His hands moved around her neck, fingers trailing across her collar bone. And then ran a line down to her nipples. Her breasts full, straining.
She delved her tongue inside his mouth and the next thing she knew she was walking back a couple of steps until her back was flat against a brick wall.
Her breath quickened, matching the tempo of his.
Everything in her world reduced to the two of them. And for the first time in longer than she could remember, Clara got lost in the feeling.
The school bell buzzed, bringing Clara back to the sharp reality that her niece needed her.
She ducked out of Daniel’s grasp, her lips still stinging and swollen, wishing for more.
“I can’t do this.”
Daniel stood there with his flat palm against the brick wall. What the hell had just happened?
He chalked the intensity of the experience up to overwrought emotions. An irritating voice in the back of his head tried to tell him that there’d never been a kiss that had made him so damn hungry for a person. That same damn voice tried to convince him that what he felt for Clara was in a league of its own. He was too broken to put much stock in the thought. Where would it go? Where could it go?
His emotions were clearly in overdrive but the drumming between his ears had eased and he was thankful for the reprieve.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said, taking Clara by the hand and linking their fingers. Contact kept him tethered to reality and not that place inside his head that drove him to the brink.
Back in the truck, his fingers hovered over the key in the ignition.
“You have questions,” he finally said. She had to be curious about what would cause a man like him to unravel. Then again, she was the psychologist. She had to have some idea what had just happened. Talking was hard and he didn’t plan to go there.
There was another long silence as though Clara needed to gain the confidence to ask. Hell, she could just be concerned about his response or fearing she’d trigger another episode. So, he waited.
“What happened to your daughter?” Clara finally asked.
He’d known the question was coming.
“Ask another question,” he said.
“I don’t have one.” She looked at him with apologetic eyes.
“I don’t want to talk about her,” he said honestly.
“I know. And you don’t have to. At least, not to me. But you need to talk to someone at some point. It isn’t healthy to bottle it all—”
“Save the psycho-babble for your patients,” he bit out. His response was a copout. She’d called him on it. And that stung. It was true. He could barely say his daughter’s name without that angry beast inside of him taking over. There was so much rage and no realistic outlet.
The fact that Clara looked as though she’d just taken a physical blow knocked him back a step mentally.
He tried to form the words for an apology but it died on his lips. He didn’t want to hurt Clara but he wasn’t sorry for being angry and she needed to know that some topics were off-limits. Period. He may never want to discuss his family. He sure as hell didn’t deserve to…what? Get better? Live without pain? That pain reminded him he was alive when all he’d wanted to do for two years was join Naomi and Ruthie. There was no reason he should be alive.
“I didn’t see a wedding ring or I never would’ve let you kiss me yesterday,” she said quietly.
“I don’t have a wife anymore,” he snapped. “She’s dead. And you didn’t ‘let’ me do anything.”
She issued a grunt. This wasn’t the time to notice how sexy the sound was coming from her.
“Nothing happens to me that I don’t allow. Not anymore.” Those last two words came out so quietly that he almost thought she hadn’t said them.
He made a mental note to ask about that later. Right now, he was too angry, too worked up.
“Let’s get the hell out of here.” He needed to spend a couple of hours at the gym and work out some of his frustration so he could think straight.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“Hotel.”
She issued another grunt.
“Relax. I only go where I’m invited.” Yeah, he was being cocky. His defense mechanisms flared up and he needed to put up a wall. Because for a few seconds when the two of them were body-to-body, he didn’t hate himself and that scared the hell out of him.
The hotel in downtown Dallas was a fifteen-minute drive with no traffic.
He self-parked, checked in and handed Clara a key.
“Make yourself at home,” he said.
“My apartment isn’t that far from here,” she said. “We could’ve driven there instead.”
There was no way he was stepping into her personal space. Daniel needed to be in neutral territory.
“Stay here until I get back. Get some rest.” Before she could put up a fight, he twined their fingers and walked her to the elevator. “Please.”
Clara took in a sharp breath.
“I need a run to clear my head.” He put his earbuds in as the elevator dinged. He didn’t bother to look back after he turned and jogged away from the doors.
Daniel’s run and subsequent two-hour workout at the gym had had its desired effect. He’d worked out enough of his anger to function again. The cool shower after felt good on his burning skin. He always kept clean clothes in his backpack, so he put those on.
With the workout routine came clarity. And that lead him back to thinking about something productive—the investigation.
He opened the hotel room door with the second key he’d kept.
“Where do you go when you’re traveling and you need Internet but you forgot the charger for your laptop?” he asked Clara who was sitting at the table with a notepad out. The room had double beds and a small seating area with a round table and two chairs. There was an office space and a flat-screen television. The
