Two Against the Odds. Joan Kilby

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СКАЧАТЬ read stuff into things that guys don’t mean.”

      “No, but—”

      “Did he tell you to leave?”

      “I told you, I left him. I share the blame, I do.” She waved a veined hand weighted with silver rings. “But I’m ready to try again. Only he has a whole new life and there doesn’t seem to be any place in it for me.” Her large gray eyes swam with tears. “He doesn’t care if I’m here or not. He won’t talk to me, barely looks at me. Forty years of marriage and it’s over. I’m pretty sure there’s another woman. I don’t know what to do.”

      Rafe just nodded. Why was she confiding in him? He was no marriage counselor.

      “If I was your husband,” he improvised, hoping that a solution would shut her up. “I’d want you to prove you would never go away again before I took you back.”

      Hetty blinked away moisture. “How can I do that?”

      “By going home and staying put. By not running off to your daughter’s house. It takes time to win back trust.”

      Hetty stared. “For a young man you’re very wise.”

      She started sorting again. After ten minutes she put down the receipts. “He’s got to meet me halfway. Talk to me, for a start. Listen to how I feel.”

      Rafe grunted. His calculator clicked steadily.

      Hetty’s voice flowed on.

      THE HOUSE WAS QUIET when Lexie entered an hour later. Odd. Her mother liked to chat. She’d thought Hetty would be talking Rafe’s ear off. Peering into the living room, she could see that Rafe was alone, his back to her, bent over the table. His computer sat idle.

      She dropped her purse on the hall table and kicked off her shoes. “I’m back. Where’s Mum?”

      He straightened and glanced over his shoulder, brushing a thick strand of black hair out of his eyes. “No idea. She said something but I wasn’t listening. I think she left.”

      He was working on the skeleton clock. His shirt-sleeves were rolled up over forearms smattered with dark hair. His hands were well shaped, his long fingers delicately manipulating the inner workings with a tiny screwdriver and tweezers.

      She sank into the chair next to him.

      “I replaced a spring, tightened a few things.” He sat back. From the compartment at the bottom of the base he took the small key and inserted it into the keyhole. He turned it a few times and listened.

      The clock started to tick.

      Rafe grunted with satisfaction and glanced sideways at her.

      Lexie’s eyes blurred. The clock wasn’t going to help her finish her portrait or do her taxes but it felt like the first thing that had gone right in days. Maybe weeks. “You did it.”

      As if he’d fixed her life.

      Without stopping to think she leaned over, put her hands on his shoulders and kissed him.

      CHAPTER FOUR

      KISSING HIM was like touching her lips to a live electrical wire. A current flowed through her, lifting her off her chair and onto her feet. Rafe surged upward, too, his hands framing her face as he pressed his mouth to hers in a long breathless kiss. She slid her arms around his neck. He gathered her close, pressing hot kisses to her cheeks, her nose, her neck. Then his mouth found hers again and his tongue plunged inside, flooding her with heat and sensation…

      Her hands slid down his shirtfront, pushing against his chest. “Stop,” she gasped.

      Instantly, he released her, breathing hard, eyes wild. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

      Aghast, Lexie fled down the hall to her bedroom. She slammed the door shut and paced between the end of the bed and the closet. Rafe was a government tax accountant here to audit her, not to…to…

      She breathed in deeply and slowly, taking the air all the way to her stomach. Then she let it out through her mouth. Normally that would calm her. Not quite.

      Another breath. She would go back out there, act normally and not do anything dumb. Shoulders back and down, she opened the door.

      Rafe was standing on the other side, fist raised to knock. Face-to-face. She stared. That mouth.

      “I’m so sorry,” she said, the words tumbling out. “I don’t know what came over me. That was inappropriate. Please forget it ever happened. I’ll go out to my studio. Stay out of your way. I go a little crazy when I’m not working. Please don’t think anything of it.”

      She paused for breath.

      “What just happened out there?” He looked shell-shocked, as if he hadn’t taken in a word she’d said.

      “That’s what I’m trying to explain,” she babbled. “I didn’t mean to kiss you. Well, obviously on one level I did. I’ve been thinking of it all day. And yesterday—”

      “I’ve been thinking about nothing else.” His dazed eyes settled on her mouth. “I only know two things. I shouldn’t be doing this. And I don’t want to stop.” He kissed her again. “Tell me to stop.” His voice was low and rasping. Almost pleading.

      Holding his gaze, she took his hands and settled them on her hips. The heat of his fingers burned through her thin cotton yoga pants. He drew her closer.

      Rafe glided the tip of his tongue into the hollow behind her ear. His mouth moved over her neck, his breath warm against her skin.

      “I don’t want you to stop.” Easing back, she met his hot dark eyes and melted. “I want to go to bed with you.”

      He went still. Lexie felt every hair on her body stand on end. She held her breath.

      “I should not be doing this,” he said again, stripping his shirt off. Underneath he wore a white T-shirt that accentuated his tanned shoulders and strapping chest.

      If he was prey to her cougar, he was willing prey.

      Her nerves jumping, she stepped back, pulling him toward her by his belt. Kissing him as he stumbled forward. Her breath got stuck somewhere between her throat and her chest as she worked his buckle.

      And then he was shucking off his gray trousers and tossing them, along with his shirt. Lexie drank in the sight of him. Her last lover had been in his for ties with the beginnings of a paunch and a softening jawline. Although a hard body wasn’t everything, Rafe’s smooth skin, sculpted muscles and erection were just…wow.

      She practically tore her clothes off, trembling with need, almost unable to stand. She pushed down his black boxers as he fumbled her bra off. He cupped her breasts in his hands, sucking hard on one nipple, as he slid her panties over her hips. They were both naked, pressing against each other, so hot she could swear she heard her skin sizzle against his.

      “Oh, hell,” he groaned into her ear. His hands tightened. “I don’t have any condoms. Do you?”

      “No. СКАЧАТЬ