Modern Romance May 2016 Books 5-8. Дженнифер Хейворд
Читать онлайн книгу.
wouldn’t want you to do anything you’re not comfortable with. But they’re on your team, Kat. We all are.’
‘Apart from Elisabetta,’ she said with a downturn of her mouth.
He reached across the table and covered her hand with his. ‘Let your talent do the talking. You have no reason to doubt yourself.’
Kat stroked her fingers over the flesh of his thumb, feeling a rush of lava-hot heat go from his body to hers. His eyes held hers in a lock that said all that needed to be said. The message was erotic, exciting, thrilling. Urgent. The need that pulsed between them made her inner core vibrate with a longing no amount of celibacy pacts could withstand.
Resisting him any longer was pointless. They had been moving towards this moment from the first time they’d locked gazes. She wanted him and couldn’t bear prolonging the agony. She could no longer find any reason not to explore the chemistry between them. So what if he wasn’t the settling down type? She wasn’t ready for the white picket fence and cottage flowers either. All she wanted was to feel his arms around her, to feel alive in the way a man can make a woman feel when they both like and respect each other. She couldn’t think of a man she liked and respected more than Flynn.
Maybe that was what she had been doing all wrong with dating up to this point. She had dated men who weren’t her equal intellectually, not strong enough to stand up to her and for her. They had only been interested in her body, not her mind, her emotions, her ambitions, her drives and aspirations.
‘If we were to get involved...hypothetically speaking...’ Kat chanced a quick glance at him. ‘What would you want out of it?’
His thumb found the nerve-rich centre of her palm and began stroking a mesmerising caress across the sensitive flesh. ‘You mean apart from sex?’
Kat’s belly quivered at his touch, at his words, at his smouldering-coals look. ‘I mean...would we be having a fling or be in a...a relationship?’
‘You said “relationship” like it was a prison sentence.’
‘Yes, well, some of mine have been a bit like that.’
His stroking continued, stoking a fire within her body she could feel deep and throbbing in her core. ‘What about your celibacy pact?’
‘I’ve proven my point to my friend. Besides, I think she’s going to break it herself this weekend. She’s going to be within arm’s reach of her ex. Always a dangerous prospect for her.’
‘Whose idea was the pact?’
‘Mine mostly,’ Kat said. ‘I just got tired of getting involved with men who were shallow and not interested in me as a person. Or ones who told blatant lies.’
‘Well, if it’s any comfort, I’m not married, haven’t been and was only engaged for forty-eight hours eleven years ago,’ Flynn said. ‘Every other relationship—and I use that term loosely—has been temporary.’
Kat stroked her fingertip over the blunt end of his thumb, watching as his dark ink-like pupils flared with molten heat. Even the candle on the table flickered, as if it was tired of competing with the flame of attraction glowing between them. ‘So...if we get involved what will we call it?’
His mouth slanted in that spine-tingling manner. ‘How about a flingsationship?’
She gave him an answering smile. ‘I’ve never heard of one of those. What does it involve?’
He winked at her. ‘Let’s go back to my place and I’ll show you.’
IN THE CAB on the way back to Flynn’s house Kat could feel desire flooding every inch of her body like the wash of a warm tide. Flynn was holding her hand against the strong muscles of his thigh, an intimate anchoring of her to him that made her fingers itch to creep closer to the hot, hard, tempting heat of him. He glanced down at her with a teasing glint in his eyes. ‘Don’t even think about it,’ he said in a sexy undertone. ‘There are security cameras.’
Touching him was all she could think about. Touching him, stroking him with her fingers, licking him with her tongue. Tasting him. She communicated it with her gaze, a kind of visual foreplay that made his pupils flare and his hand tighten over hers. ‘Just wait till I get you alone,’ she said.
‘You’ll have to be gentle with me. I’ve got fractures.’
Kat bit her lip as she glanced at his bandaged foot. ‘Will it make it...?’
‘Awkward but not impossible,’ he said, holding her gaze.
She saw the hunger there, the need, the longing. For her. Had any of her partners looked at her like that? As if she was the only woman in the world he wanted to make love to? ‘When was the last time you...?’ She left the question hanging open.
‘September.’
Kat raised her brows. ‘Why so long between drinks?’
He kept his eyes trained on hers, the heat in his fuelling the fire already raging in her flesh. ‘Because when I set my mind to something I don’t allow distractions to take my focus off my goal.’
Kat licked her lips with a quick dart of her tongue. ‘How long were you prepared to wait?’
‘However long it took.’
‘What if I didn’t play ball, so to speak?’
‘I knew from the moment we met you would.’
It wasn’t just hubris on his part. Kat had known it too. Deep in her body she had known he was the one man she would not be able to resist. She reached up with her hand and stroked his lean and tanned cheek, his light stubble catching on her fingers. ‘I hope I’ll be worth the wait.’
Something softened in his expression. ‘Is that a lack of confidence I hear again?’
Kat puffed out a little sigh. ‘It’s easier for guys. Simpler. For women it’s a little more complicated...or at least, it is for me.’
He cupped her cheek with his warm hand, his eyes holding hers in an intimate lock. ‘I’ll make it good for you. I promise.’
‘Even with crutches?’
The look in his eyes made every knob of her spine shudder in anticipation. ‘Count on it, baby.’
* * *
Keeping Cricket out of the bedroom proved to be more of a challenge for Flynn than getting her into it, Kat thought wryly as she listened to the little dog whining and scratching on the other side of the door. ‘Do you think he’ll settle down?’
Flynn reached up to loosen his tie. ‘I’m not making love to you with a dog breathing down my neck.’
‘But he sounds so miserable.’
‘He’ll get over it.’ He tossed the tie to one side. ‘Now, come here so I can undress you.’
She looked at him balanced awkwardly on his crutches. ‘Maybe we should switch it around. I’ll undress you.’
His dark eyes gleamed. ‘Be my guest.’
Kat made him sit on the bed and knelt down between his spread thighs to unbutton his shirt. She peeled it off his broad shoulders, leaning into him to press kisses to his warm, tanned, muscular flesh, from the base of his neck to the tightly whorled cave of his bellybutton.
She heard him snatch in a breath as her tongue circled his navel, but he put his hands on her shoulders to stall her from going any lower. ‘That’s not the way I plan to do this,’ he said. ‘You’re pleasure is my priority. My goal.’
Kat shivered at the steely intent in his gaze. ‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Take