Satin Pleasures by Karen Docter Page B

he had to be in pain, Tess didn't know. "We need to put ice on this burn." She lightly touched the damp bulge.
    Dan closed his eyes briefly, groaned, and she quickly snatched her hand away, sure she'd completely emasculated the poor man. "If you’d only let me hel —"
    He held her off. "That would be adding insult to injury, don't you think?"
    When she saw his eyes twinkled with humor, not pain, that his smile was genuine, she felt her face flush. The coffee must have cooled before she dumped it all over him in her eagerness to climb under his skin. "I should have gone with my first impulse and punched you in the nose."
    His crooked grin unraveled her resolve. "I liked your second impulse better."
    She did, too. If Dan hadn't broken off the kiss, she'd be tearing off his clothes and making love to him on her kitchen floor right this minute and, from all appearances, Dan wouldn't have objected. Her attention now drawn to other, thankfully undamaged, parts of his anatomy, she couldn't tear her eyes away. As she watched, Dan seemed to grow fuller, larger.
    "Tess?"
    Stifling a low moan of frustration at the way his husky tone wrapped around her name, she turned away. Her fingers fumbling, she busied herself picking up the packages of frozen food and shoving them back in the freezer. Oh, to cool the fire that raged through her traitorous body as easily!
    She rearranged the same small stack three different ways before Dan spoke up behind her. "Are you setting up shop in there?"
    The underlying amusement in his question stiffened her spine. She closed the freezer door, pivoted, and promptly lost steam. "I...."
    No matter what she may have heard in his voice, Dan's face told another story. " Shhh . I know. We need to discuss what's happening between us." His gaze raked her body to her bare toes and back again. "But, maybe you'd better dress first while I finish breakfast."
    The suggestion was sound. The kiss had pried open their relationship, exposed feelings she could no longer deny. Removing Anthony as a protection had changed the rules, set her emotions free in some strange way, and she wasn't prepared to relinquish the control she'd wrestled from her life. That didn’t mean, looking at Dan’s erection pressed against his coffee-soaked jeans, she wasn’t tempted! "You should probably chang —"
    Dan yanked her to him and fumbled with the silk tie at her waist. "Please, Tess," he growled. "Get out of here, now, unless you want me to change the breakfast menu."
    She read the raw hunger on his face and glanced down at the irregular knot that now closed her robe over her nakedness. The temptation to ignore his warning was almost her undoing but with one last look into his blazing green eyes, she summoned the good sense to bolt for the dubious safety of her bedroom.
    ***
    Tess broke the tense silence that carried them through breakfast and a short walk to the rocky beach several blocks from her apartment. "Maybe we should forget this."
    With his own thoughts traveling along multiple lines of self-reproach, Dan knew she wasn't referring to the brisk Pacific wind tugging at their hair and clothing. Kissing Tess first thing this morning was not one of his brighter ideas. In fact, it rated right up there with thinking about her lying in his bed every night. Under him. Surrounding him in her heat, her burning intensity.
    He dragged his gaze from the horizon and the outline of a loaded freighter sailing toward the bay. "I won't apologize for kissing you, Tess." He shook his head. "Don't get me wrong. I've wanted to do it for a long time. But...."
    But, what? Did he tell her the truth? He'd given in to an urge he'd sworn to crush. He'd misplaced his vow, forgotten the differences that lay between them. Fact was he'd lost his mind completely and hadn't cared if he was swallowed alive. It would have made more sense to skinny-dip in shark-infested waters than kiss Tess Emory. At least then, his aching, tormented body would be out of its