Barbara Hannay - In the Boss's Arms

Ah, yes. Flattery and sensuous, lazy lips were a heart-stopping combination. So different from Todd.

No, she wasn’t going to think about Todd. Just Liam. Just this—his mesmerising lips exploring her skin, making her body warm and wanton. She knew now that she’d been starving for intimate contact.

A hot, honeyed languor seemed to fill her. In a dazzle of warmth, she pressed her thighs and hips against Liam’s and arched her neck, silently begging him for more kisses.

Liam obliged. While his hands wedged her body hard against his, his mouth traced a sensuous path down her neck, into the little valley at her collar-bone and then up again. He kissed her ear lobe.

‘Best ears in the southern hemisphere,’ he said and he teased her ear with the tip of his tongue, and she was overtaken by a desperate need to nibble-kiss the rough skin all the way along his jaw.

His response was a sexy choked groan and the next moment he scooped her up in his arms. ‘Which way?’ he murmured as her feet left the floor.

Without a beat of hesitation she pointed down the hallway to her bedroom.

IT FELT a little crazy to wake next morning with Liam Conway in her bed. Crazy and wonderful. And just a bit sad. This was going to be the hard part—the morning after the night before.

She and Liam could hardly pretend to be strangers after a night of amazing, heaven-on-earth passion, but just the same, the deeper getting-to-know-you stuff that they’d skipped wasn’t going to happen now. Soon Liam would be leaving, walking out of her life, and Alice would have to put on a brave face and remember that she didn’t mind; it was what she wanted.

Besides, now that she knew she was infertile, casual dating was probably all men would want from her.

With her head propped on her hand, she lay on her side and watched Liam wake, his eyes blinking, showing her snippets of blue like glimpses of morning sky.

He saw that she was watching him, and he smiled at her. ‘Good morning.’

‘Morning.’

His eyes were drinking her in now and he reached to touch her hair as it tumbled about her shoulders. Did she look a mess? Or like a woman who’d enjoyed a night of blissful ravishment? There was something about broad daylight that was so, well, revealing.

Liam, of course, looked better than ever. The darkening shadow on his jaw gave him a trendy, designerstubble sexiness, and his bulky shoulders were bronzed, almost glowing, an effect no doubt enhanced by the sunshine filtering through the filmy bedroom curtains.

Not that she should be lying here ogling him. Her job this morning was to facilitate his farewell—a friendly but matter-of-fact exit.

‘It’s going to be a nice day,’ she said and immediately winced. Not a clever start. She sounded like a tour guide setting off with a group of holidaymakers for the Great Barrier Reef. But what was she supposed to say? Thanks for the most amazing, beautiful, emotionally moving, best sex of my life?

It was the absolute truth. But would Liam believe her? She’d travelled to the stars last night, but for all she knew their lovemaking might have been every-day-average for him.

He stretched and, with his hands stacked beneath his head, he glanced where she’d been looking, at the window and the branches of palm trees against the patch of blue sky. ‘Another day in paradise, as the tourist brochures say.’ He switched his gaze back to her and smiled lazily. ‘And you and I are another day older.’

Indeed. Their birthdays were a thing of the past. Here today, gone tomorrow.

Alice sat up, holding the sheet around her. ‘I’m glad you stayed the night,’ she said shyly. ‘I would have felt a bit cheap if you’d left as soon as we’d finished—um—celebrating.’

Liam frowned. ‘It would be a crime to make you feel cheap. You’re a very special woman, Alice.’ The creases in his brow melted as his frown morphed into a smile. ‘And as I remember it, we spent most of the night celebrating.’

Alice felt herself blush. Then the rest of her began to warm up as Liam continued to look at her. And look.

Oh, heavens. The daylight made no difference. She was as susceptible to him now as she had been in the night.

She wished she was savvier about how these things worked. Where did a one-night stand end and the beginning of a relationship start?

She wasn’t looking for a relationship, couldn’t bear to leave herself vulnerable, only to be hurt again.

‘I—I’ll make some coffee,’ she said, edging away. ‘Or perhaps you’d prefer tea?’

If Liam was surprised by her withdrawal he made a quick recovery. ‘Coffee would be fantastic.’

She drew a deep breath of relief. She’d half expected him to drag her into his arms and she knew she would have been too weak to resist. But fortunately, he accepted her decision with good grace. When she wriggled towards the edge of the bed, he didn’t try to stop her.

She headed for the bathroom and, once she’d finished there, she wrapped herself inside a white towelling bath robe and went through to the kitchen to start the coffee. It wasn’t long before Liam joined her, showered, but still unshaven, and dressed in the clothes he’d worn last night.

The sight of him strolling into her kitchen was enough to make her heart do a somersault. Darn. Here she was, safely surrounded by pots and pans, and Liam Conway had the same disturbing effect on her as he did on the dance floor or in her bedroom.

‘That coffee smells sensational,’ he said.

She held up a packet she’d taken from the freezer. ‘Would you like croissants?’

‘Is that what you’re having?’

She nodded. ‘It’s my Saturday-morning treat. Croissants and coffee and the weekend papers out on the deck.’ She fingered the lapels of her bathrobe. ‘I wasn’t going to bother with the papers this morning, but if you want them it’s not far to the shop. You can grab them while I warm these croissants.’

He thought about this for a moment and then shook his head. ‘I can do without news from the outside world today. I don’t officially start work here till Monday. There’s time enough then to come to grips with what’s going on.’

‘So you’ve actually moved to Cairns to start a new job?’ She tried not to sound particularly interested and she ducked her face as she slipped the croissants into the oven.

‘I’ve bought a new business that has a branch here,’ he said in an offhand way that suggested he didn’t want to go into details. ‘This is a great place by the way.’

‘Thank you.’

‘I take it that green is your favourite colour?’

He was looking at her collection of green crockery and glassware which she kept on display on open shelving.

‘I guess it must be.’ She smiled, pleased that he’d noticed them. ‘Virgos are supposed to like white best.’

‘Are we?’

‘According to the experts. But I’ve been collecting green bits and pieces since I was about twelve. It started with a plate shaped like a water-lily pad and went on from there.’ She shrugged. ‘It’s become a minor obsession.’

Todd had hated her green collection. ‘We’re not Irish,’ he’d yelled at her and in one of his bad moods he’d smashed her favourite piece. For the past five years she’d kept the collection locked away. Now it was free again.

Liam picked up a green and white bowl fashioned like a field of clover with delicately scalloped edges, and he turned it over and examined the maker’s name on the base. ‘This is great. It has personality and it sure beats the plain white minimalist stuff you get in restaurants.’ He set it back carefully.

As she selected napkins from an overhead cupboard, she framed a question in her head about his new business, but she hesitated to ask because he could have already told her if he’d wanted to. But then she decided to dive in anyway.