go everywhere you go?”
“Yeah,” he said as he closed the door. “Well, not everywhere,” he amended. “I am allowed to go to the rest room alone.”
Suzy glanced up in surprise, then sputtered a laugh when she saw the teasing in his eyes. “Well, it’s good to know that at least some things in life are still sacred.”
“Do that again.”
Her laughter dried up in her throat as she watched the amusement in his eyes soften to wonder. She took a nervous step back. “Do what?”
“Laugh.” He caught her arm and turned her around to face him, holding her in place by her elbows. “I like the sound of it.”
Heat from his hands radiated up her arms, setting off warning bells in her head. Though she knew she should send him packing, she found she couldn’t move. But it wasn’t his strength that held her in place, though she could feel the power in the hands that gripped her. It was something in his eyes. A warmth. A gentleness. And something in his voice. Warmth again. And a huskiness that made her toes curl inside her tennis shoes.
He touched a finger to the corner of her eye, and a slight smile curved his mouth. “And I like what it does to your face. It softens your features. Makes you seem friendlier, more approachable.”
He drew the tips of his fingers along her cheek, and a shiver chased down her spine. “What…are you doing?”
“Touching you. Is that okay?”
Before she could reply, he placed a thumb against her lips and smoothed it along the crease. Another shiver chased down her spine as he slipped his hand around to cup the back of her neck. Her eyes riveted on his, her pulse thrumming, she watched the blue in his eyes darken, turn molten.
“I’m going to kiss you, Suzy,” he said quietly.
Even as he offered the warning, he was lowering his face to hers.
And Suzy, God help her, was pushing to her toes to meet him halfway.
Two
Suzy knew one thing for sure.
Gil Riley sure as heck wasn’t gay.
No man could kiss a woman like this and be anything but totally heterosexual. She couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move.
Well, maybe she could move, she decided belatedly and lifted her arms to loop them around his neck. The change in position brought him a step closer, his chest chafing against her breasts, his arms winding around her waist. With a skill that sent her blood racing, he teased her lips apart with gentle flicks of his tongue.
And forced her to add a new item to the governor’s already lengthy résumé: master seducer.
He’s good, she thought, giving herself up to the sensual rock of his mouth over hers, the erotic play of his tongue. Maybe too good, she thought with a shiver. Mesmerized by the pillowed softness of his lips, the commanding pressure of his mouth, she was only distantly aware of him sliding his hands from her waist to splay them across her buttocks. But when he tugged her up against him, she forgot about his mouth and the seductive lure of his lips, her attention snagged by the hard column of the erection nudging her abdomen. Alarm bells clanged in her head.
What are you doing! What is he doing! You don’t need this kind of trouble. Get rid of him. Tell him to get lost. Toss him out the door on his ear!
She intended to heed the warnings. She really did! And would have, if he hadn’t, at that moment, dug his fingers into her buttocks and lifted her, dragging her body up the length of his, until their groins were flush, their mouths perfectly aligned. With her held tightly against him, he deepened the kiss, softened it, then deepened it again, sending her pulse tripping, her mind reeling…and her good intentions skipping straight down the proverbial road to hell.
As he spun the kiss out, his tongue tangling with hers in an erotic dance for dominance, she lost all sense of time, all sense of place, all sense of self. She felt as if she were caught in the eye of one of Texas’s famous twisters, her body battered by a constant barrage of sensations and emotions, her mind stripped bare of all thought and reason.
She wanted this man, she realized with a suddenness that made her heart stumble a beat. More than she’d ever wanted any man before, she wanted Gil Riley. But even as her mind registered this need, he tightened his arms around her, all but squeezing what was left of the breath from her lungs. A groan rose from deep in his throat, and she sensed the regret in the sound, felt it as he eased his hold on her and let her slide back down his body, tasted it as he slowly dragged his mouth from hers.
Weakened, she braced her hands against his chest and drew in a shaky breath, telling herself that it was her imagination, that his kiss hadn’t held the power, the perfection that her mind insisted on attributing to it. But when she opened her eyes and met his gaze, saw the heat there, the same surprise and passion that clouded her own, she knew she was in trouble.
He touched a finger to the moisture he’d left on her lips, and a smile curved one side of his mouth. “You’re one hell of a kisser, Just Suzy.”
And so was he, she thought, gulping. Before she gave in to the temptation to throw herself back into his arms for a second go at him, she inhaled deeply, drawing in the oxygen she needed to clear her head, steady her pulse and ease from his embrace. “You’re not too shabby a kisser, yourself, guv.”
He laughed and the masculine sound filled the room and vibrated through her, filling her with an unexpected sense of longing and regret she couldn’t even begin to explain.
“I like you, Suzy.”
Because she was afraid that she was beginning to like him, too, she turned away. “So you’ve said.”
“My life isn’t my own right now, but I’d like to spend what free time I can manage with you.”
She closed her eyes, digging deep for the strength, the flippancy she needed to send him on his way. Plucking a pillow from the sofa, she slapped a hand against it, fluffing it. “Sorry, guv, but my dance card is pretty full.”
“There’s a private reception Friday night to dedicate a new children’s wing at one of the local hospitals. Will you go with me?”
She dropped the pillow back to the sofa and turned, a brow arched in question. “This Friday?” At his nod, she lifted her hands. “Sorry. I’ve already got plans.”
He stared at her a moment, as if weighing the truth in her refusal, then slipped his fingers into his shirt pocket and pulled out a small envelope. “If your plans should change, this will get you in the door.” He dropped the invitation onto the coffee table, then touched a finger to his temple, his smile returning. “See you around, Suzy.”
“What’s this?”
Suzy glanced over her shoulder and swallowed a groan when she saw the card Renee was holding. Wishing she’d tossed the invitation into the garbage, as she’d intended, she turned back to the sink and continued to wash strawberries. “Some stupid reception for a new wing at a hospital.”
“Are you going?”
“No.”
