Miracle On 5th Avenue (From Manhattan with Love 3)

He left her nowhere to hide—exploring, demanding, discovering, until she was a trembling mass of nerve-endings. He showed no signs of stopping, and her brain wasn’t functioning well enough to come up with a single reason why she should be the one to stop doing something that felt so good.

His hand moved to her breast, his thumb stroking over the tip. The delicious friction made her shudder, and she moaned and pressed closer. She felt his fingers at the hem of her tee shirt, and then the warmth of his hand settling on bare skin.

It was like being on fire. The excitement was burning over her skin and settling low in her belly.

This is why people do crazy things, she thought. Because denying sexual attraction this intense feels like going against human nature.

She had no idea how far they would have gone, but at that moment Valentine barked.

Daniel eased back with obvious reluctance. “Maybe we should take this indoors.”

Indoors?

The word seeped through the clouds of desire fogging her brain and finally settled into her consciousness.

&nbs

p; Indoors. Because currently they were outdoors. In public.

She wrenched herself out of his arms, winced as she grazed her arm on the bark of the tree.

“Hey, slow down.” Daniel’s gaze was still fixed on her mouth. “Good job you picked a weeping willow, otherwise we would have just put on a public display.”

Hearing those words was like being plunged head-first into a bucket of cold water.

Panic swarmed up her skin. What had she been thinking? She was careful never, ever to put herself in a position where her professional credibility could be questioned. And yet here she was—kissing in the park like a teenager, in full view of anyone who happened to be passing.

All it took was a single photograph. A Facebook post. A tweet. Before you knew it your life was trending—every single private thing about yourself uncovered and laid out for the malicious delectation of a public thirsty for another public shaming.

She took several deep breaths, reminding herself that even if someone had seen them no one would have connected her with Aggie. She’d created that persona for exactly this reason. For protection. An extra layer of defense to add to the other layers.

And that was the scariest thing of all. Since she’d arrived in New York no one had breached a single layer of her defenses. No one.

Until now.

“Come home with me.” He spoke the words against her mouth. “We’ll get out of these wet things and take a shower together. You know it’s going to be good.”

Yes, she knew. Which was why she was backing away.

Fire like that inevitably ended up with someone being burned.

How had this gone from a fun flirtation in the park to something so real?

But she knew the answer to that. The moment he’d started kissing her she’d forgotten everything.

Even now she was tempted to ignore the sensible voice in her head and go with him.

“No.”

She pulled away from him so suddenly that he had to plant his hand against the tree to steady himself.

She empathized. From the moment he’d kissed her she’d lost faith in the ability of her knees to support her.

If Valentine had been a few inches taller she would have climbed on his back and ridden him home.

She bent and grabbed his collar, clipping on the lead quickly.

“Molly, wait—”