Page 17 of The Playboy and the Widow
Bless Shirley’s black heart, Cliff mused. “She lived with me for three months.”
“You didn’t want to marry her?”
“Good grief, no. I was never so glad to get rid of anyone in my life.”
Diana frowned. The knowledge that Cliff had lived with a woman proved that he was a swinging single, as she’d suspected. That he’d want to spend time with her was only a little short of amazing. Perplexed, she wrapped her arms around her legs and briefly pressed her forehead to her knees.
“You don’t approve of a man and woman living together?” The troubled look that clouded her eyes made her opinion all the more evident.
Diana lifted her head and her eyes held his. “It isn’t for me to approve or disapprove. What other people do is their own business as long as it doesn’t affect me or my children.”
“But it’s something you’d never do?”
Her hesitation was only slight. “I couldn’t. I have Joan and Katie to consider. But as I said, it’s not up to me to judge what someone else does.”
Her answer pleased him. Diana was too intelligent to get caught in a dead-end relationship that would only end up ripping apart her heart.
Unfortunately Cliff had been forced to learn his lessons the hard way.
“You were on my mind every day, all day, all week,” he said softly, enticingly. “I thought about you getting up and taking the girls to school. Later, I remembered you telling me you wanted to plant marigolds. That’s what you did today, isn’t it?”
Diana nodded and closed her eyes. “I had a crummy week.” She didn’t want Cliff to court her. Her attraction to him was powerful enough without his telling her he hadn’t been able to get her off his mind.
“The fact is, I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” he added.
“I filled out an application for a job with the school district this morning,” she told him brightly. She was desperate for him to stop leading her on. She didn’t need for him to say the things a woman wants to hear. They weren’t necessary; she had been fascinated from the moment he’d walked into her house. “There’s a good chance they’ll be able to hire for September.”
“When I wasn’t thinking about you,” he continued, undaunted, “I was remembering our kisses and wondering how long it would be before I could kiss you again.”
Her fingers coiled into hard fists. “I’ll probably be working as a teacher’s aide,” she said, doing her utmost to ignore him.
“Don’t make me wait too long to kiss you again, Diana.”
Her hands were so tightly bunched that her fingers ached. She forced herself to ignore him, to pretend she hadn’t heard what he was saying. Closing her eyes helped to blot out his image, but when she opened them again, he had moved and was sitting beside her.
“How long are you going to make me wait?” he asked again, in a voice that would melt concrete.
His eyes rested on her mouth. Diana tried to look away, but he wouldn’t let her. Even when he raised his hand and turned her face back to him, his gaze didn’t stray from her lips. He pressed his index finger over her mouth and slid it from one corner of her lips to the other. Diana couldn’t have moved to save her life.
“You don’t need to tell me anything. I know what you’re thinking and that you weren’t able to get me off your mind, either. I know you want this.”
One of his hands cupped the side of her face, and her eyes fluttered closed. His other hand slipped around her waist as he brought her into his arms. In that moment Diana couldn’t have resisted him to save the world. He knew her, knew that he’d been on her mind all week, knew how much she regretted that things couldn’t be different for them.
Cliff lowered his head and pressed his lips over hers. The kiss was gentle and so good, that Diana felt her heart would burst. Emotionally rocked, she trembled as though trapped in the aftermath of an earthquake.
Slowly his mouth worked its way over hers, and she opened her lips to him in silent invitation, the way a flower does to the noonday sun, seeking its warmth, blossoming. Diana groaned, and her arms curled around his torso until her hands met at his spine. Before she was aware of how it had happened, Cliff placed his hands on her shoulders and pressed her backward, anchoring her to the blanket. He raised his head, and his eyes delved into hers.
Diana sank her fingers into the dark hair at his temples and smiled tentatively. It was the sweetest, most tender expression Cliff had ever seen, filled with such gentle goodness that he felt his heart throb with naked desire. He longed to press her body under his.
“Do you feel it, too?” he asked, needing to hear her say the words.
Diana nodded. “I wish I didn’t.”
“No, you don’t,” he returned with supreme confidence. A surge of undiluted power gripped him.
“I think he kissed her.”
A girlish giggle followed the announcement.
