One Night Forever (The Cinderella Chronicles) (15 page)

And she heard their
moans, their sounds of pleasure, and knew they were the cries of
two people tormented…

Chapter Seventeen

Matt sat Lauren down on
the desk, but he held her close, his forehead pressed to hers. Damn
this woman did things to him. Confused him and made him burn.
Twisted his gut with raw emotion. No way was he letting her escape
again. Not now. Hell, maybe not ever. He’d been more than furious
when she’d no-showed at the hotel. As the minutes had passed by,
he’d tried not to put a name on the things he felt. Anger felt the
easiest outlet, the safest outlet to his turmoil. So he’d allowed
it to grow and take control. But now it was gone…

“
Let’s get out
of here,” he said.

“
Okay,” Lauren
said without hesitation.

He raised his head and
looked down at her. “You shouldn’t have…”

She pressed her finger to
his lips. “I know. I regret it. I was coming to the hotel when you
showed up here. I swear.”

Matt reached out and
trailed a finger down her cheek. God, she was beautiful. Over and
over he told himself to let tonight end things. In the end, he’d
come for her. Needing what they shared. Not willing to let it
go.

And now he wanted to take
her home, not to the hotel.

There didn’t seem to be
the right words to express what he’d felt tonight. Nor was he
certain either of them was ready to face the implications of their
relationship. “Let’s just get out of here.”

Lauren nodded. In
silence, they adjusted their clothes and then hand-in-hand, left
the office. The silence between them felt natural. Comfortable.
Without expectations. And unlike anything Matt had ever experienced
with a woman.

Long minutes later, Matt
pulled his car to a stop at a light, and glanced at Lauren. “What
are you smiling at?” Matt asked her, playfully tugging at a lock of
her hair.

“
Oh,” she
said, as if snapped out of a reverie. “I know this will be hard to
believe but…sex.”

His brow inched up. “With
me I hope.”

“
Of course,”
she said, smiling.

“
What exactly
were you thinking?” he prodded eager to find out just what was
going on in that pretty little head of hers.

She slanted him a shy
look. “How good it is with you.” Her voice was low. Soft. As if she
wasn’t sure she should admit her thoughts out loud.

Everything about this
woman captivated Matt. He stared at her. Looking into her eyes and
wishing the obstacles between them would fade. A car honked
signaling the green light. “You’re making it hard to drive,” he
said teasing her as he put the car in gear and took the next
right.

“
This isn’t
the way to the hotel,” Lauren said.

He didn’t look at her.
“I’m taking you to my place.”

“
Oh.”

Lauren didn’t know how
she felt about going to Matt’s apartment. Part of her wanted to
scream with joy. It made her feel closer to him. Made their
relationship feel more alive and real. On the other hand, it came
with a dose of reality. Not fantasy.

Continuing to see Matt
meant keeping their relationship in perspective. Clenching her
fists, she fought a rage of emotions.

“
Lauren?”

Matt’s voice, deep and
sexy, called to her beyond the simple word he spoke. She didn’t
know what to do or how to act. She wanted to run away and she
wanted to stay. How had life gotten so complicated?

“
What’s
wrong?” His voice was low. Cautious.

“
Nothing.” But
they both knew different.

“
I checked out
of the hotel when you didn’t show up.”

She absorbed that bit of
information with mixed emotions. Maybe she was reading too much
into him taking her to his apartment. It wasn’t as if she’d never
been there before. Perhaps he was simply dealing with the absence
of a hotel room. Tension began to ease from her body, and she sunk
into the leather seat.

She swallowed and drew a
deep breath, calming breath. After Greg’s comments, there really
was little comfort to be found in any of this. Still, being at a
hotel made things feel more temporary. More secret. More something.
Safe maybe. Suddenly, Matt’s hand closed around hers. With it came
a strength and warmth beyond words.

Why did he make her
forget logic?

Somehow, she had to walk
away. Tonight had to be their last night together. His grip
tightened on her hand as if he read her thoughts and rejected them.
She looked up at him. “It’ll work out, Lauren,” he said
softly.

If only that were
true.

If only.

* * * * *

Matt quite literally
pulled Lauren into his apartment.

This wasn’t how he had
planned things. He wanted her to want to be here. In all his years
as a bachelor, he had never felt alone. The thought of Lauren
rejecting him made him that and more.

He didn’t like
it.

Helping her shrug out of
her coat, he kissed her neck, and breathed in her soft, feminine
scent. “I’m glad you’re here,” he said, trying to wear down the
barrier so clearly present between them.

Turning to
look at him, Lauren fixed him in a probing stare. “Why
am
I here, Matt? And don’t say it’s because the hotel room was
booked. You could have gotten it back.”

Her directness shouldn’t
have surprised him, but it did. He touched her cheek, just the
lightest of touches. “Because I want you here.”

He didn’t give her time
to respond, taking her purse from her hand and moving to the
closet. Giving her a minute to absorb his words. A strategy that
didn’t seem to work in his favor. When he turned back to her,
Lauren’s only movement had been to hug herself. The closed body
language said the world to him.

He eased up behind her,
pulling her against his chest, and wrapping his arms around her
waist. Slowly, she relaxed against him. He nuzzled her ear and then
kissed her neck. “Are you hungry?”

“
A
little.”

He turned her to face
him. “How about we order from that Chinese place we went to with
Tyler?”

Her hands settled on his
chest. “That sounds good.”

Taking her hand, he led
her to the kitchen, and motioned to a barstool. While she settled
into a seat, he poured her a glass of wine. She accepted it with a
murmured thank you and took a sip.

He filled his glass and
then reached for the phone. “Do you want the same thing you had at
lunch or something different?”

She looked surprised.
“You remember what I had at lunch?”

How could she think
differently? “I remember everything where you’re
concerned.”

A pregnant silence
followed. Then, “The same would be great.”

He placed the order,
aware of her eyes on him, searching for his motives, he was
certain. When he hung up the phone, he walked to her, took her
glass from her hand, and set it on the bar. “I want to kiss you,
Lauren.”

She laughed. Short.
Breathless. Her eyes flashed with emotion. Maybe a hint of panic.
“You’ve never announced your desires before acting on them in the
past.”

“
That’s
because this is different,” he said in a low voice.
“
I
want to kiss you. Not some unknown man who is a part
of some secret fantasy. Me,
Matt Monroe
, I want
to kiss you.”

One of Matt’s hands slid
around the back of Lauren’s neck. His senses were alive with
anticipation. His body raw with need. Her lips, sensual and full,
trembled. All he wanted to do was taste her. To claim her and make
love to her. To kiss her with all the fire he felt inside. But he
needed her approval. It was time to see what really existed between
them. Their fantasy had been halted the moment Greg had made that
comment to Lauren. They both knew they couldn’t hide
forever.

Easing closer, he slid
Lauren’s knees to the side, resisting the urge to push them apart.
Knowing if he did, he might just lose his mind and decide to fuck
her and talk later. A primal urge to take her hardened his
cock.

“
Lauren?” he
asked, lowering his mouth to linger just above hers. Their breath
mingled, warm and intimate, building the burn.

“
Matt—”

“
Yes or no?”
he pressed, ready to kiss her. Not wanting to wait.

“
Yes,” she
whispered, lashes fluttering.

And that was all Matt
needed to act. His lips brushed hers and they both sucked in a
breath. The air around them seemed to sizzle. As many times as Matt
had made love to her, kissing her could still send flames shooting
through his blood. Yet, he fought the force of their attraction.
Tonight, he wanted to go slow. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to
talk to her.

He wanted to know what
they could, really, truly be together. Which was exactly why he had
decided to kidnap her for the entire weekend. It was time to step
beyond the physical. He was willing to put it all on the line.
Then, maybe, just maybe, Lauren would do the same.

Kissing her gently, Matt
probed her mouth with slow, deliberate strokes. Savoring the woman
and her unique flavor. Her arms slid around his neck, and he felt
her shiver. He stepped closer, their bodies melting together as he
settled both hands on her waist. And what he felt went way beyond
the physical. He knew in that moment he was falling in love. Hell,
he’d probably known from the first moment he’d set eyes on
her.

Lauren had always been
about more than sex.

Chapter Eighteen

Lauren’s head was
swimming with the delicious aroma of Matt, so close, so gentle, and
so…tender. And she knew she was in trouble. This man made her feel
deep inside. If she was honest with herself, from the moment he had
looked at her across that bar, she had felt him in her heart. Deep
in her soul.

Forcing her mouth from
his, she leaned back, and stared into his eyes. What she saw there
took her breath away. Inwardly, she shook herself. Was that love
staring back at her? No. She rejected the thought with a breath.
Passion. That’s what she saw. Nothing more. The wrong thing to be
risking her entire career and future over. So why couldn’t she make
herself look away?

And why did her chest
squeeze and her stomach flutter?

Over and over, in her
head, she willed herself to get up. To leave. To say goodnight. But
she didn’t. Instead, a new voice surfaced… One more forgiving of
the moment. One that said tomorrow she would face real life.
Tomorrow she would end this.

Matt’s palm settled on
her cheek. “What are you thinking?”

She’d come to know that
question from him. He asked it often. Always she avoided a direct
answer.

Now was no different.
“What are you thinking?” she countered.

The corners of his mouth
lifted. Unlike her, he didn’t hesitate to respond. “How much I
enjoy being with you. How much I always hate it when our time
together ends.”

She laughed, but without
humor, averting her gaze. “Great sex will do that to a
person.”

He used two fingers to
capture her chin, forcing her to look at him. “Don’t do that. Don’t
make us seem cheap.”

Her lips trembled despite
her best effort to seem unaffected by his words. She didn’t want to
think about sex or love or…any of this. She just wanted to feel.
“Kiss me again.”

And he did. He kissed her
and kissed her. A slow, sensual play of tongue against tongue.
Yet…he kept it from deepening to a full-body impact. From turning
into an act of sex. He gave her the soft, sweet, taste of seduction
but held back from total intimacy. It confused her and made her
want to take control. She found herself easing toward the edge of
the chair, nipples tingling with the need to be touched. Thighs
aching with the gathering moisture of her arousal.

Then, the doorbell rang
and the moment was gone. Matt pulled his lips from hers. “The
food,” he whispered.

She nodded. “Right.
Food.”

He ran his finger over
her bottom lip, wiping away the moisture there. “Grab the wine and
let’s eat in the living room.” And then he was gone, leaving to
stare after him and wonder exactly what was going on.

For several seconds, she
simply sat there. Lauren knew she shouldn’t be here. Right. She
shouldn’t be here. The words repeated in her head. Yet, still she
found herself pushing to her feet and reaching for the glasses.
Moments later, she walked into the other room. She found Matt
busying himself with the food, setting it out on the coffee table.
He sat down on the floor and patted the ground next to
him.

Matt watched Lauren,
noting the hesitation in her eyes but he wasn’t about to back down.
He watched her walk toward him, the soft sway of her curvy hips
enticing his eyes. Stirring his lust. But, tonight was the real
thing not a fantasy. There was far more than his body alive with
her presence.