Nor would she risk allowing herself to bask in his affection and attention. He’d jerk both away when he was done with her, when she no longer interested him, and she’d be left feeling hollow and empty again.
But, like a child who’d been told not to eat the sweets she’d been left alone with, all she wanted to do was gorge herself on him. To taste his wonderful mouth again, to push his shirt up his chest to reveal his exceptional body, to scrape her teeth along his jaw, tug his earlobe in her mouth, put her hands down his—
Whoa, boy! Getting a bit hot in here. Putting her sketch pad aside, Bay stood up, walked over to the window and stared past the incredible rose garden to Table Mountain, covered with its rolling tablecloth.You can’t think about Digby like that, Bay, it’s too dangerous.
She knew it but it was so damn hard, especially when the man was temptation on two feet.
Bay heard his footsteps behind her and felt his hands on her shoulders. She knew she should step away, but when his hands skated down her arms, to slide across her stomach, she leaned back into him, enjoying the way his arms encircled her waist. It was so nice to have human contact, to have a hard man with big arms holding her tight. To feel like she wasn’t quite so alone...
“Tempting me again, Tempest-Vane?”
“Trying to,” Digby replied.
Bay felt Digby’s lips on her neck, sighed when his teeth scraped over the sensitive cord of her throat, along her jaw. She had to stop this, and she would, in a minute. Bay wanted just one minute to enjoy his scent and his solidity, his masculinity and the way he electrified every inch of her body.
“Is it working?” Digby quietly asked.
Bay turned to face him, resting her hands on his chest. “You know it is and it’s so unfair.”
“You should know that I don’t play fair, sweetheart.” Digby pulled her in close, her breasts pushing into his pale blue button-down shirt. Her nipples hardened and Digby placed his hand on her back, a fraction above her butt, pulled her hips to him, and Bay sighed at the hard ridge in his pants.
Yeah, she really should step away...
But he did tempt her and, damn, she wanted just one quick kiss. Onelastkiss. Bay, silently, cursed herself and her lack of control. She had to pull herself together; she couldn’t afford to allow him to wear her down, to put herself in a situation that would have huge consequences for Olivia. She couldn’t give in to the madness he pulled to the surface; there was too much at stake. She wasn’t the only one who had skin in the game and she had to make the best possible choices to keep her tiny family together.
Transient pleasure, a few hours in Digby’s arms, wasn’t worth the risk.
Digby was far too good at this temptation game, Bay conceded. She’d step away soon, shewould, she just needed a minute.
That minute passed, and Bay didn’t move away, she simplycouldn’t. She wanted this, she wanted him.
“Time is up, sweetheart.”
Digby’s lips covered hers but Bay, despite her frustration at being so damn weak, didn’t hesitate. She immediately invited him in. His tongue, wet and wild, slid across hers and Bay whimpered, loving his heat and his intensity. He wanted her, of that she had no doubt. She felt his desire in the way his gentle fingers traced the line of her jaw, roamed over her lower back before he was digging his fingertips into her butt and groaning into her mouth.
She could stand here in the morning sun and kiss him endlessly, drinking in his power and earthiness, spice and strength. He wassucha man, strong and hard and rough and sexy. Everything she’d never known she needed in a lover.
He wouldn’t treat her like a fragile flower; he’d demand that she give him everything she could, and then he’d teach her to give up more. Bay had no doubt he could persuade her to give him everything...
But that wasn’t possible. She needed to keep their relationship professional and Digby at a distance. Right now, they couldn’t slide a piece of paper between them.
Bay wrenched her mouth off his and slapped her hands against his chest, pushing against his strength. Digby resisted, just for a second or two, and then he stepped back, lifting his hands off her to scrub his face.
“Dammit.”
Bay didn’t know whether he was upset with her or himself, but it didn’t matter, this couldn’t happen again. She had to resist him; she was playing with fire. If the circumstances were different, there was a chance she’d say to hell with it and sleep with the gorgeous man. It would be highly unusual, but there was a first time for everything.
But, if anyone linked them together, Liv’s custody battle could be affected by her actions and that was intolerable. She would not risk her future, or her heart, for a quick, or slow, orgasm.
She was bigger and better than that.
She hoped.
CHAPTER FIVE
BAYHADBARELYmanaged to pull Olivia’s pajama shorts up her chubby legs before the little girl took off down the short hallway, running as fast as she could to get back to Digby.
Her little girl had a crush, Bay thought. Her new mama did too.