Secret Admirer: Secret Kisses / Hidden Hearts / Dream Marriage

“This is way more fun than breakfast.” He lifted her hair and lowered his head. With his tongue, he explored her nape. Somehow the gesture was so sweet and sexy and loverly, she could barely breathe.

“Do you know what you do to me, darlin’? Do you know how delicious you are?”

“Do you say such things to everybody?”

“No, you’re very special.” He buried his hands in her hair, wrapping heavy coils around his fist so he could tilt her head back and pull her face closer to his.

“I don’t believe you.”

His insistent lips nibbling her flesh were sending wild tremors along the nerves of her jawline.

“Believe me.”

“What about Carol?”

“Forget Carol.”

“But you two just broke up.”

“Which is a wonderful thing when you think about it, because her leaving made space in my life for the right person.”

A swimming giddiness spun her round and round. She had to get up. She had to get out of here, but he was like a magnet, drawing her, compelling her. She’d never ever felt like this, all hot and hollow and wild.

“You’ll say anything,” she whispered.

“You’re wrong about me, darlin’.”

Feeling jealous of Carol, she wanted to snap out something cruel and clever and hurtful, but for some reason she couldn’t think of a single insult. Maybe because she desperately wanted to believe she was wrong about him. Maybe because she didn’t want him to stop kissing her neck or holding her close and making her feel all warm and sexy.

Had Carol seen him completely naked? Had he held her like this? Kissed her until she was so dizzy she was breathless? Made love to her? On this very couch?

A little moan escaped Jane’s lips.

Don’t come crying to me when he gets himself snapped up by some floozy, and you realize you’re in love with him.

Jane hated it when her mother got inside her brain and said crazy, stupid things that scared her.

When Jane stopped struggling and turned into him, his lips left her neck. Then he leaned closer, bringing his mouth tantalizingly near her own, so close she could almost taste him. Thinking he was going to kiss her, she licked her lips and closed her eyes. She felt strangely excited and he hadn’t even kissed her mouth yet.

He was solid and strong, yet she felt his powerful body shaking as he drew each ragged breath. She had the feeling that if she stuck one little toe into this burning tide, she would be swept away. Her head fell back against the couch in an attitude of utter surrender.

He went very still for a long moment. Then much to her surprise, he abruptly let her go and slid to his end of the couch.

She opened her eyes in hot confusion.

He was staring at her as if he felt as lost and disoriented as she did.

She was in the mood to be ravaged, but he looked vulnerable and unsure.

“You’d better go,” he said softly.

Not for the world was she about to admit that what she felt was the oddest pang of bittersweet loss and aching disappointment that he’d stopped. Was she nothing more than a game to him?

“You’d better git, darlin’, while the gittin’s good,” he repeated calmly.

“What?”

“I’m afraid you won’t be able to resist me if I start kissing you, darlin’. A lot of women can’t, you know.”

Her eyebrows flew together.

“You’re one love-starved woman, darlin’.” He chuckled.

She pulled away. “Are you laughing at me? Comparing me to—”

“Looks like I’ve gotta get up, get my own breakfast,” he replied, still in that infuriatingly calm tone. “And since I’m stark naked, you’d better go, unless you want to see more of me than you bargained on.”

Her eyes grew huge. Gone was the sweet vulnerable Matt of moments before. Once again he was the old mocking Matt she remembered from grade school.

“You can stay, of course. If you intend to deliver. You know me—I love an audience when I show off, and my favorite audience is an admiring woman.”

“I don’t admire you.” Somehow she managed to stand up even though her legs were trembling. “I don’t admire one thing about you.”

“Then you’d better leave, before I change your mind. I could, you know—easily.”

When he stood, too, and his sheet began to tumble toward the floor, she whirled away from him and fled out the door. But she turned at the last moment and got an eyeful of Matt Harper.

The devil was built like some dark pagan god of love.

“Oh my God…You did it.”

“Told you you’d admire me. Wanna stay?”

He laughed when she kept staring at him openmouthed.

“Well, make up your mind before it’s too late for us to call in sick.”

“I’m thrilled with the money you two raised,” Andrea said to Jane and Matt from behind her desk. Her lowkey voice, smooth and professional as she thumbed through the pages of Jane’s report on the fund-raiser. “I knew you two would work well together.”

“Jane can be difficult,” Matt said. “She’s a little uptight. Quite the perfectionist.”

“I was perfectly happy working alone,” Jane muttered through her teeth. She’d been a bundle of nerves ever since he’d lowered his sheet and she’d fled his trailer this morning. His teasing remark was too much. It was all she could do to contain herself.

“Not me, Mr. King of Schmooze. I can get along with anybody.”

Jane clenched her fists. With an effort she relaxed her hands and forced a weak smile. If she made a scene, that would only make him look better, which he would use against her.

Matt was beautifully dressed in a navy suit and pristine-white shirt this morning. Even his tie was dark and subdued.