cataclysmic release she had felt? ‘Better than usual?’
His expression was closed for a nanosecond, as if he had retreated to some place in his mind where no one else was allowed access. But then he smiled a lopsided smile. ‘Fishing for compliments, Miss Winwood?’
Kat pulled at her lower lip with her teeth. ‘Will you tell Jaz and Miranda and the twins about us?’
His eyes moved between each of hers, as if he too were searching for something she was trying to conceal. ‘Would it bother you if they found out?’
She thought about it for a moment. ‘Not really...as long as they know this isn’t heading anywhere serious.’
Something about his expression looked tight. Pulled back. ‘Wedding fever might’ve hit the Ravensdales but it’s not going to hit me.’
Kat studied the taut line of his mouth for a moment. ‘I would’ve thought you’d be the first person to want to settle down and have a family.’
‘Why’s that?’
‘Because you didn’t have one growing—’
‘I did have one.’ He rolled away from her to dispose of the condom. ‘I still have one.’
‘But you’re not close to any of them.’
‘So?’ He threw her a glance. ‘Lots of people aren’t close to their families. It doesn’t mean they don’t love them.’
Kat pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. ‘You love them?’
He let out an impatient breath. ‘Of course I do. They raised me, educated me, provided for me.’
‘Do you ever tell them you love them?’
He reached for his trousers, sitting on the bed with his back to her and pulled them on. ‘We’re not that sort of family.’
Kat watched as he got awkwardly to his feet to shrug on his shirt. ‘Are you angry with me?’
He turned to look at her. ‘Why do you think that?’
‘Because you’re getting dressed. It’s like you’re putting up a barrier.’
He drew in a long breath and then released it in a measured stream. ‘It’s late. I thought you’d want to go back next door to your own bed.’
He’s dismissing you. He’s done the deed, now he wants you gone.
No, he’s not. He’s protecting himself. I’ve touched a nerve.
Kat unfolded her legs and got off the bed. She didn’t reach for her clothes but went over to where he was balanced on his crutches with his shirt hanging open. She slid a hand over the taut muscles of his chest, right up to the back of his neck to bring his head down towards hers. ‘Do you really want me to go back next door?’ she whispered against his mouth.
‘Not yet,’ he said and covered her mouth with his.
FLYNN WOKE SOMETIME during the night to realise Kat was still in bed beside him. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the occasional sleepover but he was choosy about who stayed and who didn’t. He had wanted Kat to stay. Had wanted it so much it spooked him. He kept telling himself it was okay; she wanted what he wanted—a flingsationship—something between a fling and a relationship. It could last days, weeks or months and he was fine with that.
He looked at her sleeping beside him, her hair in a tangled mess across the pillow, her soft mouth settled in a half-smile as if she was dreaming about something pleasant. She gave a tiny murmur and nestled a little closer. It was as if she had sensed there was someone in the bed beside her and couldn’t bear not to be touching them. He shivered as her arms and legs wrapped around his, her head burying against his chest as she gave a kittenish purr of satisfaction.
He found himself stroking the back of her head while he listened to the sound of her breathing, feeling each soft breath waft over his skin like a caress. One of her hands slipped down between their bodies, her fingers finding him as hard as stone.
She opened her eyes and looked up at him with a sultry smile. ‘You’re up already?’
Flynn shuddered as her hand tightened around him. ‘Been up a while, actually.’
She sat up and pushed her hair back off her face, her beautiful breasts drawing his gaze like an industrial-strength magnet. He touched each one with his hand, cupping them, stroking them, watching as she expressed her pleasure with little sighs and moans. He leaned forward to take her nipple in his mouth, rolling his tongue over and around it, drawing on it with gentle pressure. Her hands came down to grasp his head, her fingers digging into his scalp as if to anchor herself against the powerful sensations his touch evoked.
He moved his mouth to her other nipple, then to the underside of her breast, licking the sensitive flesh with his tongue until she pulled him away to look at him with eyes bright with desire.
She pushed him back down on the bed and straddled him, taking care not to bump his bandaged foot. Her hair half-covered her breast like she was a mermaid, which somehow was even more sexy than straight-out nakedness. He slid his hands up from her hips to her waist, his erection pressed up against her naturally separated folds. He could feel her wet heat, the temptation of her making his body hum with overwhelming longing to thrust in without protection.
But that was a line he wouldn’t cross.
‘Want to put a condom on for me?’ he asked, nodding to the bedside drawer where he kept them.
She reached over, the lithe stretch of her body making his all the more frantic with excitement. She was slim and yet femininely rounded in all the right places. She undid the packet with her teeth as she held his gaze with the sensuous heat of hers. Then with torturous slowness she applied it to him, stroking it down his length, securing it in place with a couple of massaging strokes that nearly blew the top of his head off.
Then, when he thought he could take no more, she gave him a look from beneath her half-mast lashes and shimmied down his body so her mouth was within reach of his erection. ‘I thought you were a conservative lover,’ he said in a strangled voice.
She gave him a naughty girl look and got down to business. He took as much as he could before he pulled her away with a gentle but firm hand fisted in her hair. ‘Enough,’ he said. ‘I won’t be able to pleasure you.’
‘We can take turns, can’t we?’
Flynn stroked his hands up and down the silk of her arms. Her cheeks were rosy, her mouth wet from where she had sucked on him, her eyes sparkling with sexual excitement. ‘I want to watch you come,’ he said.
She looked momentarily uncertain. ‘You mean while I’m on top like this?’
‘If you’re comfortable doing it that way.’
She came back over him and positioned herself so he could enter her, guiding him in with her hand. He felt the
