With a low growl, David cupped the soft flesh of Skye’s br**sts while using his tongue to explore every inch of her mouth. Then he shifted, because in some dim, scarcely thinking part of his brain he knew he needed to lock the door.
“Making love won’t help anything,” he muttered, but clicked the dead bolt into place.
“I don’t expect it to change anything,” she said. “You can walk away afterward, forget about me.”
Obviously, she had no idea how much she meant to him. “You think if we have sex we’ll be able to move on as if it never happened?”
“Yes,” she said confidently.
But David suspected that was her own need talking. Regardless, he was in too deep to back out now. His hands were lifting her skirt….
Somehow, amid the breathless, frenzied groping he managed to pull back long enough to admire her, to take in what he’d been dying to see since he’d first met her in that hospital room. Sympathy and righteous anger had come before desire, but not by much. He’d wanted her from the beginning, hadn’t he? Even with his divorce barely behind him, even with a much more idealistic view of his ability to resist the temptation she posed, he’d wanted her.
Staring at the smooth curve of her left breast, his hand shook as he rubbed the tip against his palm. When she gasped and shivered at the contact, he took advantage of her parted lips to kiss her again. “Tell me you’re on birth control,” he muttered several crazed seconds later.
She froze. “No. I—I haven’t made love in years.”
The only condoms he possessed were probably still in the nightstand next to the bed he’d shared with Lynnette. But he couldn’t stand the disappointment filling her eyes—knew he wouldn’t be able to stand his own disappointment if they had to stop now. “I’ll pull out,” he said.
She didn’t verbally agree, but her hands were almost frantic in their attempt to unfasten his pants. And when she touched him, he felt every muscle in his body quiver in response.
It’ll be okay, he thought. I’ll pull out. There’s nothing to worry about. But the moment he got her panties down and felt her close around him, so warm and tight, he knew he was asking too much of himself. Although he’d never had problems taking the necessary time, he feared he was going to embarrass himself today. And, sure enough, as she locked her legs around him, he felt his control slip.
He didn’t have the staying power he normally did. Not with her. He was about to warn her, but every moment felt so indescribably wonderful he put it off another second and another—until she shuddered and whispered his name, and that was it. He couldn’t hold off another second, another fraction of a heartbeat. He finally forced himself to withdraw, but he was pretty sure he hadn’t done it soon enough.
“We might be in trouble,” he whispered as they both slumped against the wall, trying to catch their breath.
But it wasn’t until his heart rate had returned to normal that he fully appreciated what that might mean.
“That was stupid,” he muttered.
Skye didn’t comment, wouldn’t even look at him. Which told him he needed to swallow the disappointment he felt in his own irresponsible actions and shut up. She didn’t need anything else to worry about, not after everything she’d been through already. Besides, what were the chances that this encounter would result in a pregnancy? He knew it happened, but it wasn’t all that common, was it?
“You okay?” he asked as they cleaned up.
She nodded but wouldn’t really give him her full attention. Instead, she focused on retying the halter part of her dress and using the mirror to fix the strands of hair he’d knocked loose from the clips that held it up.
He reached over to straighten the sad-looking bow at her neck, but she stepped away. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about anything, okay?”
Their eyes finally met in the mirror. “What do you mean by that?” he asked.
She offered him a tremulous smile. “Just what I said. It was…nothing. A moment of weakness, that’s all. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”
“Skye—”
“I have to get back to the fund-raiser.” She took a last peek in the mirror, rubbed away some smeared lipstick and hurried out.
David wasn’t sure how to interpret her reaction. She probably didn’t know what to make of what had just occurred any more than he did. A torrid affair wasn’t characteristic of either one of them.
He considered going after her. He knew they should talk. But he needed a few minutes to come to grips with what he was feeling—the resulting euphoria, his desire for more of the same and the cold, clawing fear that once might prove damaging enough.
He thought of his son. He’d left Jeremy at home with a babysitter so he could corner Skye in a hotel bathroom. Way to do exactly what you’d been trying to avoid, you idiot.
And he’d told himself he’d be safe. That there’d be people here.
Still, he couldn’t bring himself to completely regret the encounter. He hadn’t experienced anything so emotionally intense since…he couldn’t remember another time. He’d always been able to think straight, to act cautiously, no matter what he was doing.
Stepping up to the sink, he splashed some cold water on his face and was drying his hands when he heard a knock at the door.
“Dave? You in there?”
Tiny. Now he decided to appear….
David opened the door and sent his friend an irritated look. “It’s a little late for the cavalry, don’t you think?”
“I told you not to count on me. Besides, how was I supposed to know where you’d gone?”
“There aren’t a lot of options around here.”
Tiny grinned knowingly. “I figured my timing might be a little off when I saw Skye come into the ballroom looking so…”
“So what?”
“Rumpled.” From Tiny’s mischievous grin, David knew he’d just resisted the impulse to state her flustered appearance in a cruder fashion.
“Do I look as ‘rumpled’?” David asked, trying to brush the wrinkles from his clothes.
Tiny clapped him on the shoulder and started leading him back to the ballroom. “No, you just look satisfied,” he said with a laugh. But Tiny was wrong. David wasn’t satisfied. That encounter in the bathroom had only increased his appetite.
“You’re quiet tonight,” Charlie said to Skye as they danced to the band’s rendition of Celine Dion’s “All By Myself.”