One of them had to pull away first. Tearing his lips from hers felt like a crime punishable by death. “We should–”
“Yeah.” Amelia rolled to the side, onto her back, staring up at the blue sky. Her breaths were heavy.
“If you were wearing a skirt right now, we might be arrested for public indecency,” he admitted on a shaky laugh.
Then he slammed his eyes shut. What the bloody hell had he just admitted?
“Really?”
Surprised to hear shock in her voice, Daniel turned to his side, studying her expression. A storm of unease churned in her blue eyes. Then admitting how much he wanted her didn’t seem like such a horrid idea. “Really.”
He swore her eyes darkened a shade or two.
Amelia sat up and prodded him in the ribs. “Get up. Let’s find a place to stay for the night.”
Now he wore the shocked expression. Daniel did as she bid him and helped her up and back to the car. They stopped at a small inn further up the road. Neither spoke a word on the way inside and up to the front desk where they were welcomed by a woman in her late forties.
“Welcome! How may I help you?”
“We’d like a room for the night,” Amelia said.
“Certainly.” The woman tapped away at her computer for a second or two, through it felt like an hour. “We’ve got a few rooms available; some overlooking St. George’s Channel–”
“Just one is fine.” Amelia thrust her card at the woman, ending the debate.
Jaysus, this had to be a sign. Didn’t it? She wanted him, much as he wanted her. Didn’t she?
Daniel shoved a nervous hand through his hair. Damn, but he hadn’t a bloody clue what to think or do here. So he did what he knew, what he’d been doing since the moment he got into Amelia’s car; he helped her. Helped her up the narrow stairway to their room.
His palms were sweaty. Pulse rampant. He didn’t even think about his erection straining against the fly of his jeans but thanked the fates he had Amelia in front of him blocking the older woman’s view of his arousal.
“Can we have dinner delivered to the room?” Amelia asked when they reached the door.
“Er, I suppose, if you ring the desk in about…” She glanced at her watch “…two and a half hours.”
“Perfect,” Amelia said. “We’ll call then. Thank you.”
The door shut, leaving them alone. She gave him a look; one single flash of those deep blue eyes and all of the fight went out of him then. He surrendered to the inevitable. No mind that he spent half his life locked away, or that she was so perfect his soul would spend a thousand years begging just for one last kiss.
There was only Amelia. He saw only her. Felt only her. The warmth emanating from her body. The scent of apples and honey and wildflowers teasing his senses.
No more resisting. No need to resist.
Daniel ceased to think.
He took Amelia in his grip, holding her body flush to his. Her arms were around his neck before he took his next breath. His lips came down on hers forcefully and he invaded the warmth of her mouth with no attempt at gentleness or finesse. He wanted to see how she’d react, to see if she needed him in the same raw and overwhelming way he needed her. If she didn’t, he meant to frighten her off.
Amelia’s hands grabbed at his shoulders, clutching, fumbling for more, like she couldn’t get enough of him. Her tongue met his thrust for thrust and she moaned, the sound vibrating through him, shooing a punch of desire to his cock so strong he didn’t know if he’d survive this. The kiss went from zero to sixty in less than a split second. She made him powerless to anything but to accept what they had and give in to desire.
He never knew a kiss could be so intimate, so full of unspoken promises. Daniel’s fingertips traced her face, memorising every inch of her soft, exquisite beauty. The silky-smooth contours of her cheekbones, the delicate angles of her jaw. Amelia splayed her fingers through his hair, arching her body closer to his.
Placing her down on the bed, Daniel took in the lengthy masses of her dark hair, teased by his hands moving through them; the murky twin pools of her eyes, gazing up at him with adoration he didn’t deserve; flushed skin and lips swollen from his kisses. By god, he’d never seen such a bonny lass. No, not just bonny. Amelia was nothing less than an angel of beauty.
She reached up to cup his jaw, the hint of a smile playing on her lips. The lass turned him inside out. She reached to the very heart of him and made herself at home. And damn it all, but he couldn’t resist her. Truth be told, he didn’t want to.
Daniel took his time unwrapping her from the layers she wore. It was like every Christmas and birthday he missed were here and now, and he relished each second. The snick-snick-snick of her cardigan zipper, revealing full rounded breasts topped with stiff, peaked nipples covered by a thin white vest-top and lacy white bra came first. Hell, she made his tongue swell in his mouth and his cock throb in his trousers.