She told him it all, even the fact that towards the end of their fight she’d known he intended to violate her, which had brought a strength she hadn’t known she was capable of. She wasn’t aware she was trembling until he leaned across and pulled her into him, one arm holding her close as he rested his chin on the silk of her hair. ‘I would give all I own for five minutes alone with this man. He’d never touch another woman again.’
His voice had been soft but of a quality that brought her head up as her eyes sought his. What she saw in his face made her say quickly, ‘It’s all right. I’m all right. I am, really.’
‘Are you?’ The blue eyes were piercingly direct and she found she couldn’t break their hold.
She had to swallow hard before she said, ‘Of course.’
‘For something like this there is no “of course”.’
A long pause ensued but their gazes didn’t unlock. She wondered why it was that this man, a man she hadn’t known until a short while ago, seemed to understand how deeply she had been affected by Piers’ cruelty when most of her friends had expected her to bounce back within weeks or certainly a few months. Hesitantly, she whispered, ‘I’m getting there but—’
‘What?’ His gaze didn’t waver. ‘What’s the but?’
‘I never want to give the control of my life over to someone else again,’ she said with total honesty.
For a moment he continued to stare at her, then a slight twist of a smile touched his lips. ‘It scares the hell out of me too,’ he admitted huskily, his mouth falling on hers. His lips were warm and firm and as hers opened instinctively beneath them his tongue probed the corner or her mouth, teasing her, coaxing a response she was powerless to resist. The kiss changed to one of infinite hunger and she heard him groan, a half-irritated groan at the limitations within the car as he tried to move closer and was restricted by the controls.
He raised his head, faint amusement in his voice as he murmured, ‘I haven’t done this for years and now I remember why. You need to be a contortionist.’
Aiming to match his tone, she said, ‘You haven’t kissed a girl?’
His laugh was a deep rumble. ‘Made out in a car. The idea’s good but the reality is less than practical.’ The blue eyes held hers. ‘Coffee at your place?’
Aware that something vital had changed in the last minutes she felt a yearning that cut through all her carefully thought-out guidelines for the future. ‘Yes,’ she whispered. Crazy, madness even, but yes.
CHAPTER TEN
THEY said very little on the drive back from the hotel. Morgan was aware he was driving on automatic, every part of himself tuned into the woman sitting so calm and still beside him. She appeared poised and composed, dispassionate even.
The calmness was a façade. He knew it as surely as drawing in the next breath. Willow had said she didn’t want a permanent relationship. Well, neither did he. Not a relationship that came with a whole load of conditions at least. So why did her honesty grate so much? And it did. Hell, it did.
She was as tense as a coiled spring behind that composed exterior. He knew it. He took a bend much too fast and as the tyres squealed warned himself to concentrate. The anger he felt towards the ex-husband who’d left her so painfully damaged was growing, not diminishing. He wanted to make things right for her, to convince her she was a beautiful, sexy, gorgeous woman whom any man would count himself lucky to have in his arms. That was what he wanted. Because it was true.
Oh, yeah? His conscience wouldn’t let him get away with it. So this had nothing to do with the fact he’d wanted to make love to her from the first time he’d seen her tending that damn silly bonfire, all smudged and tousled and deliciously bewildered? The gnawing hunger for her body had been with him for night after torturous night, that was the truth of it. She’d stormed into his dreams every time he’d laid his head on the pillow and resolutely stayed there no matter how many cold showers he’d taken. And he had taken plenty.
OK, OK. He made mental acknowledgement to his desire. But a good healthy sex life between a man and a woman couldn’t be anything but satisfying for both of them, could it? Damn it, it was what made the world go round, after all.
And what about all his protestations of friendship and letting matters develop at their own pace? Did he genuinely think she was ready for this? Emotionally, where it counted with a woman?
His thoughts went round and round in his head and when he reached the lane leading to his house and Willow’s cottage he had to admit he had no clear recollection of the journey from the hotel. He parked on the grass verge outside her garden gate, walking round the bonnet and helping her out of the car without saying a word. She looked slender and delicate, vulnerable.