Thorn's Challenge - Brenda Jackson [41]
“Thorn, what is the change in your plans?”
He leaned back against the closed door. “I’ve decided to leave for Daytona early.”
Tara raised an arched brow. “How early?”
“I’m leaving Sunday if I can arrange everything.”
“This Sunday?” When he nodded, she said. “That’s only three days away. I can’t take off work and—”
“And I don’t expect you to. I’ll talk to one of my brothers about you coming down with them later at the beginning of Bike Week.”
“But—but why are you leaving so early?” she asked.
He shifted his helmet to his other hand, thinking there was no way he could tell her the absolute truth. So instead he said. “There are a few things I need to do to get ready for the race, like getting my mind in check,” he said, which wasn’t a total lie. With any type of race, concentration was the key and he couldn’t do it here, not in the same town where she lived.
He placed his helmet on the table. “Tara?”
She met his gaze. “Yes?”
He held out his hand to her. “Come here,” he said in a voice he didn’t recognize as his own. The only thing he did recognize and acknowledged was his need to touch her, to taste her and hold her in his arms. Two weeks without seeing her would be absolute torture for him.
He watched her stare at his outstretched hand, moments longer than he had hoped, before she slowly closed the distance that separated them, taking his fingers and entwining them with her smaller ones. The heat from her touch was automatic. Sensual heat moved from his hand and quickly spread throughout his body. Even his blood simmered with their touch. He gently pulled her to him, letting her body come to rest against the hardness of his.
“Do you have any idea how much I want you, Tara?” he asked huskily, his lips only a few inches from hers.
Desire formed in her eyes before she said softly, “Yes, I think I do.”
“I want you to know for certain. The moment you step foot in Daytona I want you to know just what to expect after the race is over and I turn my full attention to you. I don’t want you to be surprised at the magnitude of my hunger and desire, and I want to give you a sample of what is to come. May I?”
As far as she was concerned he had given her plenty of samples already and she had a pretty good idea what she was in for. But still, the very thought that he asked permission almost made Tara come apart then and there. With all his roughness, and even when he’d been in his worse mood, Thorn had always remained a gentleman in his dealings with her. Sensuous, irresistible and sexy, yet a gentleman just the same.
Tara swallowed the lump in her throat, not knowing what she should do or more importantly, what she should say. If she granted him what he wanted, it wouldn’t help matters where she was concerned. She was in the thick of things and didn’t see a way out, not with Thorn hightailing it out of town on Sunday. With him leaving for Daytona earlier than planned, there was no way she could tempt him the way she needed in order to get him to call off their agreement. He would expect her to keep her end of the bargain and give him the week she had promised him.
But then she decided she had to be completely honest with herself and admit that she wanted that week, as well. Thorn Westmoreland had needs and a part of her could not imagine him making love to another woman. She refused to think about that. And standing before him now, she knew why.
She was in love with him.
The thought that he could end up hurting her the way Derrick had made her want to cover her heart and protect it from pain, to escape into her bedroom and hide. But it was too late for that. She had tried avoiding