“They should have had a lifeguard on duty—someone who wasn’t involved with the class who was just watching over everything.”
“I guess you fulfilled that role.”
“I’m just pleased I got to her. And she’s fine.” I smoothed my hand over his, trying to reassure him. “Will you let me take her swimming? Just the two of us. I can teach her. She’ll have my complete attention.”
He glanced at my hand over his. I was making him feel uncomfortable. When I pulled my hand away, he said, “No.” Then slid his fingers between mine. A wave of release pushed through my body and I exhaled.
This.
This was what I’d needed from him.
I’d needed him to touch me.
“I know I’m being overprotective,” he said, his thumb stroking the palm of my hand, setting off tiny firecrackers in my underwear. “I just worry.”
“I know,” I said, half surprised anything came out when I’d tried to speak. I’d expected his touch to take my words away.
We sat in silence for long moments, me getting pulled closer to him with every rhythmic stroke of his thumb. “I shouldn’t be touching you.”
“I know,” I replied.
“We shouldn’t be holding hands,” he said.
I nodded. “I don’t want you to stop.”
“I know,” he said with such confidence that if I’d been on my feet, my knees would have disintegrated and I would have fallen. “I’ve tried to stay away.”
My heartbeat rammed on my ribcage like a freight train. He’d wanted me?
With this confession, he slid his hand from mine and shoved his fingers through his hair. “It’s not right. For a million different reasons.”
Nothing he was saying wasn’t true. He was one of Dexter’s oldest friends and my employer. He was a father and a serious lawyer, as Hollie loved to remind me. I was . . . just starting out.
But I wanted him.
And now he’d touched me, I knew I couldn’t even pretend I didn’t.
He pushed his chair out from under the table and stood. Was he leaving? Was he about to disappear behind that locked door?
I stood up too, trying to find the words to ask him to stay. To tell him all the reasons why he shouldn’t kiss me would be there tomorrow, but for tonight we could just put them to one side. We could forget about everything for one kiss.
“I should go,” he said.
Of course, he was going to pull down the shutters and retreat into his bat cave. What could I say to make him stay? Before I thought of the words, he stalked around the table, took my head in his hands, and pressed his lips to mine. My entire body buzzed as if his kiss conveyed life-giving energy, hot and urgent. I slid my hands up his arms and finally got to feel the hardness of his muscles that I’d seen moving under his dress shirts and semi-exposed by his tees. His skin was as hot as lava and the low moans he was making as he kissed me made every part of me vibrate. I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t climax right there from just a kiss.
I pushed a little on his chest, concerned I was about to be overwhelmed.
“You want me to stop?” he asked.
“You need to give me a minute,” I said, trying to float back down to earth, but it was difficult when I was so close to him and my lips still hummed with the feel of him. “I never know what I’m going to get with you. One minute you’re telling me how it’s a terrible idea to be near me and then you’re kissing me.”
“I’m capricious.” It was a statement rather than a question.
“You are. But you can’t kiss me like that and change your mind. I’m resilient but not unbreakable. Don’t shut me out again.”
He nodded and cupped my face in his hands. “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.” His gaze was determined and focused and fixed on me, and I believed him.
Eleven
Gabriel
As soon as I’d touched her, I knew I was sunk.
For days now, I’d had to rehearse all the reasons I shouldn’t make her mine over and over in my head, like a mantra. Hoping that somehow, they would sink in and neutralize the urge I had to press my hands, my lips, my body against hers.
But my mantra was silent now. I couldn’t focus on anything but her. The feel of her, soft and precious under my fingers. Her scent, warm and inviting. Her large brown eyes, looking at me as if I had all the answers.
My need for her had developed over the months like fine wine, and all the fantasies I’d had of her funneled into this one moment.
She tasted just as sweet as I imagined. I groaned as I pulled my mouth away, wanting to revel in the feel of her lips against mine for days.