The kiss deepened without any help on his part. He couldn’t have said his own name as something raw and elemental exploded in his chest. Grace. The feel of her—like home and everything that was good in the world, blended together and infused into the essence of this woman.
He wanted more. And he couldn’t have stopped himself from taking it.
Threading both hands through her hair, he cupped her head and changed the angle, plunging into the sensation. Taking her along with him. She moaned in her chest, and answering vibrations rocked his.
She clung to him, her hands gripping his shoulders as if she never wanted to let go. Which was great, because he didn’t want her to.
Her sweet taste flowed across his tongue as he twined it with hers, greedily soaking up everything she was offering. It had been so long since he’d felt. Since he’d allowed himself to be so open. Hell, he hadn’t allowed anything. She’d burrowed into his very core with nothing more than a kiss, and he’d had little to say about it.
And then she was gone. Ripped away.
She bolted from the rocker, her chest rising and falling as she hugged the split-pine railing surrounding the porch with her back. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“But you did.” Ruthlessly, he shut down all the things she’d stirred up inside, since it appeared as if she wasn’t up for seconds.
“I got caught up. That can’t happen again.”
Her expression glittered with undisguised longing, and no, he hadn’t imagined that she’d welcomed his kiss. That she’d leaned into his touch and begged for more. So why was she stopping?
“I heartily disagree.” He smiled, but it almost hurt to paint it on when his entire body was on fire. And this woman was the only one who could quench the flames. “It’s practically a requirement for it to happen again.”
“Are you that clueless, Kyle?”
Clueless. Yeah, he needed to catch a couple of clues apparently, like the big screaming back-off vibes Grace was shooting in his direction.
“I’m your daughters’ caseworker,” she reminded him with raised eyebrows. “We can’t get involved.”
His body cooled faster than if she’d dumped a bucket of ice water on his head. “You’re right.”
Of course she was right. When had he lost sight of that? This wasn’t about whether she was interested or not; it was about his daughters. What had started out as a half-formed plan to distract her from work had actually distracted him far more effectively.
And he wanted to do it again. That was dangerous. She could take his girls away at the drop of a hat, and he couldn’t afford to antagonize her. Hell, she’d even told him she had to treat the case as objectively as possible, and here he was, ignoring all of that.
Because she’d gotten to him. She’d dug under his skin without saying a word. Talk about dangerous. He couldn’t let her know she had that much power over him, or she might use it to her advantage. How could he have forgotten how much better it was to keep his heart—and his mouth—shut? That’s why he stuck to weekend hookups, like the one he’d had with Margaret. No one expected him to spill his guts, and then he was free to leave before anyone got a different idea about how things were going to go.
That was the best he could do. The best he wanted to do. But he couldn’t ditch Royal this time around when things got too heated. He’d have to figure out how to get past one more tangle in the big fat knot in his chest that had Grace’s name all over it.
She thought he was clueless? Just a big dumb guy who couldn’t find his way around a woman without a map? Fine. It served his purpose to let her keep on thinking that, while he flipped this problem on its head.
“Sorry about that, then.” He held up his hands and let a slow grin spread across his face. “Hands off from now on.”
Or at least until he figured out which way the wind blew in Grace’s mind about the custody issue. He couldn’t afford to antagonize her, but neither could he afford to let her out of his sight. Once he had curried her good favor and secured his claim on his children, all bets were off.
And when she mumbled an excuse about having other dinner plans, he let her leave, already contemplating what kind of excuse he could find to get her into his arms again, but this time, without any of the emotional tangle she seemed to effortlessly cause.
Five
The kiss had been a mistake.
Grace knew that. She’d known while she was kissing Kyle. The whole time. Why, for the love of God, couldn’t she stop thinking about it?
She’d kissed Kyle lots of times. None of those kisses was seared into her brain, ready to pop up in her consciousness like a jack-in-the-box gone really wrong. Of course, all her previous Kyle kisses had happened with the boy.