Page 22 of Found: A Father For Her Child

‘Don’t you trust me?’

He was standing behind her and his voice was soft, a seductive caress reaching through the gloom to touch her across the short distance that separated them. That was the crazy thing. She did trust him. She felt perfectly safe. But there was a frisson of something else, too. A slight tremble to her hand and huskiness in her breath when she thought about sharing a car with him. Something stirred inside that hadn’t been stirred in a long time. Something that had been breathed into life five nights ago.

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ She gave a half-laugh. ‘Of course I do and because it’s Friday night in the city, and I can’t be bothered to wait an hour for a taxi, you’ve got yourself a deal.’

Carrie’s mobile rang as she did her seat belt up and she answered it. Charlie buckled up, too, started the car and pulled out as Carrie was hanging up.

Charlie’s male scent filled the confines of the car and Carrie had to resist the urge to put her face against his neck and inhale deeper. What the hell was happening to her? She was sitting in a car with a man she barely knew, getting high on pheromones. She just didn’t do stuff like this.

‘That was my sister,’ she said into the silence, grabbing hold of anything, anything to stop her actually sniffing his neck. ‘She was just ringing to remind me about my hair appointment tomorrow,’ she prattled. ‘She’s a hairdresser,’ she prattled some more.

Charlie pulled out of the alley. ‘Yeah? Maybe I’ll drop by one day and get that sensible haircut my father keeps nagging me about.’

‘Oh, no,’ Carrie admonished immediately, and raised a hand to touch his hair. It was soft and fine and the glide of it through her fingers was a surprisingly sensual experience.

Then she realised what she was doing and dropped her hand abruptly. ‘It suits you,’ she said, covering for the heat that she felt flushing her cheeks.

Charlie’s scalp tingled where she’d touched it and his thoughts were temporarily scrambled.

‘Warm in here, isn’t it?’ she muttered, winding the window down.

‘Yes,’ Charlie agreed, winding his window down also. There was a vibe between them that was hard to ignore. He could see the quickened rise and fall of her chest, the pull of the fabric across her breasts, her lips glistening in the passing glow of the streetlights.

And in his mind’s eye he could see her pulling the clasp out of her hair, discarding her glasses and him hauling her into his seat, onto his lap, ripping open that sexy, silky shirt, the buttons popping everywhere. He gripped the steering-wheel harder.

Thankfully the trip to her place was brief and she was content to stare out the window and not converse. He was excruciatingly conscious of her anyway, he didn’t need her voice in his ear. He should have let her take a taxi. He switched the engine off. Just walk her to the door, Charlie, see her inside and turn around.

Carrie unclipped her seat belt and heard a chorus of alarm bells ringing in her head as Charlie also unclipped his and opened his door. She placed a stilling hand on his arm. ‘You don’t have to see me in.’

Her hand felt hot through the fabric of his shirt and he wondered how hot it would feel on other areas of his body. ‘What about the burglar?’

She gave a half-laugh, hoping desperately to lighten the atmosphere. ‘The gnome-napper? You’re kidding, right?’

He looked at her building, at the lush tropical jungle that seemed to occupy every piece of land. Anyone could conceal themselves in the dense foliage. ‘I’ll see you in anyway.’ He climbed out of the car and away from her hot little hand.

Carrie took a deep breath and exited the car also. She was ultra-conscious of him behind her for the short trip from the street through the gardens to her front door.

‘Right, well, as you can see, no one lurking in the bushes. You can go now,’ she said briskly digging around in her bag for her keys.

Charlie looked at her. She sounded like a schoolteacher dismissing a child. He remembered how intimate it had felt the last time he’d been standing at her front door, holding Dana.

‘Aren’t you going to invite me in for a nightcap?’

She stopped her search and looked at him. Was he mad? ‘No.’

He chuckled. ‘A coffee?’

Stark raving obviously. ‘Coffee keeps me awake,’ she said primly.

And she was seriously going to be able to sleep with this hum happening between them? He was going to lie awake, thinking of her straddled across him in his car, her blouse torn open. ‘Breakfast?’ He grinned.

Carrie felt her stomach lurch and heat flush her face, and was thankful for the night’s dark shadows. She opened her mouth to issue a stinging retort and noticed the teasing look on his face. ‘Are you trying to sexually harass me, Charlie?’

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