Page 44 of Bound By Her Shocking Secret

‘Don’t go, Mia.’

Her heart was thumping so hard she felt light-headed. She watched as he came up behind her.

‘Turn around.’

She knew that if she took a step, and then another, back towards her bedroom, Daniel would let her go. But the thought ofnotturning around was impossible.

She didn’t know if it was the culmination of everything that had happened, or this magical place, or what he’d told her earlier, but she was no more capable of denying this pull any more than she was of stopping breathing.

She turned around.

Daniel was just inches away.

He took the water and the baby monitor out of her hands and put them down on a table.

At that moment Lexi gabbled something unintelligible, breaking the silence, and Mia froze.

Daniel asked, ‘Is she awake?’

Mia waited a second and then shook her head. ‘No. She talks in her sleep. It scared the life out of me the first time she did it. Now I sleep through it.’

An expression crossed Daniel’s face. Something nakedly emotional. ‘Delphine used to do that too.’

Mia’s heart clenched. ‘Daniel... I’m so—’

But he put a finger to her mouth. His eyes roved her face. His hand moved to the back of her neck, where it was hot and damp under the heavy fall of her hair.

‘I want you, Mia.’

Right here, right now.

He didn’t have to say it. She could feel it pulsing between them.

‘I...’ She hesitated for a moment. As if she had a choice. As if she could just walk away from this man and the fact that he was the one who had truly awoken her. As if she could walk away from the need that had been building ever since she’d seen him again. The need to sate the deepest craving she’d ever felt.

He was Lexi’s father.

That knowledge sent something primal through her. Possessive. Her man.

‘I want you too.’ Her voice was rough with need, and she realised that she was giving herself permission to do this. Pushing aside the consequences.

He tugged her closer, until they were almost touching, and then he brought his other hand up, caught her chin, angled her face towards him and covered her mouth with his.

Mia combusted on contact. The kiss turned deep in seconds, tongues twining. Mia relished Daniel’s taste, sucking him deep. She groaned. Or he groaned.

His hands moved down to her T-shirt, pulling it up. She lifted her arms. They broke the kiss and Daniel pulled the garment off. Mia’s breasts felt heavy under his appreciative gaze, which devoured her. He’d always made her feel so...beautiful.

He cupped one breast and rubbed a thumb back and forth over one hard nipple. Mia bit her lip.

‘Si belle...’So beautiful.

It was too much. Mia could feel emotion threatening to rise.

She said, ‘You... I want to see you too.’

Daniel looked at her before taking his hand off her and pulling his T-shirt off, behind his head and over. Now they were both bare from the waist up.

Mia sucked in a breath at the expanse of wide, muscled chest covered with dark hair. She put her hands on him, feeling the heat and the strength. Exploring the ridges of muscle and the flat discs of his nipples. Her nail caught on one and he sucked in a breath, took her hand.

---