He pulled back to look at her. ‘When you were a kid, Miranda,’ he said. ‘You’re a woman now. You can’t ignore those needs. They’re normal and healthy.’
Miranda had ignored those needs for so long but it hadn’t really been all that hard to do so. She had never felt she was sacrificing anything. But now Leandro had stirred those needs into life, awakened them from a deep slumber. Sent them into a dizzying frenzy. How could she pretend they weren’t clamouring inside her body? How could she deny the primal urges of her body when his presence evoked such a storm within her flesh? A storm she could feel rumbling through her from where his hands were holding her. Burning through her skin. Searing her so she would never be able to forget his touch. Her body would always remember. Her lips would always recall the weight and pressure of his. If she were never kissed by anyone again it would be Leandro’s kiss she would remember, not Mark’s. It would be Leandro’s touch her body would recall and ache and hunger to feel again.
Would it be so wrong to indulge her senses just this once? He wasn’t offering her a relationship. He had made it clear he didn’t want the happy-ever-after. But then, she couldn’t—wouldn’t—give it to him if he wanted it.
But for this brief moment in time they could connect in a way they had never connected before.
Miranda closed the small distance between their bodies, a shockwave of awareness jolting through her at the erotic contact. She watched as desire flared in his gaze, burning with an incendiary heat that was as powerful as the backdraught of a fire. She slid her hands up the flat plane of his chest, feeling the deep thud of his heart under her palm. She knew he wouldn’t take this a step further until she had verbalised her consent. But she didn’t want to say the words. She didn’t want to own the earthy needs of her body. That would be admitting she was at the mercy of her flesh. That she was weak, frail, human.
Leandro held her gaze with the force field of his. ‘Tell me you want me.’
Miranda drew his head back down, her mouth hovering within a breath of his. ‘Kiss me.’
‘Say it, Miranda,’ he commanded.
She stepped up on tiptoe so her lips touched his, trying to distract him, to disarm him. ‘Why are we talking when we could be doing other stuff?’
He gripped her by the upper arms in a firm but gentle hold. ‘I’m not doing the other stuff until I know it’s what you want. That we’re clear on where this is going.’
Miranda looked into his implacable gaze. Desire burned in his eyes; she could feel it scorching her through her skin where his hands were cupped around her flesh. ‘It doesn’t have to go anywhere,’ she said. ‘It can just be for now.’
His ever-present frown deepened a fraction. ‘And you’d be okay with that?’
She would have to be okay. How could she say she wanted more when for all these years she had told everyone she didn’t? She had taught herself not to want more. She had blocked all thoughts of a fairy-tale romance, of being married, of one day having a baby, of raising a family with the man she loved, because the man she had loved had died.
But this was a chance to live a little. To break free of the restraints she had set around herself. It didn’t have to go anywhere. It didn’t have to last. It couldn’t last.
It was for the moment.
Miranda traced her fingertip over the dark stubble surrounding his mouth, her insides quivering as she felt the graze of his flesh against the pad of her finger. ‘Neither of us wants anything permanent,’ she said. ‘This would be just something that...happened.’
‘So you only want it to happen here?’ he said. ‘While we’re in France?’
A French fling. A secret affair. A chance to play while no one was looking. No one need know. Her brothers, her parents, Mark’s parents—even Jaz—didn’t need to know. It would be over before it began. There wouldn’t be time for things to get complicated. No one was making any promises. No one was falling in love. This would change the dynamic of their relationship, certainly, but as long as they were both clear on the boundaries then why not indulge their attraction for each other?
‘That would be best, don’t you think?’ she said.
Leandro searched her gaze for a long moment. ‘You don’t want your brothers to know about us?’
Miranda bit down on her lip. ‘Not just them...’
‘Mark’s family?’
She let out a breath. ‘Look, if you’re having second thoughts—’
‘I’m not, but I’m wondering if you are,’ he said. ‘If not now, then later.’