Burned by Sarah Morgan Page A

didn’t this time. My hands moved to his shoulders and I felt the ripple of muscle under my fingers, felt the hard strength of him as he pulled back and then drove deep, My hands slid lower and closed over the hard bulge of his biceps. His eyes held mine and he lowered his forehead to mine and then kissed me, biting at my lips, nibbling and driving me crazy while all the time his body possessed mine.
    I was consumed by sensation and so was he. Excitement spiralled around us, drawing us closer, spinning a web that locked us together.
    He dominated me, drove into me with a relentless perfect rhythm until we both hit the same peak at the same time and exploded together in an overload of pleasure.
    The wildness of it shocked me and I think it shocked him a bit, too, because he rolled onto his back and folded me into his arms and held me there until both of us could breathe properly again.
    ‘Why didn’t you stay in Hollywood?’ I lay there filled with questions, wanting to uncover every secret, every hidden corner of him that I didn’t already know.
    ‘I enjoy coaching. Hollywood was a means to an end. I earned enough to be able to buy this place.’
    ‘And a cool car.’
    ‘That, too.’
    I asked him again about Thailand. He asked me about everything I’d been doing. We had a huge gap in our history and we filled it in together, learning, discovering. We were filling in the blanks. Joining the dots.
    We lay in bed, made love and talked. We talked about things we’d never talked about when we were together the first time. I didn’t even check my phone, because I was absorbed and time wasn’t relevant.
    We spent the whole weekend in bed.
    He rang for takeout food and walked downstairs to the door to collect it, but apart from that we didn’t leave his apartment.
    The hunger in him matched mine.
    I might have missed the fact it was Sunday night had a text not come through from Hayley. ‘I forgot to buy batteries but as I haven’t heard from you, I guess you don’t need them. :)’
    I was about to switch my phone off when another text came. ‘Be careful.’
    I knew she wasn’t talking about the sex. She was talking about my heart.
    And I realized I’d put myself at risk again. ‘Just sex’ didn’t mean spending an entire weekend with a guy, talking about every subject under the sun. It wasn’t getting to know him and wanting to know all the small things. But that was how I felt with Hunter. I wanted to know every corner of him. I wasn’t interested in superficial; I wanted depth.
    I just couldn’t help myself around him. I couldn’t stop myself falling.
    Hunter was watching me, sensing the change. ‘Are you all right, Ninja?’
    The endearment cracked me wide open and I realized in a rush of panic that I’d been kidding myself. This wasn’t just sex. With Hunter it never had been and it probably never could be.
    I’d thought that if our relationship was just about sex, I couldn’t be hurt but when my heart was involved? That was different. That made me vulnerable.
    I wouldn’t allow it to happen to me again.
    I had to protect myself.
    ‘I have to go.’ I shot out of bed without looking at him and rummaged for my clothes. ‘Hayley is at home.’
    ‘She’s not a kid.’ His voice was soft. ‘She doesn’t need a babysitter.’
    And I realized then that there was no point in being anything but honest, so I turned, clutching my shirt against me.
    ‘I can’t do this, Hunter. I thought I could, but I can’t.’
    He was very still. ‘Which bit can’t you do?’
    Love , I thought silently. I can’t do love. Not when it was one-sided. Not when all the feelings were mine.
    ‘This. Us. It’s going to make our working relationship awkward. People are already noticing and talking about us.’
    ‘Let them talk.’
    ‘It isn’t a good idea to sleep with the boss.’
    ‘I’m the boss and it seems like a good idea to me.’
    Whatever I said, he countered, pressing closer and closer to the truth, but