Chistmas In Manhattan Collection. Alison Roberts
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But then Max gave a tiny whimper in his sleep as he was lifted. And the warm weight on her feet shifted as Houston got up and then it all came rushing back to Grace.
‘Oh, my God...’ she whispered. ‘I fell asleep. Oh, Charles, I’m so sorry...’
‘Don’t be.’
‘But the mess. I was going to clean it all up before you got home.’
‘Shh...’ Charles was turning away, a still sleeping Max cradled in his arms. ‘I’ll put Max down and then come back for Cameron. Don’t move, or you might wake him up.’
That gave Grace all the time she needed to remember exactly what state she’d left this beautiful apartment in. It was bad enough in here, with the television still going, scattered toys and dinner dishes where they’d been left, but the kitchen...
Oh, help... She’d been given total responsibility and she had created a complete disaster.
But Charles didn’t seem to mind. He lifted Cameron with a gentleness that took her breath away. Maybe because his hands brushed her own body as he slid them into place and she could feel just how much care he was taking not to wake his son. His gaze caught hers as she lifted her arm to make his task easier and, amazingly, he was still smiling.
As if he didn’t actually care about the mess.
Grace cared. She got to her feet and any residual fuzziness from being woken from a deep sleep evaporated instantly as she went back to the kitchen.
It was even worse than she’d remembered.
Should she start with that pile of unwashed dishes or find a broom and start sweeping the floor?
Reaching out, she touched a puddle of chocolate icing on the granite surface of the work bench. It had hardened enough that it would need a lot more than a cloth to wipe it clean. Where were the cleaning supplies kept? Grace pushed her hair back from her face as she looked around and, to her horror, she found a hard lump that had glued a large clump of hair together. Hard enough to suggest it was more chocolate icing.
She was still standing there, mortified, when Charles came to find her.
For a long moment, she couldn’t think of anything to say that could encompass how embarrassed she was. Finally, she had to risk making eye contact. He had to be furious, surely, even if he’d been doing a superb job of hiding it so far.
He caught her gaze and held it firmly. Grace couldn’t look away.
Yes...there was something stern enough there to let her know he knew exactly how major the clean-up job would be. That he knew how carried away she’d been in her attempt to keep the twins entertained. That she’d surprised him, to say the very least.
But there was something else there as well.
A...twinkle...
Of amusement, laced with something else.
Appreciation maybe.
No...it was deeper than that. Something she couldn’t identify.
‘What?’ she heard herself whisper. ‘What are you thinking? That you’ll never leave me in charge of your kids again?’
One corner of his mouth lifted into a smile that could only be described as poignant.
‘I’m thinking,’ he said quietly. ‘That I’ve spent the last three years trying to be both a father and a mother to my kids and keep their lives as predictable and safe as I can and then someone comes in and, in the space of a few hours, wrecks my house and shows me exactly what I didn’t realise was missing.’
Grace’s brain had fixed on the comment about wrecking his house.
‘I’m sorry,’ she murmured.
Charles’s gaze shifted a fraction. Oh, help...was he staring at the lump of chocolate icing in her hair?
‘I’ve never even thought of making cookies with the boys,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t know where to start. I know Maria makes them sometimes, but all that’s involved there is slicing up a frozen roll and sticking them in the oven. I’m surprised you even found a bag of flour in the pantry. Not only that, you let them draw spiders on the top.’
‘Oh...’ Grace could feel her lips curve with pleasure. ‘You could tell what they were, then?’
‘Only after I spotted one that you probably did. Some of them seem to have eyes on their legs.’
‘Helps to see round corners,’ Grace suggested. Her smile widened.
Charles was smiling back at her and that twinkle in his eyes had changed into something else.
Something that was giving her a very distinctive shaft of sensation deep in her belly.
Attraction, that’s what it was.
A very physical and very definite attraction.
Maybe Charles was feeling it, too. Maybe that was why he lifted his hand to touch her hair.
‘Chocolate,’ he told her.
‘I know...’ Grace made a face. ‘You might find you need to wash the boys’ hair in the morning as well.’
‘It’s not a problem.’ Charles was touching her cheek now, his finger feather-light. ‘You’ve got some here, too.’
Grace couldn’t say anything. She was shocked by the touch and the electricity of the current it was producing that flashed through her body like a lightning bolt to join the pool of sensation lower down.
The smile on Charles’s face was fading fast. For another one of those endless moments, they stared at each other again.
Fragments of unformed thoughts bombarded Grace. Memories of another time when they’d looked at each other just like this. Before Charles had kissed her for the very first time. Snatches of the conversation they’d just had. What had he meant when he’d said that she’d shown him what he hadn’t realised was missing in his life?
Surely he didn’t mean her?
Part of her really wanted that to have been the meaning.
The part that held his gaze, willing him to make the first move...
He was still touching her cheek but his finger moved past any smear of chocolate, tracing the edge of her nose and then out to the corner of her mouth and along her bottom lip.
And then he shut his eyes as he bent his head, taking his finger away just before his lips took its place.
Another shock wave of unbearably exquisite pleasure shot through Grace’s body and she had to close her own eyes as she fell into it.
Dear Lord...she had relived a kiss from this man so many times in her imagination but somehow the reality had been muted over the years.
Nobody else had ever kissed her like this.
Ever...
It was impossible not to respond. To welcome the deepening of that kiss. To press herself closer to the remembered planes of that hard, lean body. It wasn’t until his hand shifted from her back to slide under her ribs and up onto her breast that Grace was suddenly blindsided by reality.
By what Charles was about to touch.
She could feel the adrenaline flood her body now, her muscles tensing instantly in a classic fight-or-flight reflex, in the same moment that she jerked herself back.
Charles dropped his hand instantly. Stepped back from the kiss just as swiftly.
And this time there was a note of bewilderment in his eyes. Of horror, even...
They both looked away.
‘Um...’ Grace struggled to find her voice. And a reason to escape. ‘I...I really need to take Houston downstairs. He must be a bit desperate to get out by now.’