’d been acting like her protector. As far as she was concerned, Garth was the epitome of every woman’s fantasy. He’d certainly been hers. No matter how many guys she’d dated, they hadn’t been Garth. No guy had held a light to him. None.
But what had that kiss meant? Was it just his testosterone acting up or could it mean more?
As she slid out of her gown, she hoped it was more. She traced her lips