“I don’t know. It was wrong. I know you were just trying to help.”
She turned to look at him, recognizing some sort of emotional struggle in his expression. “I can understand not wanting to rely on your parents or take money from Mitchell, but why won’t you even let me help you.”
He cleared his throat. “I want you to help me. I do.”
“And yet you acted like I was sneaking around, turning you into a charity case.”
“I didn’t mean that.”
“I thought you trusted me more than that.”
“I do trust you.” His voice became more urgent, and he turned to face her. “Kelly, you know I trust you. I just spent so many years of my life with people assuming I could never do anything on my own, that the only reason I accomplished anything was because I was a Blake. It’s hard…it’s hard to get over that, even though I know I should.”
She was so restless that she slid her fingers in his grip, not trying to pull away, just needing to move. “When people love you, they want to help. It doesn’t mean they think you can’t do things on your own.”
His eyes shot quickly to his face.
Since she was on a roll, she went on, “If there’s something I can do that will help or support you, then I’m going to do it. I hope you’ll…you’ll let me.”
“Kelly,” he said huskily, raising his free hand to brush a strand of hair back from her face. “I want that. I really do.”
Her breathing accelerated. “Do you? Even if it means relying on someone else occasionally?”
He leaned forward, his eyes hot and tender and fierce all at once. “If it means relying on you.”
She was still trying to process the words when he closed his mouth over hers, claiming her lips in a soft, deep kiss. She responded to him as instinctively as she always did, reaching up to tangle her fingers in his hair and easing her body closer to his.
The kiss went on longer than it should have—on a bench in the middle of a public park. Soon, Kelly’s heart and head and body were all throbbing with her need for Peter.
“Can we go home?” he asked hoarsely, pulling his lips away from her just long enough to speak. “Or somewhere else? I don’t care where we go, baby, but we have to go somewhere, or else I’ll have to just take you right here in the park.”
She choked on amusement and desire both, clutching at the lapels to his jacket. “Home is the closest. But when did you get to be such an alpha male?”
“I don’t know. It must come from being married to you.” He’d been pressing more kisses against her mouth and skin, but he finally pulled away with a groan and stood up. He reached a hand down toward her, pulling her up beside him. “Let’s go.”
They walked the two blocks back to the old house quickly, but instead of leading her in the front door, Peter walked her around the house to the summer house in the back garden. “We’ll have more privacy here,” he murmured, pulling her inside with him and closing the door.
Before she could question this choice—since she’d never imagined having sex in the summer house in her own backyard—Peter pushed her back against the wall and kissed her again.
All of her other thoughts scattered when she felt his lips on her again, his hot, hard body pressed snugly against hers. She twined her arms around him and fisted her hands in the back of his jacket, moaning low in her throat as pleasure and excitement rose together inside her.
They kissed until they were both aroused. He was pushing his groin into her belly, letting her feel how hard he was, and she’d raised one of her legs to wrap it around his thighs. Kelly felt wild and a little sleazy, making love to him like this in the summer house, but there was no way she wanted to stop.
No one was around. No one but her and Peter.
They were rocking together against the wall, mimicking the motion of sex, until Kelly’s body throbbed so intensely she couldn’t keep quiet.
“Please,” she begged, clutching at his back. “Please, Peter, now.”
He groaned and started to push up her skirt as she fumbled to unfasten his pants. “Condom,” he gasped, when she’d pulled his erection out from his underwear.
“In my purse.”
Her clutch was looped on her wrist, and she let Peter open it, find the condom she’d stuck in on a whim, and unwrap it. He rolled it on and then parted her legs, lifting one of her thighs so he could position himself at her entrance.
Then he was pushing inside.
She cried out softly, helplessly, at the feel of him inside her. It took a little adjusting for them to get into a position where he could thrust, but even the shifts and maneuvers sent tingling pleasure through her body.