Page 34 of The Playboy and the Widow
Until Cliff.
Knowing this made each minute they spent together all the more exciting. It made each date all the more dangerous.
Diana tore her gaze from his. “What are we going to do about it?”
“I don’t know.”
“I... don’t, either.”
Cliff drew in a hard breath and held out his arms to her. “Come here, Diana.”
Of its own volition, her hand set the tea mug aside. She stood and walked over to Cliff and offered no resistance when he pulled her down and cradled her in his lap. Her hands rested against his shoulders as his eyes gently caressed her face. It was almost as if he were asking her to object.
She couldn’t. She wouldn’t. A long, uninterrupted moment passed before Cliff lifted her hair from her shoulder and tenderly kissed the side of her neck. His lips felt cool against her skin, and she turned her head to grant him the freedom to kiss her where he willed.
At the sound of her soft gasp, his tongue made moist forays below her ear. Cliff loved the scent of her. Other women relied on expensive perfumes, and yet they couldn’t compare to the fresh sunshine smell that was Diana’s alone.
An all-too-warm, tingling sensation raced through Diana. Against her will, she closed her eyes. Her fingers gripped his shirt collar as his lips slowly grazed a trail across the underside of her chin.
“Cliff...” she moaned. “Please...”
“Please what?”
Her throat constricted, and she felt as if she were going to cry again. When she spoke, the words came out sounding like someone trying to speak while trapped underwater. “I want you to kiss... me.”
His hands covered each side of her face and directed her mouth to his. Their lips slid across each other’s with sweet familiarity. Diana was eager, so eager, but the urgency was gone, leaving in its wake a pure electric, soul-stirring sensation.
She clung to him even as the tears burned their way down her face. When he paused, as though unsure, she kissed him back, her mouth parted and pliant over his. She’d come this far and she refused to let him back away from her now.
Diana’s kiss was all the encouragement Cliff needed. His arms tightened around her, and he gently rocked her, unable to get close enough. He felt the moisture on her face and tasted the salt of her tears. The reason for their being there humbled him. She was opening up to him as she never had before, trusting him, granting him custody of her wounded heart.
Diana moaned as his hands roamed over her back, bringing her as close as it was humanly possible.
At her soft cry tenderness engulfed him like a tidal wave. He wanted Diana in that moment more than he’d ever craved anything in his life. The passion she aroused in him was almost more than he could bear. He tried to tell her what she did to him by kissing her again and again, but it wasn’t enough. Nothing seemed to satisfy the building fire within him. “Diana,” he moaned, “I’m afraid if we continue like this we’re going to end up making love in this chair.”
The words made no sense to Diana. Cliff had transported her from limbo into heaven in a matter of moments. She had no desire to leave her newly discovered paradise. Her only response was a strangled, nonsensical plea for him not to stop.
“Upstairs,” he said a minute later. “I want to make love to you in a bed.”
Somehow the words made it through the thick haze of desire that had clouded her brain. He wanted to make love to her in a bed! Upstairs. Joan and Katie—her daughters—were upstairs.
“No,” she managed.
“No?” Cliff echoed, shocked.
“The... girls.”
“So? Aren’t they asleep?”
“I... don’t know. It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me,” he argued. “I need you, Diana.”
She didn’t need to guess how much he wanted her—she was feeling the same urgency. It had been slowly building in her for three long years.
“I want you,” he reiterated forcefully. Pressing his hands over her ears, he kissed her long and hard so she’d know he wasn’t just muttering the words.
Diana drove her fingers into his hair and slanted her mouth over his in eager response. “I need you, too,” she whispered against his lips. “Right now, I could almost die I want you so much.”
