LITMIR.BIZ

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her more firmly against him while her other splayed across his chest, revelling in the male strength of him.

      With that movement it was as if she had released some check or restraint in him. With a groan, he gathered her close and claimed her lips with a potent mastery that had her trembling and reeling both at the same time.

      His hand moved to the hem of her shirt, and then under it. The skin on skin contact made her gasp as a delicious new energy and a brand new greed fired through her. He pressed her back against the sofa, angling her beneath him as his lips and tongue teased her lips and tongue, and all she could do was cling to him. One powerful thigh insinuated its way between her legs. She arched against it, wanting to feel him pressed against all of her, gripped by a need bigger than herself.

      He’d fed her chocolate sultanas. He’d told her he loved her body. He kissed her exactly how she’d always needed to be kissed but had never been kissed before. The man was perfect!

      With a growl, she reached up and tore the buttons from his shirt, raked her fingernails down his bare chest. He hissed in a breath and she revelled in the freedom of touching him. She pressed her palms to his hot skin and breathed him in. He was hard and as smooth as satin.

      Perfect!

      Slowly, deliciously, she moved her hands down to his stomach. He trembled. Had she done that? She did it again. He trembled again and she revelled in the knowledge that she could affect all of this superb masculinity so easily, with just a touch.

      Beneath her shirt, his hand moved to cover one breast. Beneath the thin cotton of her bra her nipple puckered and tautened. He rolled it between thumb and forefinger.

      ‘Oh!’ She stiffened and then arched into his touch, her body jerking in reaction, and that slow, lazy smile that she loved so much spread across his face as he continued to torment her fevered flesh.

      Boldly, she ran her fingers beneath the waistband of his jeans and the laziness vanished. ‘Kiss me,’ she groaned. It was half an order and half a plea. He complied and Nicola lost herself in a world of sensation.

      Completely. Time held no sway. There was only Cade and her … and magic.

      ‘Daddy?’

      A foreign sound filtered into her consciousness and Nicola stilled.

      ‘Nic?’

      Cade froze.

      It hit her then what the interruption was—Ella!

      She and Cade sprang apart. Nicola righted her clothes and pasted on a bright smile for Ella’s benefit. ‘Hey, pumpkin.’

      She glanced at Cade, expecting him to look as discomposed as she felt. He didn’t. He’d gone cold and still. He’d withdrawn, utterly and completely. Her stomach dropped and her skin chilled. He’d thrown up a brick wall, complete with razor wire and a watchtower. His body gave off wave after wave of rebuttal and rejection. She wanted to close her eyes so she didn’t have to witness it. She wanted to shake him. She wanted …

      It didn’t matter what she wanted.

      ‘What’s up, sweetie?’ Her voice came out surprisingly steady, although her insides trembled and her knees felt like jelly. ‘What are you doing up?’

      Ella raced across to bury her face in Nicola’s lap. ‘I’m thirsty. I want a drink of water.’

      ‘Oh, I think we can manage that.’ She brushed a hand through the child’s hair.

      She kept her voice deliberately cheerful, even while inside she was dying. Dying of embarrassment and something darker and harder and meaner, although she couldn’t put a name to it. But it reared up to stab her every time she glanced at the hard, uncompromising line of Cade’s mouth.

      ‘I’ll take care of this.’

      With an effortless ease that spoke of his strength—and resolve—he lifted Ella into his arms.

      ‘Go to bed, Nicola.’

      He turned and walked away. And just like that she was dismissed.

      She sat there, stunned, unable to move as her body attempted to process the emotions that tumbled through her in a confusing jumbled rush—the memory of Cade’s mouth on hers, with its searing heat, the way her body had come alive in his arms, the way she’d forgotten herself completely … and then the chilled recognition of his withdrawal.

      Her hands clenched. She should feel grateful for the interruption, but all she felt was a frustrated sense of disappointment, and it grew and prickled and itched. She would get no sleep tonight.

      She rose, Cade’s curt and dismissive Go to bed, Nicola still ringing in her ears, when a sudden chill dissipated all of her built up heat.

      Her arms snaked about her waist. Her mouth dried. What on earth had she been thinking? If they hadn’t been interrupted, she and Cade would’ve gone all the way. They’d have made love. And then what?

      She wrung her hands and then gripped them tightly. What was wrong with her? Did she mean to transfer all the dreams she’d had for the future—marriage, babies and a home—to the first man she met? Was she really that weak and needy?

      Her chin snapped up. While she suspected Cade wasn’t in the right head space to contemplate that kind of commitment, she knew for sure that she wasn’t. Her life was complicated enough as it was. She wasn’t going to make it even more complicated.

      Go to bed, Nicola.

      She went to bed.

      ‘What’s your New Year resolution, Nicola, darling?’

      Nicola started when Verity directed the question at her. It shouldn’t have; almost everyone else in the room had taken a turn. Verity wanted to learn Irish dancing. Keith wanted to complete a marathon. Dee wanted to lose weight, which had made everyone laugh with its predictability and droll delivery.

      Nicola planned to incorporate a lot of changes into her life when she returned to Melbourne, but what would she choose as her New Year resolution? It had to be something special.

      ‘You don’t have to tell us if it’s too personal, darling.’

      ‘Oh, it’s not that. It’s just …’ She pushed her shoulders back. ‘This year I want to make my resolution matter, and I want to keep it.’

      She could feel Cade’s eyes on her—their penetrating heat and intelligence. She refused to turn and meet his gaze, afraid of what her face might reveal. They’d carefully skirted around each other this week, kept their dealings short and professional, had never once mentioned their out of control Christmas kiss, but she suspected one look would reveal the desire she tried to keep in check. If an answering desire flared in his eyes she’d be lost. And she didn’t want to be lost.

      ‘Okay.’ She straightened in her easy chair—she and Cade didn’t share a sofa any more. ‘This year I will not avoid confrontation if keeping the peace is at my own expense. This last year has shown me that keeping the peace for everyone else’s sake is not always good for me.’

      ‘Wow,’ Dee breathed. ‘That’s a tough one.’

      Nicola wrinkled her nose. ‘Especially as I hate confrontation.’

      ‘You’ve made me feel shallow.’

      ‘Oh, and I forgot to add that I want to lose five kilos too.’

      As she hoped, everyone laughed.

      ‘Cade, darling, what’s your resolution?’

      She could still feel his gaze on her. She schooled her face and turned her head to meet it.

      ‘Nicola has taught me something this last month.’

      She had? He smiled and it was so unexpected she had to smile back. Everyone leaned forward, eager to hear what he had to say.

      ‘I directed all my energies into making Christmas wonderful

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