Free Suspicions (The Battling McGuire Boys Book 3) by Cynthia Eden

your breath goes ragged...”
    Her breath was pretty ragged right then.
    “I love the feeling of your mouth against mine. I’ve been thinking about that mouth of yours...” And his stare was on her lips. Lips that had parted as if she were waiting for his kiss. “Ever since that night two years ago.”
    “Christmas.” Her whisper was husky.
    “You were under the mistletoe. You weren’t smiling and laughing like everyone else.” His head lowered, came closer to hers. “You should have been. Beautiful Ava, you should have been the life of the party.”
    She hadn’t even wanted to be at that party. She’d gone to the Christmas party at McGuire Securities for her brothers. She’d been wishing she could run away from that crowd. But then...
    “I touched your hand. You looked up at me, and you smiled. Your first smile that whole night.”
    Had he been watching her that entire time?
    “I kissed you. Even as I did it, I knew it was wrong. That you weren’t meant for me.”
    She didn’t want anyone else.
    “Then I tasted you.” His mouth was so close to hers. She wanted to taste him right then. “And I was lost. I knew I’d never get enough of you.”
    Her heart was a mad drumbeat in her chest. “But you...you stayed away.” For so long. He hadn’t tried to touch her again. Hadn’t kissed her—
    Until I was back at his ranch. In that bedroom.
    “I’m not the man you need.”
    So wrong
. “You’re the man I want.”
    Then she stopped waiting for him to kiss her. Ava wrapped her arms around him and pulled Mark close. She kissed him, pressing her lips to his because she loved his taste, too. She loved the way kissing him made her feel. Already her blood was heating. Arousal deepened within her. She’d been waiting a long time for this man...and she was done waiting.
    The wood was hard against her back, and he was so strong before her. In his arms, she wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t thinking about the past. It was just...him. That moment.
    “I want to be with you,” she whispered against his lips.
    He kissed her harder. Deeper. His tongue slid into her mouth and she moaned. Her breasts were aching. She wanted him—wanted him in her.
    This wasn’t some frantic one-night stand. This was Mark. This was...everything.
    His hands moved away from the wood. They locked around her hips, then slid down, curving around her and pulling Ava flush against him. There was no missing the force of desire.
    He wants me, too.
    “I can’t even think clearly when you’re close.” His words were ragged. So deep. “I want you naked. I want to kiss every inch of your body.”
    Um, yes, that sounded more than good to her. It was a fabulous, fabulous plan. She’d love to explore his body. Kiss the scars she’d felt on his back. See if she could make him growl with desire. See if she could drive him as wild as he drove her.
    “But I want to do things right with you.” He pressed a kiss to her throat. Right there, at the base of her neck. The spot that made her quiver. The spot he’d found. “And I’m not going to rush you.”
    He pulled back.
    No!
    “You’re not rushing me.” How was he missing this? She felt like jumping him!
    “Your brothers are watching, waiting for me to leave.” He shook his head. “When I take you, I’m going to want the whole night. Because when I get you in my bed, I’m not planning to let you leave anytime soon.”
    She didn’t want him leaving then.
    “Mark...”
    He kissed her again. “I needed you to know,” he murmured against her lips, “that you can count on me.”
    She already had known that.
    “My secrets, my past—I won’t let them hurt you.”
    Ava shook her head.
    “Lock the door behind me,” he said.
    He was leaving? “Stay,” she said.
    She could see the struggle on his face.
    “Mark...”
    But he reached for the doorknob. “You need your rest, and you also need to think about what’s going to happen when we cross this line between us.”
    The line between