Sally went back to her packing but in a relatively short time the bike was back again. Her heart thumping, she waited for more knocking but this time all she heard was the sound of a key turning in the door.
Before she had time to wonder how he’d managed to get a key, he’d let himself into the cottage and pushed open the living-room door, his wide shoulders dominating the room.
‘What’s the matter?’ She took one look at his tense features and the recriminations died on her lips. Instead, she scrambled to her feet, concern in her eyes. ‘Is something wrong?’
He stopped dead and let out a long breath. ‘Not now.’
She stared at him, heart pounding, palms damp. ‘What do you mean, not now? What are you doing here? And since when did you have a key?’
‘Since I bullied one out of my sister. You wouldn’t answer the door. I needed to see if you were OK.’ He raked long fingers through his dark hair and dropped his helmet onto the sofa. ‘Damn. You gave me a nasty moment.’
It would be so easy to convince herself that he cared. That he—
She pulled herself together, her expression cool and unwelcoming. ‘I didn’t answer the door because I wanted to be on my own. And I’m not your responsibility, Tom.’
His eyes burned into hers, fire melting the ice. ‘What if I said that I want you to be my responsibility.’
Her heart rate doubled. ‘I’d say you’d gone mad.’
He wasn’t playing fair.
He’d lost the right to say things like that to her a long time ago.
‘Maybe I have gone mad.’ His voice was rough and he unzipped his leather jacket in a violent movement. ‘Or maybe I was mad seven years ago when I let you go.’
The tension in the air was suddenly so charged that she couldn’t breathe.
‘I don’t want to do this, Tom. I can’t talk about it now.’ Her voice was little more than a whisper. ‘I haven’t had any sleep and I’m tired.’
‘And you’re upset over that boy last night.’ His eyes raked her tense features. ‘Did you think I didn’t know? Did you think that I could hear you talking about all those things and not know
how badly you were hurting? Or did you just think that I wouldn’t care?’
She looked away from him, and pressed a hand to her chest. ‘I mean it, Tom. I can’t do this—not now. It isn’t the right time.’
‘Now is precisely the right time.’ Tom stepped towards her and placed his hands on her shoulders. ‘Because you’re vulnerable, and when you’re vulnerable I see the real Sally.’
She could feel the strong bite of his fingers through the thin wool of her jumper. ‘You’re suggesting that I’m not real?’
He was so close that she could hardly breathe and she felt a shiver of sexual awareness spread through her body.
He gave a humourless laugh and this time his hands came up to cup her face. ‘Oh, you’re real, Sally.’ His voice was husky as he tilted her face so that she was forced to look at him.
His mouth hovered only inches from hers and suddenly she forgot why it was that she was supposed to stay away from him.
Why would any woman want to stay away from a man as irresistibly sexy as Tom?
As if she were drugged, she stared up at him, her mind and her senses clouded by the overwhelming attraction between them.
And then his mouth came down on hers, his kiss hard and demanding.
There was no question of resisting him.
Why would she resist something that she wanted so badly? Needed so badly?
Their mouths locked in a wild frenzy, a desperate mating that was almost savage in its intensity. Responding to the building fire in her body, Sally pushed the leather jacket away from his broad shoulders and tugged at his jumper.
Without lifting his mouth from hers, he helped her, shedding the jacket with a rough movement and shuddering as he felt the warmth of her hands slide up his back.