“I came over the net,” he said. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“You jumped over the net?”
“Yes, why is that so odd? I thought you were hurt.” He looked so concerned, I felt both bad and impressed that he cared so much. I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.
“It’s not odd, it’s sweet,” I said. “Thank you. I’m a dork, but I’m fine.”
Laughing, he said, “You’re not a dork. Here, let me just show you a more efficient stance.” He stepped behind me and wrapped his arms around mine. The warmth of his body pressing against me and his breath on the side of my face was making me dizzy. He slid his hands down my arms sending goose bumps scurrying in every direction. Then he slid one of his knees in between mine to reposition my leg and I went weak in my own.
“Shift this outer leg over like this,” he said. His mouth was closer to my ear then and my arms and hands were shaking so badly that I actually dropped my racquet. I felt him smile against my face. The arrogant son of a…. His lips were on the bottom part of my ear and then started sliding down my neck. My body was convulsing now. We were in public, he needed to stop.
He took his sweet lips from my neck and turned me around to face him. He was looking at me with pure desire in his blue eyes and I was rendered speechless. Then I felt the warmth of his lips on mine and the soft touch of his hand against my cheek as he pulled me in for a kiss. Our tongues found each other and intertwined as we lost ourselves. For that moment I once again forgot that people were watching. It was just he and I, the only two people on the earth. When he at last let me up so that I could breathe I said in a ragged, forced breath, “We should stop, people are watching.”
“Or… we could get a room,” he said, in that sexy, throaty, seductive voice of his. Any small piece of willpower I had left was left melted on that clay court and I stepped right over it as I took his hand and followed him back inside.
CHAPTER TWELVE
I fell asleep in Seth’s arms after we made love and woke up hours later disoriented and confused at first. As soon as I looked over and saw his face that warm, delicious feeling he gave me returned and I snuggled back down against him. I lay there in the silence of the plush, up-scale room and listened to the sounds of his breathing and the rhythm of his beating heart. I let myself revel in it for a while before allowing the seeds of self-doubt to slip back in.
I thought about making love to him and I knew deep in my heart that it wasn’t wrong… everything about it had felt right… everything. His touch was gentle and warm and rough and possessive all at once and I’m not lying when I say that I’ve never felt anything even closely akin to it. But then I had to ask… what about my task? What about my father’s company… my company? Was I, now that I had consummated my feelings for this amazing man, still willing to destroy his family? Could I do what I had to do without destroying him… without hurting him?
I felt Seth stir and I looked up at his face. He still had his eyes closed and his long, light-brown eyelashes lay across the tops of his cheeks as he breathed in and out. I reached up and touched his face and when he felt my touch, he smiled.
“Hi beautiful,” he said.
“Hi gorgeous.”
He stretched and then used his strong arm to pull me back into him. He held me against his chest, stroking my back lightly with his fingers. He kissed the top of my head and said, “Thank you.”
“Thank you,” I said, with a smile.
“I wasn’t just talking about the sex,” he said. “Although, many thanks for that… I was talking about you. You make me feel like I can be a better person.”
I sat up, propped on my elbow and looked at his face. “Why would you say that?” I asked him. “You’re such a good person.”
“I’m glad you think so baby,” he said. “But there is so much room for improvement. I finally feel like I’m going to get there though. I finally feel like it doesn’t matter anymore how wrong my father thinks everything I do is…”
“He’s wrong,” I told him. The simple thought of that awful man having the unmitigated gall to tell Seth that he was anything less than perfect made me instantly angry. “Everyone who works with you, Seth, knows what a fantastic businessman and even better boss you are.”
“I work hard and I try to do what’s right… but that’s the issue he has with me.”