Can't Help Falling In Love (The Sullivans #3)(20)

“Thanks so much for the ride,” Megan was saying when she’d gently pulled the covers up over her daughter, kissed her cheek, and closed her bedroom door.

In the living room, the lights of the small Christmas tree blinked behind her, lighting her up like an angel. She looked a little nervous. This was the first time they’d ever been alone together. Summer was down for the count. Considering that the little girl hadn’t stirred once during all the transporting from the basement to the car and then to the apartment, he knew she wasn’t getting up any time soon.

“Can I get you a cup of coffee or anything?”

Anyone with a beating heart could have figured out that the offer was made out of politeness, nothing more. He knew what to do. Stick to his M.O. and get the hell away from her. No big conversations. No letting down his guard.

But for all his strength of will, and the tight hold he usually had on his self-control, tonight Gabe couldn’t quite bring himself to go.

Not when he finally had Megan all to himself.

Okay, so he wouldn’t leave just yet. But he’d use the next few minutes as the perfect way to prove that he could control himself around her...and that she wasn’t that much of a temptation.

“Sure,” he said in an easy voice, “coffee sounds great.”

She looked momentarily surprised by his agreement. No doubt because he hadn’t exactly gone out of his way to be friendly with her. Not like Zach or Ryan had at the party.

“It will just take me a second, if you want to have a seat.”

Gabe was pulling up a stool at the kitchen counter when she grabbed a bag of beans from a small pantry along the way and shook out a couple of beans. She gave him a cute little look of consternation and he had to wonder if it was caused solely by the lack of coffee beans or if having him there in her space was the real reason.

“I have more beans,” she said. “Somewhere.” She turned and scanned the rest of her cupboards before admitting, “I still haven’t quite gotten used to our new apartment. Sometimes I think I definitely have something and then I’ll realize it was destroyed in the fire and I never got around to replacing it.”

Gabe had to practically sit on his hands to keep from moving to her and pulling her into his arms to console her. Instead, he said, “It can take a while to process what happened, Megan.”

She sighed. “I just didn’t think I’d feel so lost and rootless without my things. Because they’re just things, you know?” She shook her head and smiled at him. “Summer and I are fine and that’s what matters.”

He was struck, yet again, by how strong she always expected herself to be, and wanted to say something more to let her know that it was okay to grieve her loss, even of little things, when she snapped her fingers and said, “Wait, I know where the beans are.” She pointed at a cupboard that went up to the ceiling. “Up there.”

She was reaching for a stool that was stored between the fridge and the counter when he said, “I’ll get them for you.”

He could easily reach the bag of beans on the top shelf, but he hadn’t realized just how small the kitchen would be when two people were in it. And somehow, by the time he turned around with the coffee, Megan was pressed back against the pantry shelves.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

But she didn’t take the coffee from him and he didn’t give it to her. Instead, both of them just stared at each other.

When he saw his own desperate need reflected in her eyes, he dropped the bag of coffee behind him onto the counter and took her face in his hands. He bent his head down just as she went onto her toes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and lifted her face to his.

Their mouths met a moment later, hot and hungry, long past gentle or sweet. It was a kiss that had been on the verge of happening more than once and was now completely out of control. She tasted like sugar and champagne and something else that was entirely Megan. Her hair was so soft against his fingers and the little moans of pleasure she made into his mouth as they kissed drove him crazy.

He ran his tongue over the plump curve of her lower lip and she melted deeper into him, her curves pliable and so damn sweet as he tasted the corner where her upper and lower lip came together before plunging back into her mouth to tangle with her tongue.

Just as their kiss had gone from zero to one hundred in a millisecond, that’s how Gabe wanted to take her. Fast and hard, up against the wall, the pantry doors banging as he slammed into her to take the intense pleasure their very first kiss was already promising.

And yet, despite how much he wanted her, Gabe knew he had to put the brakes on—and fast. But just as he started to pull away, Megan’s hands abruptly moved from around his neck to splay flat across his chest so that she could push out of his arms.

The words “I shouldn’t be kissing you,” flew from her lips at the same moment he said, “I can’t do this.”

Chapter Eight

He should have pulled away from her; she should have stepped out of his arms. But neither of them moved.

Not sure who he was trying to convince more, Gabe explained, “I don’t date people I’ve pulled from burning buildings.”

Almost before he finished speaking, she gave her own explanation. “I can’t be with someone who could die at any minute.”

It was a moment of pure honesty, their first one.