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  Wordlessly, Daniel picks me up, carrying me to the bedroom. How did I end up in his arms for the second time today? After breakfast, I was too sick to take it all in, but now... oh my, am I making up for that.

  Every nerve ending where my bare skin presses against Daniel is perking up. The bits covered by the towel aren’t faring much better. A light shudder passes through me when Daniel lays me on the bed. To my dismay, he sits on the edge, pulling my left ankle in his lap, inspecting it.

  “Does it hurt?”

  “No.” I flex it a little, testing it out. “Definitely no sprain, but I’m going to have bruises tomorrow all over my left side. I think you bring me bad luck. I seem to have all sorts of accidents when I’m around you. First I nearly sprained my ankle at Blake and Clara’s wedding, and today—”

  “You scared ten years off my life today.” Daniel shakes his head, putting my foot back on the mattress.

  He’s frowning as he shifts his weight until he sits right next to my hips. I don’t like that frown one bit, but then I remember Daniel isn’t mine to make happy. Still, I can lighten up the situation.

  “Hmm, now that you mention it, I can see two white hairs. Weren’t there before. Must have sprouted while I was asleep.”

  Reaching out, I’m aiming to touch a random spot on his scalp, but somehow end up running my hand through his hair. Damn it, he’s not mine to touch. Why do I keep forgetting this?

  My heart thumps wildly when I realize Daniel’s leaning into my hand as if... as if he’s been yearning for my touch as much as I’ve yearned for his. Has he missed me just as much?

  I barely formulate the thought when he grabs my hand, kissing the inside of my wrist. I feel the contact reverberate through my entire body until my center is on fire. Goose bumps erupt everywhere on my skin, and I have no way to hide them. Daniel’s pupils dilate. I’m not the only one who is aroused.

  “You look even more beautiful than I remember, Caroline.”

  I shake my head. “I’ve put on weight.”

  “You’re perfect. You’re—”

  Daniel doesn’t finish the sentence. Instead, he leans over, sealing his lips against mine. Oh God, his lips. They’re so warm and feel so, so good against mine that I fist his shirt without thinking, pulling him even closer, scooting over to one side, making space for him.

  Chapter Eight

  Daniel

  She sighs against my mouth, and it’s as if my brain short-circuits, leaving only one thought to stand out: I want this woman. I need her.

  Pulling away, I bring her hand to my lips again, kissing her knuckles, then the back of her hand, up her forearm. Goose bumps form where my lips touch her. She’s as responsive to me as she’s always been. I kiss up her arm, her bare shoulder, inching closer toward her neck. I pause in the act of feathering my lips over her clavicle, the tip of my nose nearly touching her neck. I wait, holding my breath, until she finally tilts her head up, giving me access.

  I lavish her neck with kisses, especially at the crease where her neck meets her shoulder. She shudders in my arms, fisting the pillow. That’s still a sweet spot for her.

  I’m overcome by the primal need of touching and licking every morsel of her skin. Is her earlobe still a sweet spot? Would she still come just from feeling my tongue inside her and my thumb pressing on her clit?

  Her body has changed since we’ve last been together. In college, she’d been slender, but now her hips and ass are filled out; she’s all luscious curves and firm muscle. I worshiped her shape then, and now I want to rediscover every inch of her skin, want to discover every new way in which I can bring her pleasure. I want to do so many things to her that one night will never be enough.

  Grazing her earlobe with my teeth, I skim my hand down her thigh, from the apex down to her knee, my fingers brushing the towel until I find bare skin. Instantly she presses her thighs together, nestling my hand in the space just above her knees.

  I’m dying to touch her pussy, taste her, but I still have a long way to go until I’ll be there. There is so much of Caroline to touch and enjoy.

  I inch with my mouth from her earlobe down to her cheek, stopping when the corners of our lips touch. She’s still holding my hand hostage between her legs, and as I rub my middle finger in a slight circular motion on the skin, I feel her break out into goose bumps again. On her legs, her arms. If I touched her pussy now, she’d have goose bumps there too. The thought sends a shot from my balls right to the tip. My fingers instantly curl, digging into her skin.

  Caroline exhales sharply. I’ve been so lost in rediscovering her that I haven’t been paying attention to her fingers unbuttoning my shirt. I stop any movement for a second, my hand hovering over her thigh, my lips at the corner of her mouth. I just want to feel her for a moment, bask in the knowledge that she’s here with me, opening herself to me once more. Her scent overwhelms my senses—not her perfume, but the scent of her skin. It’s just as I remember it.

  I can’t hold back anymore. I capture her mouth. She parts her lips at the same time she opens her thighs in a silent invitation, and I’m so hard, the zipper of my jeans might burst.

  Without interrupting the kiss, I move us both until we’re lying side by side on the bed, facing each other. Our pelvises are touching, but it’s not enough. I need her skin on mine. I have to get us both naked.

  When I hook my thumb into the towel, Caroline stills. Her body is tight with tension. I kiss her deeper, coaxing her tongue into a wild dance. I kiss her until I feel the tension ebb away from her, shudders replacing it. And then she hooks her thumb alongside mine into the towel, and we unfasten it together. The fabric slips off her, leaving her completely naked. My shirt, jeans, and boxers go next.

  We’re still both on our sides, facing each other when I palm one breast, twisting the nipple, and her whole body arches in response, her hips bucking forward, her pussy slamming right into my bent leg. Oh, fuck me. She’s dripping wet and coats my skin in her arousal too. All my plans to prolong the foreplay fly out the window. I’m blind with need.

  “Caroline, you’re so sexy. So beautiful. I’m dying to be inside you. Oh, fuck. I have no condoms with me.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m—just don’t worry about it.”

  I inch so close to her until I can feel the skin of her pelvis on the length of my erection. She perches her upper leg on top of mine. Gripping myself at the base, I rub the tip just above her navel, then slide it farther down to her pubic bone, and lower still, pressing it against her clit. She grazes my chest with her nails.

  “Look at me.”

  She lifts her gaze just as I position myself at her entrance and slide inside her.

  “This feels so good. So good,” she chants. Gripping the back of her head, I bring her closer until our foreheads touch.

  “Say my name.”

  “Daniel.”

  “Say it the way you used to.”

  “Dan.”

  Energy coils through me, a bolt of heat searing me from the point of our connection right to the nerve endings between my shoulder blades and the tips of my ears. She’s so tight around me I can barely take it. This is everything. The scent of her skin mixing with the scent of her arousal, her breath on my lips.

  She opens up beautifully, thrusting her chest to me, the leg she hooked around me clenching slightly. Leveling myself on my forearm, I kiss her, bracing my free hand on her hip. I can’t pace myself anymore. I drive into her wildly, using my hand to steady her, to pull her up and down my cock. She squeezes me so good and so tight.... Pulling out slowly, I slam against her again, filling her up, but I know I can go even deeper. First I have to make sure she’s at that point too.

  “Caroline, can you take me deeper?”

  She nods, and I hook my elbow under the knee of the leg she swung around me, lifting it higher, pushing it toward her torso. As the angle changes, I pull out, then slam back in, taking her so deep that my balls slap against her ass crack. I nearly black out at the intensity of
the feeling.

  “Oh God, I forgot how this feels.” She bites her bottom lip as her face contorts, pleasure etched on every feature.

  “That’s it, beautiful. Give me your pleasure. All of it. Touch yourself while I’m inside you.”

  She doesn’t hesitate and lowers her hand. I look between us, watching myself slide in and out of her while she circles her clit. I increase the rhythm when she starts clenching and spasming around me and then go completely still inside her as she explodes. The muscles in the leg I’m pressing up to her torso string tight. She’s so snug around me, it makes my eyes roll into my head.

  I nearly climax too but I hold it off, watching her, feeling her come all around me. While she’s still quivering, I pull out of her.

  ***

  Caroline

  I can’t ground myself, hard as I try. Just as I think I can ride out my orgasm, another wave of pleasure hits. My eyes are unfocused, so I feel rather than see what happens next. Daniel pushes me on my back, shifting his weight on top of me. I part my thighs, cradling him between them, but he doesn’t enter me again. Instead, he kisses me, slowly and gently, his hands finding mine at the side of my head and he intertwines our fingers. I want to soak up every detail about this moment: the heat radiating from his skin, the way his body trembles lightly.

  I feel his hard erection pressed between our bodies. His control is hanging on a very thin thread. I’m going to make him lose it.

  “Dan,” I whisper softly when he pulls away.

  He’s everywhere. His lips are on my breasts, teeth grazing my nipples, tongue swirling around the areola. His palms glide up the sensitive skin on my arms, then drift down on my rib cage, my waist. His thighs are spreading mine apart. My body is tight with tension, my senses overwhelmed by everything he’s doing to me. When he skims his fingers over my clit, as if the bundle of nerves is a harp, I nearly come again.

  “Oh God, Dan. I want you inside me. I need—”

  But before I can make more demands, he turns me over on my stomach, kissing and touching my back as thoroughly as he did my front.

  “I want to make this last all night. And I don’t want this night to end.”

  His confession stirs something deep inside me. His hot mouth flows down my spine, over one ass cheek. Then I feel him shift his weight, spread my legs wide apart, and lift me up on all fours. The mattress shifts again, and then I feel his hot breath caress one ass cheek. He gives me no warning; I have no way to brace myself—

  He plunges his tongue deep inside me, knocking the breath out of me. He’s out just as fast and then pulls my clit between his lips.

  I scream his name into the pillow. I’m not a screamer, but this. Oh God, this is something else. I need... oh God, I need my release right away. Desperate for it, I touch myself the moment Daniel takes his lips away.

  “Oh, fuck, Caroline. You’re sexy.”

  His control snaps the next second and he slams into me, filling me up until I think he’ll split me in two. My knees quiver, and then the quiver turns into a full-body shake from the intensity of a building orgasm. My calves are burning, muscles protesting.

  My knees give out.

  With one powerful thrust, Daniel pushes me off my knees and flat on my stomach. Pinning me against the mattress, he intertwines our fingers and slides in and out of me relentlessly until we’re both spent.

  Chapter Nine

  Caroline

  “You gave us a scare yesterday,” Karla says the next morning. We’re in the staff room, preparing for the day. The kids will arrive any second now.

  “I’m perfectly fine, don’t worry. Good as new.”

  “When did you get back to San Francisco?”

  “Late last night. With the hotel’s shuttle service.”

  Truthfully, I arrived this morning. I’m lucky I arrived in time at all. I woke up with a start at six o’clock in the morning and nearly had a panic attack when I realized Daniel was sleeping next to me, and I’d be late for work. He was still sleeping soundly when I left the room.

  The hotel staff was kind enough to arrange my transport, but I still arrived at the school in the nick of time.

  Last night was reckless on so many levels that I can’t even wrap my mind around it. The moment he kissed me, my common sense flew out of the window. Nothing existed except him. It was wild, unexpected, and my pulse spikes just remembering it.

  When the kids arrive, they bombard me with questions. “Where were you yesterday? Why did you get sick? Are you going to be sick again?” I spend more than half an hour calming them down, then distract them from the incident by asking them to tell me about their adventures. And while they talk my ear off, I can’t help remembering my own adventure. Daniel pops in my mind, and then memories of last night rush in: the sinfully delicious touches, the bliss of feeling him inside me again... the way my heart thumped when he said he didn’t want the night to end.

  Damn heart! It always longs for what it can’t have—or worse, for what it shouldn’t want, no matter how perfect it felt to be in Daniel’s arms again. It felt like home, like I belonged there. But this was a one-time thing, a night of weakness. Nothing more.

  I can barely concentrate on our lesson—the life cycle of a butterfly—and during the first break I walk into the staff room determined to do better for the rest of the day.

  Helen’s already inside, motioning to my bag, which I forgot here. Well, am I not a complete scatterbrain today?

  “Your phone rang a few times.”

  “Thanks.”

  Walking over to my bag, I take out my phone. I have two missed calls from Daniel, and a message.

  Daniel: Sorry I slept like the dead. Didn’t hear you leave. I’ll be back in San Francisco in the afternoon. Can I take you out for a ristretto? Still your favorite coffee, right?

  My face instantly breaks into a smile, my heart skips a beat, and I’m tingling in the most sensitive places covered by my silk underwear. Yep, the whole package... all because he remembers my favorite coffee.

  We’re both creatures of habit. When we’re eighty, his favorite pizza will probably still be capricciosa, and my favorite coffee ristretto macchiato. And he remembers.

  The longer I linger on that thought, the more excitement builds inside me, filling me with an almost jittery energy.

  “Caroline? Everything all right?” Helen points to my hands.

  “Oh, yeah. Had a strong coffee this morning.”

  “Are you sure you don’t need to take the day off? Karla told me about what happened yesterday.”

  “No, no. I’m fine.” The last thing I need is for Helen to think I can’t do my job. She’s the principal’s daughter, and while she seems to like me well enough, I can’t be too careful. Allergy or not, I forfeited my responsibilities yesterday.

  “Okay.”

  I head out in the yard, intending to stretch my legs, walk off some of this energy. I also need to eat my sandwich, or my stomach will start growling midway through the second lesson since I skipped breakfast.

  Halfway through eating my sandwich, I’ve almost calmed down completely, but then my phone rings, Daniel’s name appearing on the screen. I’m tempted to mute it and call him back after my workday is over, but that wouldn’t do much good. If I don’t talk to him, I’ll spend half my time wondering what he had to say. Besides, I’m a strong, independent woman. I will not fall back in love with Daniel over a hot night, or because he remembers my favorite coffee.

  Sandwich in one hand, I lift the phone to my ear with the other.

  “Hey,” I greet him.

  “Hello, Caroline.”

  Ah, two words into the conversation and my skin is already humming. To my defense, my name in his mouth sounds just as sinful as it did last night.

  “You didn’t reply to my text.”

  “Ristretto is still my favorite,” I say playfully, knowing full well this isn’t the answer he was looking for. I’m just a chicken, always have been. Between blaming my loose tongue y
esterday on the Benadryl, and my vagueness now, I’m taking my tendency to chicken out to a whole new level.

  “I want to take you out. For coffee, or dinner.”

  “We have after-school activities until six, and I already have plans after.”

  “We need to talk about last night.”

  “What?” I ask in alarm, accidentally brushing my sandwich against my top, smearing mayonnaise just over my left boob. Fantastic. Sighing, I carefully weigh my words. “There’s no need to talk about anything, Daniel.”

  “I disagree.”

  “I’m shocked,” I mutter, and he chuckles. “But I can’t tonight, really. Already have plans.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  Well damn, he’s persistent. “I have plans every evening after work this week.”

  “What plans do you have on Saturday, birthday girl?”

  He remembers my birthday!

  “Ironically, not so many. I’m having lunch with Dad, but we can meet in the evening.”

  I can’t ignore him forever, nor do I want to. At the latest, I’ll see him at some Bennett event, and it’s best to get the awkward out of the way before. Why did I have to complicate things and sleep with him? After our breakup, I pulled away from his family, because the whole thing was too awkward. But after Mom died last year, I grew closer to Jenna Bennett—Dan’s mom—again. I rekindled my friendship with Summer and Pippa. I don’t want to give that up, and I want Daniel in my life too, but in a safe way—in a platonic way.

  “Excellent. See you on Saturday. And look out for my gift.”

  “You don’t have to buy me anything,” I say quickly, but my voice sounds unconvincing even to my own ears. I love presents in any way, shape, and form.

  “Oh, I do. Making up for falling asleep and all that.”

  “You’re going to milk this for all it’s worth, won’t you?”