She’d never really had Kingsley to herself during their brief courtship. He’d been big man on campus and everywhere they’d gone people knew him, had high-fived him and wanted to talk to him.
This was different.
He was different.
Hell, so was she. She’d been different for a long time now. But suddenly his mouth moved over hers and she forgot all of that.
Forgot to think and to worry.
Forgot to justify this because his mouth felt so good, so right as he parted his lips and his tongue slipped over her teeth.
She tightened her fingers on his shoulders. God, the man was still solid muscle.
But then his bespoke suits had already sort of hinted at that and she’d seen him in that tight T-shirt last night. He was fit. He always had been and she wanted to tear off his shirt and see the body beneath his clothes.
She shut her eyes as he put his hands on either side of her face and deepened the kiss. Everything feminine inside her clenched and then released. It felt as if her blood flow was heavier in her veins and her heart was racing. She heard the sound of her heart beating in her ears like the distant call of warning drums.
She knew she should tear her mouth from his, get up and walk away, but instead she brought her hands closer to his neck, brushed her fingers over his short beard and then ran her fingers over his jaw.
She wanted this kiss to last forever.
She needed to keep tasting him to somehow figure out if this was just another sort of dream that she was having. Like the foggy memories of their night together. This felt too good. Too intense. It couldn’t be real. No man kissed like this.
No man had this kind of power over her.
She pulled back, opened her eyes and looked up at Kingsley. His eyes were half-closed, but she saw the fabulous blue of his irises.
He was her Achilles’ heel. He was the one person who could make her behave in a way that she knew better. For some reason he’d always found his way around her will and with no great effort.
Why?
What kind of hold did he have over her?
And why the hell was it still there? She thought ten years would have dulled his magnetism, but that wasn’t the case. If anything he was more captivating now. His kiss was more thorough than it had been in college.
She leaned closer to him. Put her arms around his shoulders and rested her cheek on it. She didn’t want to look at him. Didn’t want to kiss him again. And there was a very real worry that she would do just that.
“Kingsley.”
“Gabriella,” he said. Just her name in that low tone fanned the fires already burning deep inside her. She shook her head, pushed herself upright and started to get off his lap, but he put his hands on her waist.
She knew she could have escaped and dammit, she didn’t want to. She liked the feel of him holding her. Keeping her close.
“That cannot happen again,” she said at last.
“Not good enough?” he asked, arching one eyebrow arrogantly at her.
He knew it was plenty good enough. The bastard.
“I think we both know it couldn’t get much better.”
“Unless we were both naked,” he said.
She bit her lower lip, tasted him on her and closed her eyes. How was she going to live in his house and not give in to this temptation again?
She’d never in all of her years of nannying been tempted by a father. Never thought about maybe hooking up with one. But Kingsley wasn’t just a client to her. She knew Kingsley. Remembered what he looked like naked, and dammit if she wasn’t ready to see him that way again. She knew she had a responsibility to Conner. And she’d be the best nanny that little boy ever had.
And there was only one way to do that. She pushed herself to her feet and walked back around to her side of the table. No more flirting.
No more giving in to her stupid curiosity.
No more kissing Kingsley.
He was still just watching her as she plucked her sunglasses off the table and put them on.
“Well, that was interesting.”
Interesting? That was one way to describe it. Gabi thought it was dangerous, intoxicating, and she knew she was going to have to be on her guard every moment to prevent a repeat performance.
“I guess.”
“You guess?”
She shrugged. She was trying to walk a fine line here. Professionalism had failed as a barrier to keep him at arm’s length and it didn’t seem as though dares were working well, either. It was only the stiff formal behavior her mother had drummed into her that kept her sitting there smiling as if nothing was wrong when inside she was on fire and felt that she’d made a very dangerous misstep.