Heated Rush - Leslie Kelly [42]
Finally, after a long, silent moment, she gave a brief nod and rose. If her chair flew back under her desk with a little more force than he’d expected, he wasn’t going to call her on it. Or ask her what was wrong.
He knew what was wrong. He was a damned idiot, that’s what was wrong. A fool who’d always insisted on opening his biggest present last on his birthday, who still ate every vegetable on his plate before allowing himself to savor the main course. Who’d always believed the best things in life were sweetened when you had to wait for them.
Waiting might heighten the excitement. But he wasn’t sure his heart could take any more excitement when it came to what was going to happen between him and Annie.
“Too late, you blew it, dumb arse,” he muttered as he left her office. She might have been hot and interested. Now she was not and angry.
Sean walked down the short hallway into the large main room, passing closed doors marked Nursery and Big Kids Only! The whole place remained shadowy and silent. What little illumination there was began to disappear as Annie turned off her office light. She closed the door behind her, then reached around the corner into another room to flip one more switch.
Now there was nothing but darkness, broken only by the redness of the Exit signs and the glimmer of moonlight easing through the front windows. That was still enough, however, for him to make out the gleam of Annie’s blond hair as she approached. And, as she drew closer, the glitter of her eyes.
Her angry eyes.
“Annie…”
“I’m almost ready,” she said as she checked the thermostat. “Feel free to leave.”
“I’m not leavin’ you to walk outside into the night by yourself.” The day care center was in a commercial area, not a residential one. When he’d gone down the block for a drink, he’d noticed every building between here and there had been closed and dark, those in the opposite direction appearing much the same.
“Suit yourself,” she said. “But you don’t have to. I mean, I know it’s not like you want to be here.”
Hearing her frustration, and the echo of his own, deep inside his mind, Sean suddenly gave up his resistance. He wasn’t going to be able to leave things like this. Not a chance could he have her going home thinking he didn’t want her.
But before he could say anything—like, “Let’s save time in the morning by just going back to your place for the night”—he felt something slam into his chest. Something small, and, while lightweight, it still stung.
“What the bloody hell…”
Another colorful object zoomed out of the darkness. This time, he reflexively reached up and grabbed it out of the air, quickly realizing he was holding a small, red plastic ball.
“Are you throwing things at me?”
“I was aiming for the pit,” she replied airily. “A few of the balls spilled out.”
He jabbed an index finger in the air to his right. “The ball pit’s that way.”
“So my aim’s a little off.”
She made a liar of herself by bending over, grabbing another plastic sphere off the darkened floor and winging it at him. Ducking to evade it, Sean honestly didn’t know whether to laugh or grab her to make her stop and listen to him for a minute.
When she bent to retrieve another one, his feet made the decision for him. Before she could toss it—probably aiming for his head this time—he charged her.
“That’s enough, darlin’,” he muttered, grasping her upraised hand in his. He backed her against the wall, until their bodies melded together, all her soft curves giving way to his hard edges. Palpable anger rolled off her. It was matched by something else: pure, physical excitement.
His body responded immediately. His cock, already half-aroused from the crazy conversation he’d initiated in her office, swelled and hardened. Unable