Marrying The Boss (16 page)

"
Kate...?" Spencer lifted his mouth,
whispering short kisses across her cheekbone before he pulled back
to look down at her. "You want this..."

Kate shivered, drowning in his intent
gaze. It was full of stark questions. Bold rich promises she knew
he couldn't keep. But his burning look of want made her toes curl,
along with other things within her that began to heat and unfurl,
relaxing her closer against the hard wide plane of his chest where
his heart beat like a drum against her ribs. Her fingers spread
out, testing the strength of the muscles flexing beneath her
questing touch, allowing her feel the power of his response and
know she didn't need to be afraid.

It would be so easy to go on accepting,
wanting and needing more from this man, more than he was offering.
Could she––?

"
No. No!" Kate swallowed, shaking her head. "I
don't..."

"
Liar..." His lips traced over the
trembling corners of her mouth. "Ah, Kate, why do you tempt me
so...?"

She must have given another little moan of
protest then, because the next moment she was drawn deep within his
arms. Spencer enclosed her within his embrace, gathering her in
hard against him from hip to chest.

His lips tempted and plundered, waking
every one of Kate's nerve endings to screaming point. He enticed
her response with his tongue, teasing at her sealed lips until she
couldn't take any more.

"
Spencer..." She opened her mouth, allowing
him access to the soft, inner recesses even as her hands rose to
cup and caress the shape of his face and throat.

His fingers splayed out along the line of
her spine, curling and bunching into the soft fabric of her shirt,
dragging the hem above the waistband of her trousers, pushing
beneath to caress the silky warmth of her bare skin. His fingers
traced the line of her hips before rising to encircle her waist,
his probing thumbs brushing over the undersides of her breasts,
flicking lightly across their straining points.

Kate moaned deep in her throat as she felt
her whole world shift. Her desperate hands latched onto his
solidness. At the broad sweep of his shoulders. The strong corded
column of his throat, where his warm flesh pulsed with life, as she
reached to cup the firm shape of his jaw within her trembling
palms, threading her fingers upwards into his hair.

Conflicting emotions swept through her,
painting sensual images behind her closed eyelids. Images that
threatened to take her legs from beneath her. She burrowed closer,
her hips grazing blindly across his in sensuous invitation. Another
tiny sound of burgeoning need escaped her control.

Time spun away. Spencer's slow withdrawal,
his deep groan of regret, even after he lifted his mouth from hers
took Kate by surprise.

"
Kate...no." He dragged in a deep lungful
of air, playing his mouth along the angle of her jaw-line. "We
can't. We have to stop this. Right here, right now."

His hands moved around over the bare skin
beneath her ribcage. He tugged the hem of her shirt back into
place, fastening the buttons before settling his grip firmly on her
waist outside her clothing.

Kate understood his determined withdrawal.
It was necessary. None of this was right. There could be nothing
between them. Nothing tangible, nothing she could hold onto.

"
I know." Her unfulfilled senses screamed
in protest. "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking straight."

She was in way over hear head and sinking
fast. She closed her eyes, dragging in a ragged breath of self
derision. Was this yet another painful lesson she would be forced
to learn?

She was acting like a prize fool. It was
all so obvious. Despite the rich, heady temptation of his kiss and
tortured words of need, this man didn't really want her either. Not
in the way she was beginning to need and want him.

So badly it was like a physical ache in her
heart.

Kate tried to regain her
scattered sense of equilibrium. She knew she should have stopped
him before he kissed her. She knew how to be sensible,
right
?

Spencer pulled back to stare down at her.
"Dr. Martin..." He inhaled again, his hands going to her shoulders,
his thumbs tracing the long, slender line of her collarbone. He
released a derisive sigh. "Are you all right?"

Kate jerked back from his touch, staring
up at him in confusion. "I...do you mind telling me what that was
for?"

Spencer closed his eyes on a soft growl.
"Would you believe me if I said I never meant to kiss you? It just
happened."

"
Ah, I see." Kate tensed, jerking her body
away from the close contact of his. "And did you get an answer to
your question?" she managed to ask.

"
My question? Oh, that. I'm afraid you
taste of all the things I can't afford to allow into my life." He
shook his head slowly. "Things I've sworn never to want or need
again."

Kate stared up into his shadowed face.
"Thank you. At least that was very honest. It seems we both just
made a huge mistake."

His frown deepened. "Kate, for God's sake,
what are we doing? This is absolutely insane."

"
Yes, well, I think we both agree on that
point," Kate said stiffly. She moved away, wrapping her arms
protectively across her body.

Spencer watched her, trying to assess what
she was thinking. He couldn't think of anything to say. Nothing
that could excuse what just happened between them. The obvious pain
he'd caused Kate to suffer. But thoughts of her unguarded response
kept humming through his system, setting off a whole series of
aftershocks. He wanted to pull her back into his arms.

No
. Not again. It simply couldn't happen. He
shouldn't have started something he had no intention of finishing.
He frowned at her determined face. "I guess you're right. I never
meant that to happen. It won't again."

Kate looked up at him in shock. Was his
admission supposed to somehow make her feel better? "I should go."
She bit her lips together.

Spencer's
unexpected kiss was sending all
the sensual signals she'd been trying to ignore. Her body throbbed
with the confusion of her unguarded wanting more and his determined
rejection. She could have nothing to do with this man. She knew
that the kiss was proof that he was as attracted to her as she was
to him, but he had no intention of getting any more deeply
involved. It had been a simple experiment on his part coupled with
the chemistry of mutual loneliness.

Spencer spread his hands and stepped back.
"I can't say I'm sorry I kissed you. But I have Jamie to consider.
I can't allow him to be hurt again. After what his mother has done
to him, I cannot afford to get involved." His lips thinned as his
gaze dropped involuntarily to her mouth. "However tempting the idea
is right now."

"
I understand what you're trying to say."
Kate nodded jerkily. "I feel the same way. Neither of us should
become involved again. It's a very bad idea. There's no
excuse."

Why then did she feel like breaking down and
bursting into tears?

"
I take it your involvement with Eric didn't work
out."

"
Eric...?" Kate blinked. "I, no, it didn't.
Unfortunately he was already married." The sudden silence between
them bristled with lethal tension. The chill of it crackled across
Kate's skin, leaving a rash of gooseflesh in its wake.
What had she
said
to make
him glare at her like that
?

"
He was married?" Spencer took a step back,
his facial expression suddenly chill and inflexible. "I see it all
now. Of course, that explains everything. I'm being taken for a
fool."

Explains
everything
?
Kate blinked. What had she said? He looked as if he was very
disappointed in her. As if she'd committed an unforgivable
transgression. Eric thought that too. He'd paid an investigator a
lot of money to follow her in the days after they broke up;
convinced she was seeing someone else.

She fetched a long breath and
tried to make Spencer understand.
"Eric went back to his wife. He didn't
want me. I became surplus to requirements. When I wouldn't do
exactly as he demanded."

"
You don't have to explain yourself to me."
Spencer shook his head. "I get the idea. Kate, look I
want—"

"
No!" Kate's feeling of hurt deepened
painfully. Whatever he wanted she didn't wish to hear it. "It's
very late."

It was well past time for her to leave.
Her head was spinning. After the potency of the wine she had
consumed, she could make no sense of anything this evening. "I need
to go now."

"
Yes, you should be going." Spencer
appeared grateful for her acceptance of the situation.

Was he expecting her to make
some kind of scene
? Kate grimaced as he moved behind her, opening the front
door and letting her out into the cool night air. The sensation was
like a slap in the face.

She turned back to explain, tell him more
about Eric's betrayal. She had to say something, but this time
Spencer didn't appear interested in listening. He remained in the
opening, holding the door ajar with a look that dismissed anything
she could say to him.

"
Good night, Kate." His dismissal was
bleak.

"
Good night." Kate gave up the struggle to
reach him and quickened her steps across the veranda.

This time there was no exchanging of strange
new words in the moonlight, no easy farewells. She felt an odd kind
of relief flow through her as she left the house and hurried away
through the trees. At least now she knew where she stood.

But as she walked along, she couldn't help
lifting her fingers to her mouth. She traced the trembling shape of
her lips; touched the potent memory of his moving against her with
surety and purpose.

Her fingers curled against the tender flesh
of her mouth. He had kissed her.

Without invitation.

As if he had every right.

And she'd actually kissed him back.
Without a single, rational thought for the consequences. She'd
completely ignored every painful lesson Eric's defection had taught
her.

The cool air brought her to her senses.
Speaking of Eric didn't lessen the pain of his defection. Some
things were better left unsaid. Finally her dazed mind fastened on
one stark question. Just exactly how and where had she lost her
sanity and every hard won scrap of common sense?

Spencer sighed as he stared after Kate until
she was swallowed by the night. He closed the door slowly, leaning
forward, resting his forehead against the cool wood.

He'd
kissed her. Gotten close enough to
mould her slender body with his hands; caressed the soft fullness
of her breasts. And her response had been mind-blowing. Nothing
like he'd been anticipating for days. He had been sure she would
push him away, duck his advance and run for her life.

He turned to throw his head back against
the door. She was still there, on his lips and his tongue, part of
every pounding ache within his body. But then Kate had admitted she
had been involved with a married man. Some one else's
husband.

That was unforgivable.

She knew the man was married and yet she'd
persisted with the relationship. He felt deeply angry and
disappointed he could be so easily deceived once more by a pretty
face and a perceived sweetness that didn't exist.

Frustration gripped his vitals. Had
Katerina's defection taught him nothing? He closed his eyes on a
soft groan. He'd felt Kate begin to come apart in his arms. He
wanted to go on, take her to bed and discover all her fragrant
secrets, but he had Jamie to think of and he knew he must end it
before things went beyond his ability to call them back. It was the
end of a strange brand of emotional madness that had been building
ever since he'd first seen her in the garden.

"
Dammit, enough
!" He cut through the jumbled chaos
of his thoughts with a sweep of his hand. He pushed the feelings
down, shoving himself away from the door. He was better off alone
and Kate had her own issues.

He'd
seen them in the clear depths of her
eyes, shadows that haunted her. Memories she didn't want to recall.
Pain she couldn't deal with. He could understand her need for
distance. They'd both made serious mistakes in the past, you think
they could learn.

Why then did he feel he'd just let the
best thing to even happen to him, and Jamie, walk away? Without any
protest.

"
Because it's necessary," he snapped at his
distracting inner self. "If she could break up one relationship,
she can break another just as easily. I can't take that kind of
risk."

But his pulse still hammered, his body
remained tight and painful with need. He would take a long cold
shower, doubting he would be able to sleep. It was going to be a
difficult and lonely night.