Four Relentless Days. Elle James

could go back to the States where it’s less dangerous, for one.” He leaned toward her. “You could start over and choose any career you want.”

      “But I love running the lodge and catering to the guests.”

      “Even now that your husband is gone?”

      Talia’s lips twisted. “I don’t know.”

      “You don’t know, or you’re afraid to say the truth because you’ll feel guilty for wanting something different from what Michael had in mind?”

      She tossed the pillow aside and leaped to her feet. “It doesn’t matter what I want. I have the resort. I’m doing the best I can. I just need to figure out who’s behind the threats to me and my guests and take care of it. Life will go on as usual.”

      “Will it?” Harm stood and reached for her. He knew it was a mistake as soon as his fingers curled around her arms. “Michael’s gone, you can’t continue to live his dream. What about you, Talia? What do you want?”

      She stared up into his eyes, her voice soft...breathy as she said, “I don’t know.” Her bottom lip trembled and her gaze shifted from his eyes to his mouth.

      That moment was Harm’s undoing. Talia appeared so vulnerable and confused. He wanted to wipe the concern from her face, to make her lips curl up in a smile. To kiss her.

      Before he could think through his next move, he lowered his head and breathed against her lips. “What do you want?”

      Her fingers curled into his shirt and she whispered, “You.”

      Harm claimed her mouth, his lips crashing down on hers. He pushed his tongue past her teeth to sweep the length of hers, caressing, thrusting and demanding a response.

      Instead of pushing him away like she should have, Talia raised her arms to lace them behind Harm’s neck and pulled him closer.

      Harm released her arms and ran his hands down her back, cupped her bottom and pressed her hips to his, his groin tight, swelling with a fresh rush of blood and heat. This was where he’d wanted to be all evening. Holding this woman in his arms, kissing her like there was no tomorrow.

      She clung to him, her tongue working against his, her fingernails digging into the back of his neck, one leg curling around the back of his thigh.

      Holy hell, she was hot, sexy and everything Harm had sworn off when he’d received that Dear John letter so long ago. But here he was kissing Talia, completely captivated by the woman and unable to release her.

      When the need for oxygen forced him to come up for air, he lifted his head, dragged in a breath and let it go slowly, trying to calm his racing heart.

      Talia pressed her forehead to his chest, her hands dropping to curl into his shirt. “What...just happened?”

      He chuckled. “I don’t know, but I want to do it again.”

      She shook her head. “No.”

      Harm’s heart stuttered and then tripped all over itself to get going again. “No?” He touched his finger to her chin and tilted her face upward, making her look into his eyes. “Why not?”

      “It’s not right,” she said, her voice catching.

      “Why?”

      “Michael...” she said, a tear slipping from the corner of her eye.

      “Is dead,” Harm said softly, not wanting to be insensitive to her loss. “But you aren’t.”

      “Still,” she said, her hands flattening against his chest. “I loved him.”

      “As sensitive a guy as you make him out to be, wouldn’t he have wanted you to go on living?”

      “I have.” She pulled her chin free of his finger and looked away. “Just not like this. He—I wouldn’t want you to do it again.”

      “No?” Harm’s arms slipped around her. God, he loved the way she felt against him. “Are you sure you don’t want me to kiss you again?”

      She tipped her head back and stared into his eyes. “Please,” she said, her lips still swollen from making love to his.

      He lowered his head until his mouth was only a breath away from hers. “I won’t kiss you if you don’t want me to. But it seems there were two people involved in that last kiss.”

      Her breath caught and her body stiffened in his arms. Then she rose upward on her toes, closing the distance between their lips. Talia wrapped her arms around his neck and dragged him even closer until their bodies melded together, almost becoming one. The only way they could be closer would be if they were naked.

      Harm clutched her body to him and deepened the kiss, everything else around him fading into a hazy background until the sound of a throat clearing jolted him out of the lusty haze.

      Harm lifted his head and stared across the floor at the intruder.

      Big Jake stood in his jeans and nothing else. “Sorry, I was just on my way to the kitchen for a glass of water.” He hurried by. “Don’t mind me. I saw nothing.”

      Talia pushed away from Harm and smoothed her hands over her shirt and jeans, her cheeks flaming. “I’d better go to my room.” She spun and ran for the stairs before Harm could stop her.