Lucas glanced back at the man. “He worked for me. Until recently. I fired him. And by the smell of him, he’s spent the past few days in a bar.”
“Did you call the police?”
He looked back at her and sighed. “No. I called Sean. He’ll drive Warren home. I don’t want him arrested. He’s got enough problems. But if he had hurt you…”
She shook her head. “He didn’t.”
Nodding, Lucas pulled out his keys, opened the front door and said, “Will you just wait for me inside? I’ve got to stay with Warren until Sean gets here.”
She should go, Rose knew it. After all, she had only gone to his house to throw his check back in his face. But looking up at him how, she knew she wasn’t leaving. At least, not yet. “I’ll wait.”
He gave her a smile, then turned back to the yard. He walked to Warren’s side, then went down in a crouch beside the man. His words were too low for her to overhear, so Rose did as he asked and went into the house.
A half hour later, Sean had come and gone and Warren was on his way home. Lucas smiled grimly at the memory of Sean’s disgust as they loaded Warren into his car. Lucas had no doubt that Warren was getting an earful on the drive home. Sean was as easygoing as they came, but tell him that a woman had been scared or hurt or in any way bothered, and Sean went coldly ballistic.
He wouldn’t do anything to the man, but Lucas was willing to bet that after having Sean give him the shout-down of the century, Warren would accept being fired and disappear from their lives.
Walking into the house, Lucas could smell fresh coffee brewing, and he followed the scent straight back to the kitchen. He’d been avoiding that room, unable to even so much as enter it without Rose’s memory rising up and nearly choking him.
So when he pushed the door open and saw her standing in the brilliantly lit room, she took his breath away. She’d draped her coat over a chair. She was wearing dark blue jeans, a red, wide-necked sweater and her long blond hair fell over her shoulders in a cascade of silk.
His fingers itched to touch her again. To feel the smooth slide of her skin. And because the urge was so strong, he jammed his hands into his pockets to keep from doing just that.
She turned when he entered and the edge of her sweater dipped low over one shoulder. That’s when he saw the marks on her arm. Furious all over again, he was at her side in two long strides. “Lucas?”
“You said he didn’t hurt you,” he muttered, pulling the sweater down far enough on her arm that he could see the prints of Warren’s hard fingers on her pale skin. “He left marks, Rose. You’ll be bruised by tomorrow.”
“He didn’t mean to,” she said, wincing a little as Lucas’s fingers moved over her arm.
“I should have had him arrested,” Lucas muttered, lifting his gaze to hers.
“No, Lucas. He was just drunk and sad and scared…”
“He put his hands on you.”
She reached up and touched his face, and Lucas felt the warmth of her slide down into that cold, empty pit he’d been carrying around in his stomach for days.
“I’m okay. Really.”
He pulled in a breath, looked into her eyes and said, “When I saw you there. With him chasing you—”
“I was really glad you showed up when you did,” she admitted.
“Me, too.” His gaze moved over her face. Her scent filled him and Lucas gave into the need that had been plaguing him for days.
It was over. He knew that. Accepted it. But she was here and his body was hard and thirsting for her so badly he could hardly draw a breath. “Rose…”
She shook her head even as she leaned into him. “Lucas, this isn’t why I came here.”
“I don’t care,” he admitted. “I just need to taste you again. To hold you again.”
“We really shouldn’t,” she said and met him halfway as his mouth came down over hers.
Instant heat and hunger leaped up to snare both of them into a trap of their own design. He pulled her in tight, loving the feel of her body molding to his. She sighed into his mouth, and he took her breath and held it inside him, wanting to devour all of her.
His mind, his heart, his soul, begged to be heard, but the only voice he listened to was that of his body. She was here. In his arms. Where he needed her.
Groaning, he shifted his hands to the waistband of her jeans, undid the snap and zipper and in seconds, was sliding one hand across her bare abdomen. She kissed him harder, deeper, her tongue twining with his in a desperate dance of desire.
He lowered his hand, beneath the elastic band of her panties and down to the heart of her that waited for him. She broke the kiss on a gasp and rocked her h*ps into him as he touched and stroked and explored her damp heat. Again and again, his fingers moved on her, taking her higher as he watched her eyes burn and then glaze over with what she was feeling. What she was giving him in this one stolen moment.
And when her body couldn’t last another moment, when she was so taut with tension there was no higher for her to reach, Lucas felt the first shattering cl**ax jolt through her.
“Lucas!” She clutched at his shoulders, fingers digging in as she moved on his hand, riding the waves of sensation that poured through her in a tidal wave of release.
Finally, only the slightest ripples remained, and she shivered as he held her close. Her face was flushed; her eyes unfocused; her breathing short and sharp. Finally, she licked her lips and let her head fall to his chest as if she were unable to hold it up on her own.
He kissed the top of her head and tried to calm his own racing heartbeat. It was a futile attempt. What he wanted was to bury himself inside her. To feel her heat holding him as closely and deeply as before. Pulling his hand free, he sighed and said, “Come with me, Rose. Upstairs.”
A choked-off chuckle scraped from her throat, and she shook her head against his chest. “No.”
“What?” He pulled back so he could look at her and waited until she lifted her gaze to his. “Why not?”
Biting her bottom lip, she moved away from him, zipped up her jeans and straightened her sweater. Then she pushed her hair back from her face. Looking up at him, she took a deep breath and blew it out again before trusting herself to speak.
“Because it wouldn’t change anything.” Another short laugh escaped her. “I shouldn’t have let what just happened happen, either.”
He grabbed her, then eased his hold when she winced as his hand came down on the bruises inflicted by Warren. Remembering that, knowing that she had been in danger and he hadn’t been there until almost the last moment, terrified him and infused his words with a kind of desperation.