Four Leaf Clover

4. Excerpt

Excerpt

He should stand back. Put some distance between them. Safe distance.

But his fingers rested on her silken skin, so soft in that place at her neck. Traced the collar bone to the place where her pulse jumped. Tick. Tick. Tick.

He heard her quick intake of breath. But she didn’t move. Stayed where she was. Standing so close he could feel the heat from her body through his clothes.

His gaze travelled up her neck to her full lips. Rosy pink. Unvarnished. Plump and ready and soft and very kissable. Her mouth parted a little and her breath hissed out in a long even flow. His thumb traced the curve of her lower lip. Just lightly. Just grazing.

He shouldn’t be touching her like this. So seductively. Knowing where it could lead. More than possibly would lead if he couldn’t maintain control and stop touching her. It was temptation. A road that once stepped on would lead onto a one-way street.

Where he didn’t want to end up. Not with a man who couldn’t give her what she deserved. His gaze travelled to her eyes. They shone brightly. She deserved so much more than someone like him could give. He bent his head closer to hers, felt her breath caress his cheek. Temptation without a safety net.

He shouldn’t be this close to her. Should stop himself. Now, because… but… couldn’t find the will to pull away. He was completely wrong for her…but this was so right… So good. And he needed to kiss her so badly, feel her responding. Needed to know what this would feel like, because if he didn’t now he’d always wonder what it was like to be cared for. Because she did…on some level he just knew. And he was ensnared.

She tilted her head back, just a small movement, and it was all he needed to close the gap. His lips touched hers and a long sigh rippled through his body. He increased the pressure, falling into the pillowed softness of her mouth.

He slid his hand through her locks, deep into the silky strands at her nape. His palm cupped her head, while his other arm slipped around her waist. Stepped to close the gap between their bodies. Rigid chest against the cushioned softness of her breasts and he forgot what mental argument was going in his brain. It didn’t matter…whatever it was. Her hands touched his shoulders. Just lightly, a tentative touch.

He moved his lips across hers, slanted them so that he could press harder. Caressed her lips with his. Nudged them apart and slid the tip of his tongue into the honeyed heat of her mouth. He gripped her harder in his arms as he slipped his tongue deeper, suckled and tasted and lost his mind to these first stages of a kiss that should never be.

He caressed her lips, sucking them as he moved, wanting to let her feel what was riding him. The heat, the need. Her fingers firmed, the tips taking hold on his frame. He held her head in place with his hand at her nape, deepening the kiss. Heat exploded in his groin when the tip of her tongue slipped against his. Cautious at first, but as he swirled his tongue against hers, her strokes became bolder.

Her hands moved, her fingers sliding to his neck, fondling his hair at the back with such delicate touch the sigh that rode him fired up into a full-on howl. For a moment he was incapable of moving, his body devouring the touch of the fingers at the back of his neck.

He groaned into her mouth, heat consuming him. His movements became purposeful, the sweet agony of the kiss quickly igniting a slower burn. One that would be harder to put out. One that would only be extinguished when he buried himself into her essence. One that would take him further along the road he didn’t want to walk.

His slushy brain ticked, then ticked over again. There was a reason why this was bad. So bad…

Him.

Then he was doused in the freezing waters of reality and his brain slammed back to the moment. What — in hell — was he doing!