Page 12 of Temptation at His Door

Joa lifted her hand to fiddle with the clip holding back the sides of her hair. Her extraordinary eyes met his and electricity arced between them.

No! He needed to kill that current. Immediately.

He knew just the way to do that. By being concise and controlled. Businesslike.

So get to the point of this meeting, Murphy. You need a nanny, she is one. Convince her to take the job and work out how to hide your attraction later.

“I need a nanny, desperately. I’m asking you to consider working part-time for me, mostly in the afternoons, until I can find someone else. And, if you do come to work for me, I assure you that nothing will happen between us, Joa.”

“Why would you think it would?” Joa demanded. Her back straightened, her mouth tightened and she tapped an index finger on the granite, completely irritated. Good, irritation he could handle...

Ronan needed to push, to make sure there was no wiggle room on this. Nothing could, or would, happen between them. No matter how attracted he was to her, or she was to him. He was still emotionally tangled up with Thandi.

“Look, I know you’ve been checking me out, that you’re attracted to me.”

He thought he heard a snort, something that held more disparagement than amusement. But he couldn’t miss the panic in her eyes. “I’m almost thirty years old, and a healthy female who hasn’t had sex in a while, and you’re a good-looking guy.”

But?

“But the world is full of good-looking guys, Murphy, and I can take or leave them.”

Now that sounded like a challenge. And Ronan had never backed down from a challenge in his life.

Or was he using her challenge as an excuse?

Either way, knowing he was making a mistake, but unable to stop himself, Ronan moved swiftly to stand next to her, so close he could see the tiny sparks of lightning in her eyes, each individual eyelash and the tiny scar on her top lip. She smelled like moonbeams and mystery and Ronan knew he wouldn’t be walking away without tasting her, just once.

Lifting his hand, he brushed his thumb across her bottom lip, waiting for her to pull back. If she did, he would step away.

But Joa surprised him by placing her hand on the bare skin over his heart and when she arched her back and lifted her mouth to reach his, he took her move as the invitation it absolutely was.

Ronan’s lips touched hers and his skin sizzled in response. He felt her fingers dig into his chest, the rasp of her nails as he lost himself in the softness of her mouth. Joa sighed and her lips opened and he slid his tongue inside, groaning as he did so. She tasted of coffee and strawberry lip balm, of frustration and fierce desire. It was a combination designed to make his head swim, to cloud his thinking. He couldn’t, wouldn’t, allow himself to touch her with anything but his mouth. He couldn’t take the chance of losing all his control.

In a moment he’d stop kissing her, in just one more moment...

Keeping his hands fisted at his sides, Ronan kissed her for another minute, and then another, fighting his urge to pull her closer, to find out how well her lithe body would fit to his. He was so big and she was so slim but he knew they would be combustible together and that was why they had to stop...

Now. Immediately.

It still took him another minute to release her mouth, to step back. When he did, he turned away to grab the edge of the island, needing something to hang on to.

What in the hell just happened?

Ronan heard Joa’s small curse, felt her sliding off the stool to move away from him. He heard her footsteps and turned his head to watch her move to the sink, before reaching for a clean glass on the shelf above her head. The tap ran and she filled her glass, the space between them vibrating with tension. Joa took a long drink of water before turning her back to the sink, resting her glass in the crook of her arm.

Ronan saw Joa’s eyes skate down his body and when hers widened he looked down to see his erection tenting his exercise shorts. Well, crap.

Joa closed her eyes and shook her head. “We shouldn’t have done that.”

“Yeah, not our best move.”

He thought he saw disappointment in her eyes, a flicker of hurt. But he had to be wrong; they were barely more than strangers and hardly knew each other.

This was just desire. There was no emotional connection to be had, not with her or anyone else. They’d kissed. Why was he making a mountain out of a couple of grains of sand?

Could it be because he’d never had such a crazy reaction to anybody, ever? Not even to...

No, he couldn’t go there.

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