"You don't want me, Bryce, trust me. One night was all we had or ever will. I couldn't give more than that if I wanted."
He eyed her thoughtfully. "Why do I believe you now?"
"Because it's true." She paused and then said, "We have nowhere to go, understand?"
He didn't say anything as he stood. She backstepped and hated the cowardly move.
But this man had an arsenal all his own. He had weapons that had first-strike capability. His eyes. Oh, he had the sexiest eyes. That sly stare that spoke volumes and made her feel incredibly exotic when she was just average.
And now he was wasting that charisma on her. She couldn't, would not let herself fall any deeper. Though she desperately wanted to take what that velvety look promised.
Bryce advanced, stopping inches from her. "Keeping our distance hasn't been easy so far."
She laughed shortly. "Tell me about it."
"And if you'd quit looking at me like that, it might help."
Ciara's brows knitted slightly. "Looking what way?"
"Like you want me to strip you down right now."
Oh, she did, she thought. She really did. Then she lied, "You're reading what you want to see." She really had to get better control over herself, she thought.
He shook his head slowly. "If there is one thing I know about you, Ciara, it's what you look like when you want me."
How had she become so transparent when it was her job not to be? "Keep thinking of me as the nanny, and that should help."
"Okay. And I'll be the boss."
"Boss, no, employer, yes."
He laid his hands on her shoulders and her heart skipped and dove in her chest.
"You have to stop touching me. You agreed."
"One last time," he whispered.
"No." There was a plea in her tone no one could mistake.
"Yes."
His mouth neared.
Ciara knew she was lost. Just looking into his eyes, she came unwound, like silk ribbons refusing to stay neatly tied. Then his mouth touched hers and her insides liquefied, and she swore her willpower slithered to the floor to puddle at her feet.
His arms came around her. Slowly this time, meandering. His kiss was gentler, more controlled, but greedy. With exquisite patience, he worried her lips and her toes curled in the carpet. He swept his tongue across her lips and her body gravitated toward him. Slowly he pressed her to his length and she felt every strong inch of him imprinting to her body.
This was unfair. This was different.
This wasn't the out-of-control passion.
It was seduction. Slow deliberation. His tongue pushed between her lips and she moaned darkly, wrapping her arms around his waist and pulling him harder to her. His breathing was as fast as hers, escalating with each passing moment. Emotion poured through this kiss when before, it was simply raw, blinding passion. It made her heart clench.
Her hands pushed up his back, feeling his strength and wanting to lean into it. On it. To be safe and wanted. His mouth rolled erotically back and forth over hers, each stroke, each pass uncoiling the passion she'd tried to suppress. It was sweet and heady like the fragrance of magnolias in the early summer. Lingering and poignant. Wrapping her comfortingly. It was one last time before the defenses went up, she told herself, before she had to say no to her emotions. She opened wide for him, seizing the moment for herself. For later, when she was alone again. When she was longing for things she couldn't have, for a real life. For normalcy. For a life with him and his daughter.
That thought rocked her to her heels.
Ciara tore her mouth from his, then quickly pushed out of his arms.
She touched her mouth for a moment, then her wildly beating heart as she lifted her gaze to his.
Bryce saw the sheen of tears in her dark eyes.
"Don't ever do that again," she whispered hotly before she turned and fled from the room.
He knew what she meant. Don't kiss her like he meant it. Don't hold her like he never wanted to let go.
He'd felt it, too. The difference. The change in himself and in her. It had only been a moment, but it was enough. And it shook him to his soul. That kiss had only made this worse. He hadn't meant to show her that. Ever. Yet he hadn't gotten her out of his system five years ago and he hadn't now.
She was in his blood.
And just short of dying, he wondered bow they were going to keep on living together.
* * *
Bryce got what he deserved, he supposed. Ciara was ice-cold toward him the next morning, hardly sparing him a glance as she tended to his daughter. It was as if he'd breached an unknown line in her defenses and those walls were right back where they'd started. The door was closed.
No one was allowed in.
It stung, since he'd barely slept last night thinking about it.
And if the dark circles under her eyes were any indication, she'd been thinking about it, too.