Nanny Next Door by Michelle Celmer Page A

before it went any further. Before he couldn’t stop.
    He broke the kiss and pressed his forehead to hers. They were both breathing hard.
    She gazed up at him, eyes glazed. “You want to get out of here?”
    Shit.
    Don’t do it, Daniel. This is a bad idea.
    But before he could stop himself, he was leading her to the door, walking so fast she could barely keep up with his longer strides. The only thing he could think about was getting her home and naked. He wouldn’t allow himself to consider anything else. Like the inevitable consequences.
    When they got to his truck he helped her in and then walked around. He’d scarcely made it into his seat before she was in his lap, straddling him, her lips crushed against his. He’d never been with a woman who kissed more passionately. Who tasted so sweet. She wound her arms around his neck, grinding her lower body against him. God, she was hot. But not only was this bordering on indecent, it was a logistical nightmare. There was a good reason he hadn’t had sex in a car since he was a teenager.
    “Not here,” he said, lifting her from his lap and depositing her on the seat beside him. “Buckle up.”
    She snapped her seat belt in place. “Drive fast. ”
    He drove the speed limit.
    “Is what you told your ex true, or were you just trying to piss him off?” Daniel asked. “Did you really have to drink to be able to stand him touching you?”
    “It’s true.”
    He tried to imagine being with someone who physically repulsed him, and couldn’t even fathom it. “If it was that bad, if you were so unhappy, why did you stay?”
    “For Lacey. I didn’t want her to grow up in a broken home.”
    So she had sacrificed her own happiness for her daughter’s. “And how did that work out for you?”
    Sydney let her head fall against the seat and sighed. “It was a disaster. I should have left him years ago.”
    He was probably asking too many questions, but he couldn’t help himself. “Has there been anyone since him?”
    She shook her head.
    “So you haven’t enjoyed sex in how long?”
    “Well, even in the beginning it wasn’t great. It wasn’t awful, either. He was just always a…selfish lover, I guess. More concerned with his own pleasure than mine. So the last time I had really fantastic sex was probably…seventeen years ago.”
    That was just wrong, but it didn’t surprise him. For Daniel, giving a woman pleasure was what turned him on, what fed his own pleasure. And Sydney was long overdue.
    He stopped at a red light on the edge of town, reached over and hooked a hand behind Sydney’s neck, leaned in and kissed her, quick and deep.
    They lived only a few miles off the downtown strip, so it didn’t take long to get there. And this time she didn’t wait for him to open her door. She hopped out and landed unsteadily on the concrete driveway. Daniel told himself that it had more to do with her heels than her level of intoxication.
    “My place,” Sydney declared. “Lacey is sleeping at a friend’s house. I want to be here if she calls.”
    A reminder of why he avoided single moms. Too much baggage. Tonight he would make an exception.
    But what about tomorrow?
    He shook away the thought and followed Sydney to her back door. She fumbled with her keys under the dim porch light, then dropped them when she tried to get the key in the lock.
    Not drunk, just clumsy.
    He grabbed the keys, found the right one and opened the door. They’d barely made it inside and her arms were around his neck, her lips locked on his. She started to drag him backward toward her bedroom, clawing his T-shirt free from the waist of his jeans. She stumbled and he had to catch her or she would have landed on her behind. She wasn’t just a little tipsy. She was hammered.
    He cursed silently. As much as she seemed to want him, her judgment was impaired.
    He couldn’t do this.
    They got to her bedroom and she dragged him inside, shoving the door closed behind them. Because that’s what moms