Lily resisted the kiss. She resisted the physical pull to him. The emotional pull. But kissing Chase Vickers was like stepping onto a raft and barreling down a white-water rapid toward a waterfall. All Lily could do was hang on for the ride and hope she survived the fall.
Two seconds into the kiss and her heart began to knock hard against her ribs. Pleasure pounded through her, fighting with the warning blaring inside her head for her to stop before the situation spiraled out of control. But deep inside she knew that had already happened. None of this had been in her control since the moment she’d laid eyes on him back at the hospital.
His mouth moved over hers, stealing her breath and the last remnants of her rational thought. She pushed at his shoulders and made a sound of protest. But her efforts were halfhearted at best, a token effort she was bound by her own self-respect to make, and they both knew it. But then it had always been that way between them. Passionate. Skating the edge of control where there was no room for logic or right or wrong or smart.
“God, I’ve missed you.” He trailed kisses down her throat. “I’ve never stopped wanting you all this time. Staying away from you nearly killed me.”
“Nothing’s changed,” she said breathlessly. “You’re still traipsing off to godforsaken countries and getting shot at. You’re still keeping secrets about your work.”
He looked at her. Lily saw heat and desperation and what might have been regret in the depths of his eyes. She felt all of those same emotions in her own heart.
“None of that changes the way I feel about you,” he said. “It doesn’t change what’s between us.”
“There can’t be anything between us anymore.”
“You can say that all you want. But you don’t believe it. I know you feel what I do. I see it in your eyes. I feel it in your body when I touch you.”
The image of him touching her came to her unbidden. That night he’d come to her apartment, the night she’d conceived the child she carried now. His hands had scorched her flesh. His mouth had devoured hers. His body had moved within hers as they’d made passionate love. It had been the most erotic experience of her life, the memory of which sent a powerful shiver through her.
“When I touch you here…” His hand brushed the sensitized tip of her breast. “You feel it here.” He set his other hand over her heart, and his eyes burned into hers. “Your heart is racing.”
It was true. Her pulse beat like a jackhammer. She could feel her heart pumping superheated blood to every cell in her body. Her swollen breasts ached to be touched. Seven-and-a-half months pregnant, she’d never imagined she could feel the kind of desire cutting through her at this moment. Leave it to Chase to prove her wrong.
Lily’s vision blurred when he tilted his head and kissed her neck. His whiskers chafed her flesh, sending gooseflesh down her body. Wanting more, she threw her head back and gave him full access. His lips burned her skin, hot and wet. His tongue swept over her, making her want him with a madness she’d never known.
A gasp escaped her when he took her nipple into his mouth. The pleasure knifed downward all the way to her womb, powerful enough to make her groan. She shivered when he parted the robe and cool air washed over her breasts, her swollen belly.
“You’re beautiful.” He set his hand over her belly. As his eyes met hers, she saw within their depths a reverence she’d never before seen. A mix of emotions that told her the man holding her cherished her, and he knew this moment was precious and fleeting and might never come again.
Lily smiled. “I look like I swallowed a basketball.”
Chase chuckled and kissed the tip of her nose. “You’re sexy as hell for a pregnant woman.”
He made her feel beautiful, even when she wasn’t. He made her feel like the only woman in the world. He made her feel precious and cherished. If only he would change…
“Chase,” she whispered, “this can’t go anywhere.”
“That doesn’t keep me from wanting you.”
The truth of the matter was she wanted him, too. She wanted him with an intensity she’d never before experienced. Need ripped through her with every beat of her heart, with every breath rasping in and out of her lungs. And when she looked into his eyes, Lily was lost.
He lowered his mouth to hers and the kiss tore away the last of her resistance. His hands trembled as he loosened the belt of her robe and worked it from her shoulders. She shivered when the robe fell to the floor, but it wasn’t from the cold.
Needing to feel the warmth of his flesh, she fumbled with his shirt buttons. Her fingers trembled, but he waited patiently while she undid them, one by one. Then her hands were on his chest where his own heart raged. Her palms brushed over his flat nipples and he shuddered.