She tiptoed into the family room. For the first time since her marriage less than a week ago, she would sleep alone in her old bed. The notion chilled her and she hoped it wasn’t a foreshadowing of her future.
She reached the middle of the floor when the room flooded with light. She let out a startled scream and jumped back, her heart pounding hard in her chest.
“I suppose I should be grateful you came home at all.”
She pivoted toward Kevin’s angry voice. “Of course I came home. I live here.”
He leaned against the wall, looking forbidding and furious. A muscle ticked in his jaw as he studied her through narrowed eyes. But her gaze was drawn to the rest of him, to the jeans that rode low on his hips and muscles rippling along his bare chest. She tried to swallow but her mouth had grown dry. She didn’t stand a chance against him if she couldn’t control her physical reactions.
“You could have called. Or didn’t it occur to you that I’d be worried?” he asked.
“Of course it occurred to me. Protecting is your favorite pastime.”
“You make it sound like that’s a bad thing.”
“Maybe because it is.” Nikki drew a deep breath. She hadn’t consciously planned an argument, but what did she expect when she’d deliberately stayed out until midnight? Perhaps they needed to clear the air, since she couldn’t live with the pent-up anger any longer.
He stepped into the room. “Care to explain? I’m concerned about you and my child, and there’s something wrong with that?” he asked. Then he took another step closer.
Nikki’s breath caught in her throat. Anticipation and adrenaline flooded her veins. Yes, perhaps this argument was exactly what they needed for her to regain control of her senses and of her life.
She’d tiptoed around Kevin for too long. “What you feel is beyond concern. It’s control.”
His dark eyes glittered dangerously and she knew she was treading on sensitive ground. She’d never goaded him before, never pushed an argument to the point where he released his emotions. Apparently it was time for that too.
“I don’t want to control you, Nikki.”
“You want to control situations. Same difference.”
He grabbed her shoulders in a touch that considering the emotions flowing between them should have been rough but was exceedingly gentle. “I want to keep you safe.”
She met his gaze head-on. “And you can’t always guarantee that, even if you’re by my side twenty-four hours a day!” She practically yelled in frustration. “You aren’t responsible for fate.”
“No, but I can make sure I’m there just in case.” And then Kevin lowered his mouth to hers, forestalling any more arguing.
He was warm and she relished his touch, reveled in his scent. Although she couldn’t turn him away, she wasn’t ready to give in return. She didn’t resist him; she needed the simplicity of the contact too much. And that’s how he kept things between them—simple, as he nibbled and licked at the seam of her lips with his tongue. If he was intent on seducing her into submission, he was well on his way. Only the knowledge that he used sex to seduce himself into oblivion gave her the ability to remain strong. To think instead of cave.
And when she let him inside, for the first time the intimacy nearly made her lose her resolve. Just a few more seconds, she promised herself, as his tongue swirled and tangled with hers. She gripped his forearms, her nails digging into his skin.
He exhaled a groan and slipped beneath her flowing shirt and dipped lower, to cup her behind and pull her tight against his rigid length. Liquid heat poured from her, sizzling fire burned in her veins. Why was this so perfect, when everything else between them was such a mess?
“Damn, but you feel good. Do you know what you do to me?” he muttered.
“Exactly because you do the same to me.” She tipped her head backward forcing herself to look into his taut face, and forcing him to meet her gaze. His eyes were clouded with raw desire.
She could never resist him when he was like this, but tonight she had no choice. “Sex isn’t the answer to our problems,” she told him.
“We’re here, we’re together, and we’re having a baby.” His hand splayed over the light swell of her stomach.
His touch branded her. A silly, belated notion, considering he’d already done so by giving her his child.
“Forget any problems for now.”
She shook her head, fighting his magnetic pull, fighting the lure of the future. “I wish I could.” But if he couldn’t give her anything besides great sex, they had no future.
She met his gaze, silently begging him with everything inside her to hear, and understand. “You can’t base a lifetime on sex—no matter how good it is.” And sex with Kevin was always good. Her heart beat loud and hard against her chest while her body throbbed in time to the steady rhythm, attesting to that particular truth.