No Turning Back by Helenkay Dimon

back. It was a vicious cycle of attraction to a man who should mean nothing to her.
    “We could resolve the confusion by staying away from each other.” She put her hand against his chest to push him away. His heart hammered under her palm.
    “Not going to happen.”
    “I get a say in this.” Not that she intended to use a veto right now.
    He leaned in with his entire body. Only her hand separated them as his mouth brushed up the line separating her cheek and her ear. “Then tell me to stop.”
    It was all she could do to keep from grabbing a fistful of his shirt and dragging him in even tighter.
    “That’s what I thought,” he said right before his mouth settled over hers, full and deep.
    The kiss wasn’t subtle or short. He didn’t linger or caress. He dove in, his lips angling over hers as a groan rumbled in his chest. His hand rubbed the base of her neck and dipped into her hair. The other one slipped around her waist as his body pressed her into the wall.
    Legs tangled as their hands slid over each other. She rotated her hips until she cradled his obvious bulge between her legs. He had her short of breath and aching to tear off his clothes. Even while she struggled to step away, a voice inside her head screamed to forget everything, everyone, and take this for her.
    She could drag him into the bedroom and . . . whiteboard. Reality crashed down on her, smothering her with the shocking implications of what she was doing.
    “Wait.” Using every ounce of strength she had to break away, she turned her head to the side and drew in a deep breath, letting the air rush down and into her lungs. “Slow down.”
    His mouth traveled to her neck and trailed a line of kisses to the top of her collarbone. “Why?”
    “I don’t know if I want this.” But she did. She craved it with every cell and every fiber.
    But something in her words got through. He lifted his head. Those eyes were clouded with a need so intense that she toyed with the idea of dragging him to the couch and ignoring the disaster looming in the bedroom.
    “Okay.” His voice sounded raw and deep.
    That was almost too easy. “Okay?”
    His head dropped to her shoulder as his chest rose and fell on harsh breaths. A shuddering exhale echoed around them right before his head came up and his hands hit the wall on either side of her. “A woman says stop, you stop.”
    She trailed her hand down his chest because she loved that sentiment and the thought of not touching him in that second proved impossible. “Something you learned from—”
    He caught her hand in his. Their fingers entwined. “My mom.”
    “We should . . .” Something. Leah wasn’t sure what. No, she knew what she wanted to do but that was vastly different from what she had to do, which was turn him away.
    He pushed off from the wall as he mumbled something under his breath. Something she couldn’t make out. Walking away, he kept going until he stopped in the family room. Stood right in the middle, not moving, as if it were some sort of free-from-kissing safety zone.
    He nodded toward the door with a smile. “Let’s go have dinner at the diner.”
    Joy burst inside her. When she looked into his eyes it threatened to blossom and she had to beat it back. “You’re asking me on a date?”
    “Technically, I’m asking you again. You’re the one who insisted on calling this a work meeting, but this time I’m betting you’re willing to take the risk of being seen with me if it keeps you from crawling all over me.”
    “I didn’t crawl . . .” She stopped when he pointed to the fingernail marks on his arm. “Well, that’s embarrassing.”
    He broke into a full hottie smile. The kind that said he knew he wasn’t going to have to work that hard to close the deal. “Not to me.”
    “So, you figured out my ‘not a good idea to be seen with you’ concern?”
    “I know your dad would blow. I’m not an idiot. You might want to remember that for the future.”
    “It’s