Matched to Her Rival

“I was more worried about you than me,” he said gruffly. “But thanks.”

Such a small word to encompass the full generosity of Elise’s apology. A lot of women—most women—would have said he’d gotten what was coming to him. And maybe he had. He’d treated Jenna pretty shabbily. He sighed. There was a possibility all of the women had genuine grievances. Relationships were not his forte.

But he wanted that to be different.

Elise motioned him out of the foyer and walked into the living room. “So while talking with my clients, what did you figure out?”

He followed, caught up with her in a couple of steps and grasped her hand to swing her around to face him in front of a gas-log fireplace, the flame lowered to a romantic glow.

Don’t do this unless you mean it.

But that was exactly it. He wanted meaning, wanted something to finally click.

“I figured out I’m the one missing something.” And only Elise held the answer. “I got out of the car tonight because I want to know what it is. You’re the relationship expert. Tell me.”

Her skin was luminous in the firelight and he wanted to trace the line of her throat with his lips, then keep going to discover the delights of the trim body waiting for him under her off-white sweater. But he wanted to hear her response just as much.

She looked up, hand still in his. Flesh to flesh, it sparked and the answering awareness leaped into her expression. Something powerful that was part chemistry and part something else passed between them. He let it, embraced it, refused to disrupt the moment simply because he’d been off balance since the moment this woman insisted he call her Ms. Arundel.

He tightened his grip. He wasn’t about to let her step away, either.

“Tell me what I’m missing, Elise.”

“What if I show you?” Her voice scraped at him, raw and low.

“What if you did?” he murmured. “What does that look like?”

“It looks like two people connecting on a fundamental level.” Without breaking eye contact, she slid her free hand up his chest and let it rest over his heart, which sped up under her fingers. “It looks like the start of a long kiss that you can’t bear to end. It looks like a friendship that’s made more beautiful because you’ve opened your soul along with your body. Have you ever had that before?”

“No,” he said, shocked at the catch in his throat. Shocked at how much he suddenly wanted something he’d had no clue existed.

“Me, either.”

The wistful note of her admission settled over him heavily, binding them together in mutual desire for something meaningful and special.

“How do we get it?”

“It’s right here,” she whispered, tapping the place over his heart once with an index finger, then touching her own heart. “For both of us. All we have to do is reach out at the same time. That’s what makes it wonderful.”

Everything inside woke up at once, begging to dive into not just the sensations, but the swirl of the intangible. He’d called off the wager strictly because he’d begun to suspect he was about to lose. Spectacularly. And as he looked into her soul, it was done.

He was lost.

“Elise.” He palmed her chin and lifted those luscious lips to his and hovered above them in a promise of pleasures to come. “I mean it.”

And then he fell into that long kiss he hoped would never end and wrapped Elise in his arms. When his knees buckled, he took her to the carpet with him, twisting to break her fall, sliding into a chasm of pure joy.

She found the hem of his shirt and spread her palms hot against his back. He groaned and angled his head to take the kiss deeper, to explore her with his tongue, to taste the beauty of her.

This wasn’t an urgent coupling, a slaking of mutual thirst. It was more. Much more. Profound and meaningful. And he couldn’t have stopped if his life depended on it.

He wanted Elise. Wanted it all, everything she’d offered, especially the emotional connection.

She lifted her head a fraction. “Dax?”

“Hmm?” He took the opportunity to run his lips down the column of her neck, exactly as he’d envisioned, and yes, it was sweet. She moaned, letting her head fall back to give him better access.

“Don’t you want to go upstairs?” she asked after a good long minute of letting him taste her.

Upstairs was far away and required too much effort to get there.

“Not especially. I don’t think I can wait that long.” That gorgeous blush rose up in her cheeks. Mystified, he ran the pad of his thumb over the coloring. “What’s this all about?”