And yet he held himself back. Why? Was he waiting for permission? He kissed her just fine, earlier on the beach. So why not now? What stood in his way?
Not her, that’s for certain. Amelia needed his lips on hers like she needed oxygen.
Finally, she gave in. “Kiss me?”
She swore she saw the fine fibres of his restraint snap.
In a show of strength and sensual need, Daniel’s mouth slanted over hers. His fingers sunk into her hair, angling her head to plunder the warmth of her mouth deeper. Harder. At the first thrust of his hips, pressing the ridge of his erection over the sensitive knot of flesh at the top of her folds, Amelia was gone. Desperate for more.
Needing more of a connection, she wrapped her legs around his hips, curling into him, rising up to meet him thrust for thrust. She hadn’t the voice to ask for what she didn’t know and he held her hands so tight the skin chafed but she didn’t care. It all added to the sensory experience of everything Daniel. The heat; the friction; the delicious ache building up where her thighs met.
A low moan escaped her, back arched, breasts pressed to his chest.
“Jaysus, lass,” Daniel breathed at her jaw. He kept thrusting against her core, lips dancing over her jaw. “We…we shouldn’t…”
Don’t stop!
One last lingering press then he jumped off her. “I…” Daniel scrunched his face. He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
He stormed to the other end of the caravan and pulled the sliding door shut. It didn’t have the same sound as slamming a door, but the effect was much the same.
He was sorry.
He didn’t mean it.
He was stuck with her. That’s all she was to him; a burden.
Amelia did what she always did when the world came crashing down around her. From her purse sitting next to her bed, she pulled out her laptop and headphones, cranked some serious mind-numbing metal, and got to work designing her next game. Immersing herself in work made everything better.
Usually.
Not this time.
What in the goddamned bloody hell had he been thinking? Daniel scrubbed a hand over his jaw. His cock throbbed. No, it feckin’ ached to be back where it’d just been. God, but she felt so hot. So damned lovely wrapped around him. Taking what she wanted…needed.
You’re the biggest arse in the history of mankind.
He wanted her. Didn’t just want her, no, he needed her. Her affections acted like a balm healing the cracked and broken shards of his heart and soul. No amount of hiding from her was going to change that simple fact.
I should go back out there and explain.
But what if that made things worse? What if, by getting hot then cold around her, he made her suspicious of him and she went digging around in his past? Could she do that?
Damn, but he didn’t even know if it was possible. He never claimed to be the brightest student and who knew what kind of advancements the world made while he was locked away. For most of his incarceration, Daniel had been kept in solitary. The corrections officers told him it was for his own good; to give him time to think about what he’d done.
Aye, he learned no one could be trusted. Not even his own countrymen.
He wanted to trust Amelia. So far she gave him no reason to distrust her. So why did she tie his insides up in knots and make him lose his mind?
Daniel stopped pacing and grabbed his hair by the roots, fisting a handful of overgrown locks in each hand. He couldn’t remember when he started pacing in the first place. She did that to him, took him from the present and dragged him elsewhere. A fantasy land where he wasn’t a colossal screw up who ruined everything he touched.
They were dead because of him. His entire family. If only he’d just sat on that goddamned chair a little longer, he’d be dead and they’d still be alive. If only he chose not to follow that gorgeous lass he spotted across the street. If only he hadn’t gone up north in the first place. If only he’d listened to his Ma…
All the ‘if onlys’ in the world weren’t capable of bringing them back. Nothing could undo what was done–
A crash in the main caravan area stole his attention back to the here and now. Next came a sorry attempt at a curse word. That she could make him smile when his heart lay on the floor, twisted and torn, was no small miracle.
Pushing the sliding accordion-style door open, Daniel stepped into the hall/kitchen to survey the area. The sight had him hiding his laughter while he rushed over to help Amelia up. The table/bed had somehow come apart, leaving her on the floor.
“Ugh, okay, I think we need to stop with the fried foods. My butt is getting way too big.”
He pulled the lass to her feet, grinning.
“Oh, you think this is funny?”