Page 54 of Fight Or Flight

She waited for his response, but it never came.

“It’s just sex, Ethan. One night,” she said with a shrug.

“It’s . . . probably not a good idea,” he said, looking pained.

Natalie’s heart plummeted, but she nodded. “You’re right. It is a bad idea. I just hoped you might like to do it anyway.”

She gave him a smile and stepped out of the car. “Thanks for the ride,” she said over her shoulder without looking at him. She went inside and closed the door behind her.

She shut her eyes and took a deep breath, her body threatening to sag. But she straightened herself up, ordering herself to get it together. In two days, she’d be on a plane, headed back to England; two weeks after that, she’d be in Australia, starting her life over again.

She told herself to look forward, but she couldn’t fight the frustration that seeped through. It had been a while since she’d found someone she was attracted to, and actually spoke English. Leaving without feeling more of Ethan’s hands and lips made her want to throw her chicken pie across the room, and if it hadn’t been so delicious, she would have. She took a step toward the kitchen to put the pie in the fridge when a loud knock came from behind her.

She stared at the door for a moment, wondering whether she could believe her ears, when the knocking began again. Harder this time. So hard, in fact, that it sounded like a fist was about to break through the hundred-and-fifty-year-old solid oak door.

She grabbed for the handle and wrenched it open to find Ethan standing on the porch. His owl-like eyes were long gone. In their place was determination.

He stepped in without a word, took her face in his hands, and kissed her.

Need exploded through her body. Mixed with relief and excitement. She gave in, let him take her mouth with his, slide his tongue against hers. He raked his fingers through her hair, making her moan with relief.

Finally.

He broke the kiss and pulled back to look at her. His eyes darted between hers, waiting for her response. She lunged toward him, taking his mouth once more, almost afraid he mightchange his mind again. Being in his arms felt comforting and natural. Like putting a blanket on when you’re cold.

She wasn’t sure she could get enough.

He leaned forward and kicked the door closed behind him, then he backed her against the wall, his hands reaching for her leftovers and placing them on the few boxes left stacked against the wall. Thankful to have her hands free, she reached for his waist, felt around his hard stomach, ran her hands under his shirt and up his long, warm back. He groaned deep in his throat, reached a hand behind his neck, and pulled off the shirt, discarding it on the floor.

She felt his chest, shoulders, back. He was solid, corded with long hard muscles under his warm skin. His dark chest hair perfectly covered his chest and ran down the centre of his abs in a narrow line that disappeared under his boxers. She couldn’t stop touching him. She leaned forward and kissed him under the hollow of his throat.

“You changed your mind?”

He smiled and kissed her once, softly on the lips. “I came to my senses.”

He reached for her and lifted her off her feet. A gasp came from her throat as she wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed across his cheek to his ear and down his neck as he walked them to the stairs and started climbing them.

When he got to her bedroom door, he loosened his grip, letting her slide down to standing. He pulled her purse over her head and dropped it on the floor, and then he pulled her with him into her bedroom until the backs of his legs hit her bed and he sat with her standing in front of him. He reached for the buttons that went down the front of her dress.

“I want to see you. Feel you,” he said.

She placed her hands on his, stilling his fingers. “Ethan?”

He looked up at her with a burning need, mixed with something deeper she couldn’t quite put her finger on. “Hmm?”

The intensity of his gaze made her burn up, but she wanted to be certain he knew what he was getting with her. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

He smiled, moving his fingers to undo the top button that sat right over her cleavage. “Are you having second thoughts?”

She shook her head. “No. I just don’t want you to regret doing this. With me. After I leave.”

He undid the rest of her buttons silently before looking up into her eyes. “I’ve been trying to convince myself that I don’t want this, that you aren’t right for me. But I can’t believe my own lies anymore. I want you. One night is better than no nights.”

He stood and grasped the straps of her dress, one in each hand, and slid them down her arms, letting the dress flutter to the floor around her feet.

She looked down at what he was seeing, a plain nude cotton bra and matching panties, the kind most women probably wore when they were sick or on their period. Not the kind of underwear one wore when one was finally going to have sex for the first time with a man they were wild about.

But it was the only underwear she owned. Seven bras, fourteen panties, all identical and thin enough to roll up into the corners of her suitcase.

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