MacAllister's Baby by Julie Cohen Page B

yet?’ he said.
    ‘No.’ She couldn’t resist nipping at his bottom lip.
    His smile. ‘We should probably get out of here before the kids finish their tour.’
    Oh. She’d forgotten about Danny and Jennifer.
    With an even greater sense of shock, she realised that this had probably been the longest she hadn’t thought about the kids she taught in months.
    Elisabeth put both her feet on the floor, but she kept her hands on his waist. He kissed her on the cheek this time, and on her forehead. Each kiss cooled quickly in the chilled air.
    ‘We’ve only got dessert to get through. And that won’t take long. When is your friend picking them up?’
    She had to stop touching him with one hand, but she checked her watch anyway. Quarter past eight. ‘In fifteen minutes.’
    ‘Brilliant. You’ll come back to my house with me.’
    It was a statement, not a question. Punctuated with more kisses. And it was an arrogant thing to say, something a celebrity would say, someone who expected to get women with a crook of his finger.
    Except when she didn’t reply he stopped pressing his lips to her temple and looked her in the face. His forehead was creased and his grey eyes seemed almost pained.
    ‘You will, won’t you, Elisabeth? You do trust me a little, don’t you?’
    His raspy voice held something she hadn’t quite heard there before. Something she was sure she’d heard in her own voice before, once upon a time. An earnestness she’d felt, and couldn’t believe that he could feel.
    ‘For a night?’ she said lightly. ‘That’s not a whole lot of trust.’
    He caught her hands in his again. ‘Stay for a night. Stay for a week. I want to get to know you, in every way I can.’
    His words promised pleasure. She thought about the biblical sense of the word ‘know’. ‘I’d like to know you too,’ she said.
    He exhaled in a long rush, and kissed her lips. ‘Okay. You go ahead out and I’ll join you at the table. I think I’d better stay in here for a minute or two to calm down.’
    Now that she wasn’t pressed against him, she could see that the line of his erection was clearly visible in his trousers.
    Another wave of desire swept through her. She swallowed, hesitating, hating to leave him even for a moment.
    He stroked down her back, once more. ‘Go. And, Elisabeth…?’
    ‘Mmm?’ She wiped a trace of lipstick from his bottom lip with her thumb, and wanted to put it back there all over again.
    ‘Try to trust me. For tonight, at least.’
    He looked as serious and as earnest as he had during that first lesson, when he’d shown them his hands and his scars. She remembered him throwing Danny his car keys.
    She nodded and pushed open the refrigerator door.
     
    As soon as she was gone, Angus let out the breath he’d been holding in a long stream of condensation, and leaned back against a shelf of lettuce.
    She’d nodded. She was going to try to trust him.
    And the reason he was leaning against lettuce, his legs barely able to hold his body up, was partly because he was more turned on than he had been in his entire life, just from kissing Elisabeth and touching, briefly, her naked skin.
    But that was only part of it. The other part was an overwhelming, heart-thumping feeling of relief.
    He’d planned the evening to be one of subtle seduction. Nothing too overt, just little touches, lingering glances, stuff that would fall below the students’ radar. And then an invitation for coffee at the end of the evening, a chance to talk with Elisabeth and spend some time with her.
    Then she’d shown up in that dress, and the ‘subtle’ plans had gone out the window.
    Elisabeth Read in a little black dress was more temptation than any rational man could take.
    As soon as he’d seen her in that dress, demure and incredibly sexy, he’d known he would never be satisfied with coffee and conversation. Like the moment when he’d touched her lips with his finger, flirtation had suddenly become need. If he hadn’t