Page 45 of Dublin Debacle

A deep chuckle followed her, making her cheeks burn with embarrassment and something else.

Desire?

Emily couldn’t deny the amount of desire rushing through her so quickly and thoroughly that she could barely breathe.

To give her hands something to do besides shake, she hurried to the pantry, snagged a bottle of wine and fished a corkscrew out of a drawer. It took her several attempts to insert the corkscrew into the cork because her hands refused to cooperate.

As she eased the cork out of the bottle, she fought for composure. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen a naked male body before. She wasn’t a virgin or a prude. But she’d never seen a body so incredibly perfect as Jack’s, from the muscular expanse of his chest, tapering to a narrow waist, firm buttocks and... Well, he was the whole package, including his package.

Emily’s heartbeat slammed against her ribs as she tipped the bottle.

She jumped when a hand covered hers.

“You want me to do that?” Jack asked, taking the wine bottle from her hand.

“Sure,” she squeaked, swallowed and tried to sound like a normal, unaffected person. “While you pour, I’ll just duck into the shower myself.”

He set the bottle on the counter and captured her hand as she turned to escape. “Hey,” he said in his deep, gentle tone that melted her insides into a goo. “If you’re afraid to be alone with me, I can sleep on the landing. It must be hard to let a relative stranger into your home.”

She stared at where her hand rested in his. He held her fingers loosely enough she could easily pull free—if she wanted to.

The thing was, she didn’t want to pull free. She wanted to touch more than just his hand. The more she thought about it, the faster her breathing became.

“Seriously, I don’t mind sleeping on the landing,” he said and started to drop her hands.

Emily didn’t know why she did it, but she curled her fingers around his and held on. “No. That’s not necessary. I’m not afraid to be alone with you.” She swallowed hard. “If I’m afraid of anything, it’s of my body’s reaction to yours.”

His voice lowered to a sexy murmur. “Interesting.” He freed one hand and brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Is it acting like mine is reacting to yours?”

Emily looked up into his eyes. “I don’t know. Perhaps if you described it...” she said, her voice barely above a whisper, her gaze captured by his.

“Like it wants to slide naked against yours.” He lifted her hands to his lips and kissed the backs of her knuckles. “Go,” he said. “Get your shower before I do something we might both regret.”

Emily wanted to tell him that she wouldn’t regret anything if it involved her touching his body and him touching hers. Still, how did she take it that one step further? She wasn’t all that good at seducing a man. In her previous, short-lived relationships, the man had always been quick to fall into bed naked.

In comparison, those men had nothing on Jack. They weren’t even in the same league.

Her cheeks still burning, Emily grabbed panties and the old flannel pajamas she always wore to bed. Nothing sexy about that shirt, though the soft, worn fabric always felt good against her skin.

Once she made it across the hallway into the bathroom, Emily turned, pulled the door toward her and locked it.

Her gaze fixed on the lock, wondering what would happen, if anything, should she leave the door open? Would he walk in like she’d walked in on him? The thought of that big, beautiful man standing there naked got Emily’s pulse racing all over again and her body overheating.

She unlocked the bathroom door and opened it just slightly, telling herself it wasn’t to tempt the man, but to listen for any intrusion through the front door.

Ha! She needed to call it what it was... She found the man deeply attractive.

Emily turned on the shower, adjusting the temperature to cool enough to tamp down her overactive sex drive. If she was going to drink a glass of wine with the man, she’d have to control her urges. A cold shower might drive down her raging libido enough she might actually hold her wine glass and her side of any conversation.

The shower’s spray took Emily’s breath away. For a moment, she held firm. Inside, she wasn’t getting any less heated. With a sigh and a shiver, she adjusted the temperature to a little cooler than comfortable and hurried through the motions of scrubbing the day’s grime from her body and hair. Once she’d rinsed soap and shampoo from her body, her skin was chilled, and she felt a little more in control.

She was dressed in flannel pajamas—sexy?not— and tackled her tangles until she had them smoothed into straight locks, falling freely down her back almost to her waist. After brushing her teeth, she glanced one last time in the mirror. Clear of makeup, she wasn’t beautiful, but not exactly ugly. And what did it matter? She wasn’t trying to seduce the man in the other room. There she went again, introducing that word seduce into her thoughts? Well, he had said that he didn’t want to do something they both might regret and that he wanted to get naked with her. Had she dressed in flannel to discourage him? Well, it was too late to change into something more revealing.

Her pulse kicked up, and her heart hammered against her ribs. Heat flooded her body, pooling low in her nether regions.

So much for a cold shower.

Emily pulled the bathroom door open, pressed her palms to her heated cheeks and stepped out, barefoot, wearing flannels, her skin sensitized to the fabric brushing across the tips of her nipples.

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