Unplanned 15

Chapter Fifteen

Did she mean stay an hour? A week? Forever? Maya looked flushed as she held out her hand to invite him in to her apartment.

Not wanting to read the signals the wrong way, Richard didn’t move. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I’m fine. I just…’ Smiling, she ran her hand up his arm to his cheek and red-hot need coursed through him. ‘Sorry. I feel so clumsy with this huge belly in the way. Are you sure you don’t want a drink?’

‘We’ve just had one. I’m fine, thanks.’

There was a pout on her lips. ‘I didn’t really mean a drink… Oh… Ignore me. I’m just…’

She was trembling and her skin was hot. There was light and fun in her eyes underpinned by a serious sexiness.

‘Maya dela Rosa, are you coming on to me?’

‘I could be…’ Biting down on her bottom lip she peered up at him under thick black eyelashes. ‘What did you mean when you said you came back for me?’

His heart thumped; he was no good at saying these things. That was part of how he’d gone wrong the first time. ‘I used to lie awake on a steel camp-bed in a dusty, dry tent and try to remember your laugh. I used to dream about your smile and how your eyes glittered. I missed you so much, nothing in Africa felt right. I was as displaced as those refugees. So I came home.’ He laughed. ‘I got more than I bargained for.’

Home. Now, there was a novel thought. Couldn’t say he’d thought much about where his home was before. Until he’d missed her so damned much he’d thought he was going insane. And now he was here, the madness was just as intense, but this time it was also compelling him to bury himself inside her, to kiss her, to hold her.

Forever.

Another novel thought. One he hadn’t really worked through when he’d proposed and presumed so much. Too much. He’d thought she’d go with him. He’d believed that staying in one place would be boring and unsurprising, but he’d come to realise that a day without Maya in his life was like a California day without sunshine. Just…less. Less light. Less heat. Less joy.

‘I like to think I can surprise people every now and then.’ Maya’s hand slid across his chest, fingers snagging in between his buttons, and that tiniest touch of skin on skin heated his blood.

He’d been planning on charming her slowly and by stealth, but he didn’t know how long he could hold out against such a fierce need. He grasped her hand, stilled the tiptoeing of her fingers. ‘Oh, you’re definitely full of surprises.’

‘You haven’t seen anything yet.’ Then her mouth crushed against his, whipping away his breath.

And knowing how tentative the line they’d drawn was, he should have walked away, but he couldn’t walk away from this. She’d lit sunshine inside him and it was filling him with light.

He managed to break away. ‘Maya, sweetheart, are you sure?’

 

To be continued…

This is an adapted story.