“Something’s changed in you just now. Was it the call from Lily?” His piercing eyes narrow on me. “You thought she was another woman—someone other than a colleague? Did it make you jealous?”
I shrug, but it’s a weak denial. “She’s very pretty. I didn’t mean to look at your phone when she called, but it was right there on the counter.”
“Lily is attractive,” he admits. “But she’s my employee. I don’t fuck my employees. And anyway, when it comes to beauty, she’s got nothing on you.”
He approaches me where I sit on the counter stool, his fingers threading into my loose hair, then trailing around to cup my nape. His touch enthralls me. My senses fill with the intoxicating scent of him—his warm, bare skin and clean, shower-damp hair. I look up into his bright blue eyes and I’m captivated, holding my breath for the moment I’ll feel his lips brush against mine.
He doesn’t disappoint. Bending toward me, he takes my mouth in a deep, bone-melting kiss. His large hands frame my face, holding me to him as his tongue sweeps past my teeth to stroke, and taste, and tease. I moan with the force of my desire for him. As our kiss turns molten, I wrap my arms around his neck, reveling in the feel of his muscled chest pressed against me, his erection a rigid demand at my hip.
But as good as he feels—as right as we feel together, like this—I am now reminded of the impossibility of us becoming anything more than what exists between us right now. He can touch me and kiss me, pleasure my body in ways no man ever has before, but that’s where Nick and I end. I can’t expect him to invite me into the other parts of his life when I damn well can’t invite him into mine.
I draw back, slowly shaking my head. When I pull in a breath, my lungs constrict as if they’re caught in a vise. “Nick, I’m sorry. I think maybe I should go.”
I watch his gaze narrow on me, his brow furrowing with a scowl. He isn’t pleased with this sudden change in my mood. He may even be suspicious. “Go? You’re mine for the day and the night, remember? You ditched work for me today. I mean to make it worth your while.”
I know all too well how worthwhile he can make it, and I have to work hard to ignore the eager pulse of my body in the wake of his erotic promise. “Nick, if you have somewhere you need to be tonight instead . . . If the mayor—”
“Fuck the mayor.” He draws me closer to him, stroking his hand along my cheek. I tremble with arousal as his fingers skate down onto the swell of my breast. “I am where I need to be,” he insists, his voice thick and rough with need. “Right here, with you.”
“What about the rec center?”
He pulls back and now I see some of the disregard fade from his demeanor. “What about it?”
“It sounds like it’s important to you.”
He nods. “It is. I’ve had the plans for a children’s recreation center on the drawing board for nearly two years. I’m funding the entire project. Building it from the ground up, which isn’t my usual mode of operation. But I want this done right. I want it to be perfect.”
His candor surprises me. More than that, so does his vulnerability. I can hear his commitment to the project in every word. I can see his determination—his passion for it—in the steady, unblinking gaze that he holds me in now.
“I heard what you said to Lily about potential roadblocks if you don’t have the mayor’s support, Nick. If the event tonight is something you should attend, then I don’t want to be the one standing in the way of your being there.”
He frowns, studying me closer. “You really mean that, don’t you?”
“Yes.” I reach up to stroke the dark stubble on his jaw. “I want you to go.”
He considers for a long moment, then finally nods. “All right. If that’s really how you feel.”
“It is.”
He kisses me, then reaches down to pick up his cell phone. “Lily’s extremely efficient. I’d better tell her about the change in plans before she sends my regrets to Mayor Holbrook’s people.”
He hits a number on the phone, all the while stroking my thigh with his free hand. As much as I want to spend the rest of the day—and the night—with him, I know he’s a busy man with significant obligations. And if the rec center means as much to him as he’s conveyed to me just now, then he should do everything in his power to make it happen.
“Lily,” he says when she picks up a moment later. “I’ve reconsidered tonight’s event. I will be attending after all. And I’m bringing a date. Please have Patrick pick us up at seven-thirty.”