While he still could.
He drained the coffee and poured another cup, wondering what had happened to his self-control. He’d always considered himself to be a disciplined man. Hell, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t been confronted by temptation before. He had, on many an occasion. And each time he’d had no trouble resisting.
It had been the accident. The sudden surge of adrenaline that had needed to find a release.
The accident and Louisa herself.
He swore under his breath, forced to acknowledge that Louisa, with her softness and her infectious personality, had sneaked under his skin despite all his efforts to keep her at a distance.
A sound in the doorway made him turn and he felt as though he’d been thumped in the gut.
‘Hi.’ Her hair was soft and tousled from sleep and wild love-making, her soft mouth bruised from his attentions. The physical evidence of his own lack of control made his mouth tighten in a grim line.
The knowledge that he’d been rougher than he should have been just added to his list of crimes.
‘Are you planning to share that coffee?’
He reached for the jug and poured her a cup. ‘We need to talk.’
‘Right. That sounds ominous.’ She stayed in the doorway, her eyes wary, and he mentally cursed his lack of self-control. Why the hell had he succumbed to temptation?
Then his gaze drifted to her brown eyes and he saw kindness, warmth and a memory of the passion he’d awakened the previous night.
And suddenly he knew exactly why he’d succumbed.
She was all woman. In every sense of the word.
‘Stop panicking, Mac.’ Her tone was soft as she stepped forward and took the cup he was still clutching in his hand. ‘If this is the point where you feel obliged to point out that last night was a mistake, you’re wasting your breath. It wasn’t a mistake and there’s no way you’ll convince me that it was.’
He watched while she pulled out a chair and settled herself comfortably, her coffee on the table in front of her.
‘I can’t give you what you need.’ He put his empty mug down on the table and looked at her warily, braced for her reaction.
Her dark lashes lowered slightly and her mouth curved into a half-smile that took him out at the knees. ‘You were pretty good at giving me what I needed last night.’ It was the voice of a seductress, smoky and soft, and it made him want to surrender on the spot.
‘Louisa, you were a virgin.’ He sai
d it to remind himself as much as her. She wasn’t the sort of woman who went into for casual relationships. Hadn’t Josh told him that right at the beginning?
She frowned. ‘What’s that got to do with anything?’
‘A lot. You’ve got this dream in your head. You’ve had it there since you were a child.’ He sucked in a breath and forced himself to say the words. ‘I can’t be that dream.’
He was lousy at relationships.
‘You’re frightened because I said I wanted five kids.’ She spooned sugar into her coffee. ‘Relax. I’ll settle for four, providing at least one of them is a girl.’
‘This isn’t a joke.’
She sighed and ran a hand through her tangled hair, visibly tired. ‘No, but you are taking it all much too seriously. We had an amazing night. Let’s leave it at that.’
‘Is that what you want?’
‘You want me to tell you what I want?’ She spread her hands. ‘All right, let’s be totally honest. I love you, Mac. Very much. And to be honest, that comes as a bit of a shock to me because you’re not the sort of man I thought I’d eventually fall for.’
He couldn’t have been more shocked if she’d punched him in the jaw. ‘You don’t love me, Louisa.’
She reached for her coffee. ‘Yes, I do.’ Her tone was matter-of-fact. ‘Weird, isn’t it?’