Page 26 of Undoing His Innocent Enemy (Hot Winter Escapes)

She was twenty-one years old and she’d been avoiding sex ever since the night of her Debs—which would be appalling, if it weren’t so pathetic.

Her first lover was staring at her now as if she were the most curiously puzzling thing he had ever seen. And strangely she liked it. Who said Cara Doyle couldn’t be a femme fatale?

‘What is this TMI?’ he asked.

She choked out another laugh.

Ah, well, so much for being a femme fatale.

‘It just stands for “too much information”. I have a tendency to talk a lot when I’m nervous.’

‘Why are you nervous?’ he asked, a frown puckering his forehead.

‘Because, well...’ How to answer such a direct question without making it seem as if what they had just done had meant far too much to her? Far more than it should?

It was her turn to frown.

‘Because I guess I don’t know you... And we’ve just done something I thought I’d never do, and certainly never enjoy. And I enjoyed that a lot.’

She clamped her mouth shut, but the flush fired across her collarbone regardless.

‘For me too,’ he said easily as his gaze dropped to her breasts.

She folded her arms across the yearning flesh, before he could notice her nipples hardening again, the memory of how he had played with them so enthusiastically making the endorphins ramp right back up to eleven.

‘I’m glad,’ she managed, suddenly feeling exposed. ‘Although that’s not saying much, seeing as I’m the first woman you’ve ever had sex with.’

His gaze rose back to her face, that patient, probing stare as intimidating as it was exciting. ‘And I am your first too.’

Ah, yes, you did let that slip in the heat of the moment. Strike one to Cara Doyle’s big mouth.

‘Well, yes,’ she said as her blush incinerated her cheeks.

‘We have a powerful sexual connection,’ he murmured.

She stared at him, not sure what to say, having lost the power of speech. Had she ever met a man more forthright? She didn’t think so. And why did it make her a little sad to think that was all he felt they shared?

‘It would certainly seem so,’ she said at last.

He lifted up on his elbow to lean over her, then ran his thumb down the side of her face, before hooking her unruly hair behind her ear. The casual, but surprisingly tender caress made her whole body shudder. A fierce emotion flashed into those pale blue eyes, as his gaze roamed over her face—gauging her reaction. But before she could read his expression, the emotion was banked again behind that intense stare. ‘It is a shame we cannot explore it more,’ he said, as much to himself as her.

‘Why can’t we?’ she asked, then wanted to kick herself when his eyebrows rose.

Strike two to Cara Doyle’s big mouth.

‘Because you must leave,’ he said.

But she could hear what he hadn’t said.

Because I do not want you here.

She grabbed the sheet from the end of the bed and yanked it up to cover herself as she sat up. He was still lounging beside her, completely comfortable in his nakedness. Her gaze snagged on the evidence that he still wanted her, but clearly not enough.

‘Yes, right,’ she said, then cringed at the disappointment in her voice.

Seriously, Cara, could you sound any more needy? And desperate?

‘No, it’s grand,’ she said hastily. ‘You’re right. I need to get back to Saariselkä and upload my photos. If my camera hasn’t been destroyed by the cold.’

---