Maybe he’d only meant a brief kiss goodnight, or goodbye, but the moment his mouth covered hers, it blew up into shattering need, his tongue pushing between her lips like he was making love to her. She felt his free hand cup her breast and she moaned and pressed into his touch. Their kisses almost absorbed his gasp of delight, the urgency with which he sucked on her lower lip, biting gently. Everything in the world vanished but his touch, his strength, his mouth, and the dizzying sweetness between them.
“Nella-bella,” he murmured between kisses, “I’m feeling pretty damn desperate, enough to start stripping us down right here in my truck where anyone can see.” A hand trailed down to play with the waistband of her yoga pants, dipping toward tempting heaven. “You want to invite me upstairs?”
In some fuzzy part of her brain, Nell knew they’d already complicated things beyond belief. But taking him upstairs? She wrenched herself upright, and said, “No. Eamonn, I… I don’t want to stop either, but I don’t know what we’re doing here, and…”
He stopped. Let her go with a groan, popped open his door, and jumped down. For a moment, she saw him lean against the side of the truck and press his face into his arm, then he came around and opened her door for her, holding out a hand to help her descend.
She took it. Stepped down onto the sidewalk. “Thank you.”
“Is this just not tonight, or not ever?” he asked slowly, his face tense.
“This is — we have to see each other at work tomorrow. We’re not strangers, we’re not dating. You shake me up, Eamonn. I don’t know what we are or where this is going, but right at this moment I can’t handle being a bed buddy tonight and a co-worker tomorrow.”
He sighed. “Yeah. Well, let me know.” He opened the rear door and grabbed her bag, handed it to her. “Walking you up to the door is too damned much temptation. I’ll watch you from here, to see you get inside safely.”
“I can take care of myself,” she reminded him, but the words came out sounding more resigned than fierce.
“I know, ninja woman. I’m still going to watch you until you’re in.”
“Fine, then maybe you should call me when you get home, so I know you’re safe.”
“Fishing for my phone number?” he asked with a muted laugh, but he got out his phone and handed it to her, open to the New Contact screen. “Give me yours, and I’ll call you when I’m in bed.”
“Right.” She handed his phone back to him, settled the strap of her bag on her shoulder, and nodded. “I’m off.”
He leaned down and kissed her forehead, lightly, but it made her scalp tingle. “I’ll talk to you in a bit,” he said.
“Yeah.” She turned and sprinted for the front door of her building, though running made no sense and her bag bumped awkwardly against her hip.
Home. It felt good to be back in her space — small and nothing fancy, but all hers. She took a two-minute shower and pulled on an old district championships t-shirt in place of pajamas. She’d got the t-shirt the first time she’d competed at the district level as a teenager, before she’d ever gone to nationals. It was a tighter fit now than it had been back then and the graphics were faded from washing, but the old shirt still brought up happy memories and a security blanket feeling. It’s just a clean t-shirt, she told herself. Nothing to do with wanting comfort.
But she couldn’t avoid the thought that she’d chosen to be alone, that Eamonn could have been there with her if she hadn’t stopped him. Yes, it would have been complicated afterward. But damn, the fireworks might have been worth it.
She didn’t really think he’d call to say he’d made it home safely, but just after she’d gotten into bed with her book, her phone rang, an unknown number on the call display. “Hello?”
“Hey, ninja woman. I’m safe at home,” Eamonn’s voice came over the line, low and intimate. “Where are you? In bed yet?”
She’d never been a liar. “Yes.”
“Wish I were there with you.”
And what could she say to that? “Regret is a waste of time.”
She heard him chuckle softly. “You regret sending me home, do you?”
“Tomorrow’s going to be weird anyway, isn’t it? And if you were here…” She couldn’t finish that sentence. You’d be inside me right now? We’d be falling apart together?
“I know, babe,” he said, his voice deepening, with that thick quality she now knew meant he was aroused. She heard a rustling of sheets and a muffled squeak: the sound a mattress makes when someone shifts position.
“Are you in bed too?” she asked. There was something oddly intimate about that, both of them in bed, talking. Not together, but together.
“Yeah.” He was quiet for a moment, then said, “Just talking to you like this has got me so hard, it’s ridiculous.”
His words sent a rush of heat over Nell and she snuggled deeper into her blankets, wondering if he slept naked, if… “Are you getting yourself off?” she blurted, before she could censor the words.
“No, but I will before I sleep.” That admission came out in a low, sexy voice that made the air in the room seem somehow thin. “As soon as we hang up. And I’ll be thinking of you.”
And that was it, fuse lit. Didn’t matter that she’d done the smart thing and sent him home earlier, she’d gone off the deep end now, thrown herself into the fire. She couldn’t deny it, might as well embrace it. “Why hang up?”
“You want me to…” He didn’t finish the sentence, and she heard a gasping
