Hot Boss, Wicked Nights

Jenny slapped his hand away. ‘Wait for dinner. I made a good thick stew to eat it with. When you dropped by that day two weeks ago you didn’t mention anything about a girl in your life. After tea you and I are going to have a chat.’

‘I’d do as she says, son,’ Leigh told him.

‘The way you do?’ she scoffed, glaring at her husband. But Damon could see the love in their eyes as they looked at one another as clear as his own hand.

What kept these two people together for twenty or more years than he’d been alive? Damon wondered. They were complete opposites in every way. Always had been, ever since he’d been a skinny-assed kid growing up in the same street. Jenny had been his grandmother’s neighbour, and, with no kids of her own, she’d taken an interest in the two boys, particularly Damon.

So he’d sit down with her—with them both—as she’d requested. A quiet nervousness gnawed through his gut at the prospect. Jenny was one very perceptive lady and he was mortally afraid she’d see something that he’d only begun to discover himself. Something he didn’t want to examine, let alone lay out in the open for others to see.

CHAPTER TWELVE

KATE drifted on the edge of sleep, warm and cosy with an ‘everything’s all right with the world’ feeling, something she hadn’t felt in a very long time. Snuggling deeper into her quilt cocoon, she shifted towards the source of that heat.

And felt the resistance of a warm and solid someone tucked up beside her. She opened her eyes. Damon. On top of her quilt and fast asleep with a mohair rug wrapped around his fully clothed form. In the early morning light, she could see his dark lashes against his cheeks, his hair was mussed, his jaw stubbled. But the crease in his brow told her he wasn’t comfortable.

A quiver of sensation rippled the entire length of her body. Against all the rules, he’d slept the night with her. Yet she didn’t feel the vulnerability she’d expected. She felt safe, protected. Cared for. All the worries that had plagued her about this kind of intimacy melted away. Damon was here, beside her, and everything was okay.

Damon. How could she have fallen so hard, so quickly, without a thought for the consequences? The man who was all wrong for her. The man who didn’t stay in one place, who didn’t want what she wanted. She hardly knew him.

But she loved his enthusiasm for life and living, the fact that he took whatever action he considered morally right and to hell with other people’s opinions. He’d made her look at herself differently, forced her out of her comfort zone and taught her life wasn’t all about work.

Oh, God. Everything was not okay—she was in big trouble. Damon stirred and a pair of golden eyes slid open. Those huge dark pupils seemed to swallow her up. Yeah, she groaned inwardly, very big trouble.

He propped a hand beneath his cheek. ‘Good morning.’

‘Good morning.’ She swallowed the lump in her throat. It was as if he’d read her thoughts. To her dismay, tears welled in her eyes. She’d forgotten she’d told him the physical side of their relationship was over.

Instant concern puckered his brow and his free hand reached out to wipe away the bead of moisture. ‘Hey, you okay? Are you hurting anywhere?’

Only in my heart. Kate forced a smile and ordered herself to play it light. ‘No. But I’d feel better if you got naked and under the quilt with me.’

‘Are you sure? You said—’

‘I know what I said. Just get in.’

‘Whatever you want, honey.’ His voice, scratchy with sleepy desire, the feel of his fingers on her face prompted a surge of moisture between her thighs. And, oh, that sexy smile…

She slipped a hand beneath the mohair rug and under the soft fabric of his T-shirt and explored warm, smooth skin. She discovered he was wearing tracksuit pants. Simple to slide her hand under the elastic waistband…where she found him hot and hard.

She shifted against him, frustrated with the barriers of clothing and bedding, only wincing a little at the tweak in her ankle.

‘Ah, Kate.’ He drew back the rug, pushing down his pants and lifting the side of the quilt in an amazing display of agility for someone barely awake, and rolled in beside her.

Kate had woken and changed into a thigh-length T-shirt at some point during the night before Damon had come in, making it easy to welcome him against her. To feel his stubbled jaw as he nudged the T-shirt up with his chin. To feel its rasp against her breast while he tugged at a nipple, drawing it out with his teeth.

Lightning heat flashed to her core. She let out a helpless moan as his erection rubbed against her pelvis, another as it slid inside her like a hot knife into butter.