‘I’ll stop by tomorrow to pick it up. Have a think about what we’ve discussed. You can tell me how you feel about what I’ve said tonight... I don’t want you to feel that I’m pushing you.’
‘Yes, that would be...’ she took a deep breath ‘...fine.’
She closed her eyes and stayed where she was, calling herself all kinds of fool, while he walked around to her side of the car.
Without the headlights it was dark, but as he reached the passenger side a shaft of moonlight pierced the leafy canopy, picking out the slim figure poised to jump down.
A deep breath rattled deep in his chest. The light shone straight through the green fluttering dress, outlining the sinuous softness of her slim body, and simultaneously lust slammed through him.
It was a bad idea on more levels than he could count. But this was not about right or wrong, it was about the hunger seeping into every cell of his body—some more than others!
He knew the sex would be great—more than great—but then what...?
How many excellent working relationships had he seen go bad because the people involved fell into bed? When things went wrong, as they inevitably did, the recriminations and the name-calling started... Hell, no, nightmare! He had to think long term. It was going to be hard enough to establish a relationship with his daughter without adding any more obstacles.
‘Careful, there’s a bit of a hole here.’ He held out his arms and she automatically stepped into them.
Her timing was slightly off and the collision that made him take a step back caused the breath to exit her lungs in a soft whoosh as their bodies connected. ‘Sorry,’ she mumbled.
His response was to draw her closer to his body until she was plastered up against him like a second skin. She was painfully aware of the rock-hard imprint of his erection in her belly. A small whimper left her lips as she pressed her face for a moment into his shoulder and, squeezing her eyes closed, stayed there.
‘You all right?’ He curved a big hand around her face, drawing it up to him.
The almost tenderness in his voice filled her throat with emotion. Combined with the hot lust pumping through her veins, it rendered her dumb and pliable as a marionette.
His breathing got louder and faster as she tapped into hidden reserves and drew back a little.
‘This is a bad idea, Ben,’ she whispered, thinking it was more than bad—insane really.
As if things weren’t complicated enough.
‘Agreed.’ He nodded, tightening his arm around her ribcage. ‘Bad idea...’
Lily didn’t fight the constraint. Instead she lifted the hand that was not trapped between her body and him and touched the hard, abrasive angle of his jaw. ‘Really bad.’ Stretching her body up in an arc, she pressed a hard kiss on his mouth.
He let out a low half-growl, half-moan and then released her. He grabbed her hand and headed to the bungalow. Unable to keep up with his long-legged pace, Lily had to trot alongside panting.
They arrived at the bungalow hand in hand and breathless. He turned and looked at her, the raw desire written into the hard lines of his face, and the hungry glow in his eyes made her insides dissolve. Lily closed her eyes and whimpered, feeling the brush of his lips on her eyelids before he scooped her up and carried her inside.
Kicking the door closed behind them, Ben looked around. ‘Where’s the bed?’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ she murmured indistinctly.
Ben nodded and sank down to the floor with her in his arms; kneeling, he laid her down. Lily lay there on the polished boards, her breasts lifting in time to her uneven, laboured breathing. A strange enervating weakness seemed to have invaded her limbs. The entire surface of her body prickled with a sensual awareness. One arm flung above her head, the other held in a tight clenched fist on her chest, she watched through half-closed eyes as he knelt over her and fought his way out of his shirt.
The rippling perfection of his taut, lean body took her breath away and pushed her deeper into the sensual vortex of her own desire. He looked like some pagan god.
‘You’re so beautiful!’ She struggled to force the words past the aching occlusion in her throat. She reached up and ran her fingers down the hair-roughened ridge of his ribbed belly, then, hooking her fingers into the waistband of his linen trousers, she pulled him down.
Ben, a dark slash of colour crossing the contours of his cheekbones, slid one hand under her lower back to cushion the impact as his body pushed her into the ground. With a grunt he rolled her onto her side so that they were facing each other.
She could feel his hands shaking as he reached for the tie on her halter dress. She was shaking all over too. She lay there weak with wanting as he kissed his way down the curve of her neck. When he reached the pulsing hollow at the base of her throat, he peeled down the top to her waist, exposing her breasts.
He gave a long shuddering sigh that seemed to be wrenched from deep inside him. ‘So beautiful, Lily.’ Her femininity touched him in a deep place. He didn’t think of it as his soul; it would make this something it wasn’t... Sex, this was just sex—great sex, granted. ‘You’re so totally...’ Lost for words, he made his kisses speak for him.
The wild onslaught took her breath away. Limbs locked, mouths sealed, they kissed with a frantic, wild abandon until Ben levered himself off her and reached for the button on his trousers.
Anxious to be rid of the barrier between them, she lifted her hips to slide the dress down over them. Before she had managed to wriggle free there was a sound. She didn’t register it at first...and then as the noise penetrated the layers of sexual thrall that gripped her, she stopped and looked around.
What was she doing?
The journey from hot, passionate arousal to cold, horrified self-disgust took a single heartbeat. She pulled herself onto her knees and sat there, her arms crossed over her bare breasts.
‘What the hell...?’ Breathing hard, the testosterone in his blood still surging painfully through his body, he struggled to make sense of what was happening. She’d been with him every step of the way; he knew she had. So what had changed?
There was another knock on the door. This time he heard it too.
Without looking at him, Lily pulled the bodice of her dress up and tied it. She walked across the room and paused at the door, smoothing her hair before taking a deep breath. She opened it and immediately stepped outside, quickly closing it behind her to hide Ben from the person standing there.
It was the hotel manager. Her smile faded the moment she saw his face illuminated by the overhead light. At her sides her hands clenched.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing to worry about.’
The jovial assurance filled her with instant trepidation.
‘Your mother has been trying to contact you. As you probably know we have had a problem with the Internet connection, so she left a message for you to contact her.’
Alarm bells ringing a deafening peal in her head, Lily resisted the tug of total panic, though her voice sounded unnaturally shrill to her ears as she asked, ‘Now?’
The man looked relieved that she wasn’t panicking. If only he knew!
‘If you’d like to use the landline? My office is at your disposal.’
Lily, her heart thudding sickly, nodded. ‘I’ll just get my jacket.’
The man walked down the steps as she nipped back inside. She closed the door