Web of Deception by Nina Blake Page B

she’d been eyeing up for so long.
    Daniel was tall and his shoulders so broad that the sofa didn’t look so large any more. She sat down beside him, overcome with the feeling that anything might happen.
    “I didn’t think Mark lived in Bondi,” he said.
    Kate warmed her hands around the coffee mug. “He doesn’t.”
    Daniel’s eyes flitted around the simple room across the crisp white walls to the bright rug on the dark floorboards, settling on the vase of flowers on the mantle piece. “If you don’t mind me saying so, this room has a feminine touch. I find it hard to believe a man ever lived here.”
    “Mark and I don’t live together. We never have.”
    “You don’t approve of living together?” Daniel asked.
    That wasn’t it. She didn’t think living together immoral, not in this day and age. However that wasn’t the right way for her. She wanted commitment, and living together often turned out to be another way of delaying that process.
    “No, it just never worked out that way,” she said.
    And that relationship was never going to work out. It was where it belonged. Behind her.
    Daniel slid closer, his thigh touching hers. “How have they worked?”
    His touch and his words sent a tingle up her spine. It threw her. For a moment, she forgot what they were talking about.
    She sipped her coffee. “It doesn’t really matter how other relationships worked, does it?”
    Daniel shot her a look which sizzled with confidence and much, much more. “You’re right. When we’re together like this, it doesn’t matter at all.”
    As far as he was concerned, she was an engaged woman. Not married. But good enough as. Yet it seemed he wasn’t going to let a little thing like that stand in his way.
    Still, it was all academic. She was single and available. Whatever he thought.
    “We’re just having coffee,” she said. “Nothing more.”
    “I’d almost forgotten about the coffee.” Daniel took a sip from his mug, then placed it back on the table. He reclined back into the sofa, sliding his arm across, his fingertips perilously close to Kate’s shoulder. “There’s so much here to distract me.”
    She leaned forward and sipped her coffee. She could continue this little game with him.
    But it wouldn’t be sensible. She could work out that much. It would never be more than just a fling and at least he wasn’t leading her on about that.
    Logically, she knew this would be a mistake. Daniel Webb wasn’t a good long-term investment. He wasn’t the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with.
    So why did he make her sizzle on the inside? He hadn’t even touched her yet. Though he’d brushed his leg against hers and his arm was behind her on the sofa, he hadn’t placed a hand on her. Yet.
    This could go two ways. But what to do?
    “Are you distracted?” Kate placed her mug on the coffee table and leaned back into the sofa. “I thought you were giving me your full attention.”
    Daniel’s fingertips slipped onto the curve of her neck, brushing the bare skin with a touch that almost wasn’t there. Kate pressed her eyes closed, trying to contain the sensual shiver shooting down her spine.
    This was too much for her and that one gentle touch proved it also wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. She wanted more.
    All she had to do was let herself go.
    “I can give you much more, Kate.” His voice was a deep whisper. “If you’d let me.”
    The ball was in her court. He’d said he wouldn’t force himself on her and he’d meant it.
    She looked up at him but he didn’t lean in closer.
    He was waiting.
    For her.
    Kate’s voice was a whisper. “Perhaps it would be better if…you could show me.”
     

Chapter Six
     
    Daniel slid his outstretched arm behind Kate’s neck, resting his fingertips in the curve of her neck. Her skin was soft and supple, the hair he’d brushed away from her neck so silky.
    Damn it, he’d been waiting for this moment. She’d always made sure there were barriers