Extreme Measures. Brenda Harlen

could be like that again.”

      She started to shake her head.

      He didn’t want to hear the protest he knew was coming, so he silenced her the most effective way he knew—with his mouth.

      He felt her stiffen, but she didn’t pull away. In fact, her eyelids had just started to lower when the shrill ring of his cell phone intruded.

      Later that evening, as Nikki sat alone on the front porch of her home, she would admit—if only to herself—that she’d never experienced with another man the kind of desire she’d felt just being held by Colin. The simple anticipation of his kiss had heated her blood more quickly and completely than any other man’s kisses ever had.

      The physical attraction worried her. She’d never been the type of woman to let her hormones overrule her common sense. Except with Colin. The only man who could make her heart soar with a simple look, an innocent touch, was the only man who’d ever broken that same heart.

      The thought terrified her, as did the realization that there was so much more at stake than just her heart this time.

      She’d always known it was possible that he might come back someday. But it had been a remote concern, almost unreal, so long as he was halfway across the country. Now that he was here, she knew it was time to face the deception she’d lived with every day for the past five years.

      She had to tell him. She couldn’t keep the secret any longer—she wasn’t sure she even wanted to. But knowing what she had to do didn’t make it any easier to find the right words.

      Colin, you have a child.

      It sounded simple enough, except that Carly was her child. Nikki was the one who’d been there every day of Carly’s life: when she’d cut her first tooth, taken her first step. She’d been the one to sit up with Carly through sleepless nights, to kiss her scraped knees, to worry over every cough and fever.

      Still, she knew that biology gave him certain rights, not the least of which was the right to know he’d fathered a child. She had wanted to tell him about Carly years ago. She’d wanted to save her marriage, to be with the man she’d loved, but she’d refused to use their baby to do so. She’d loved Colin fiercely, completely, and it would have devastated her to know that he’d only stayed with her for their daughter.

      So she’d kept her pregnancy a secret, consented to the divorce, and a few months later, she’d given birth to Carly.

      Now he was back, and everything seemed to be spinning out of her control.

      She heard the sound of a car approaching, breathed a sigh of relief that Arden was finally home from her meeting at the women’s shelter. Arden Doherty was her cousin, her roommate, and her best friend. And she was the only person Nikki could talk to about the chaos that had come to town with her ex-husband.

      Nikki turned around as the vehicle pulled into the driveway. Her heart pounded frantically against her ribs as she realized it wasn’t Arden’s car. And it wasn’t her cousin who got out of the car.

      It was Colin.

      Her easy smile froze; panic clawed at her throat.

      The shock of finding Colin outside the clinic where she worked didn’t compare to the sense of terror building inside as he moved toward the front porch of the house where she lived. Where their little girl was sleeping inside.

      What was he doing here?

      And more importantly, how quickly could she get him to leave?

      She fought against the panic, forced her tone to remain neutral. “What are you doing here?”

      He stepped onto the porch, leaned a shoulder against one of the upright posts. “Haven’t we already had this conversation today?”

      “And didn’t we say everything we needed to say?” she countered.

      He took a step closer, deliberately invading her personal space. “I think we have some unfinished business.”

      His gaze dropped to her lips, and she knew he was thinking about kissing her again. Just as she knew she couldn’t let it happen.

      She lifted her hands to his chest, intent on pushing him away. She could feel the heat of his skin through his shirt, the unyielding strength of his muscles, the thunderous beating of his heart.

      “It’s been a really long day and I have to get up early in the morning and I’m sure you have things to do and if you want to get together for coffee some time on the weekend maybe we could do that, but now really isn’t…”

      Her words trailed off as he skimmed his knuckles down her cheek.

      “You babble when you’re nervous.” His lips curved in a slow, seductive smile that made her breath catch in her throat and her pulse race. “I like that I can still make you nervous.”

      She could hardly deny it. Nor could she deny the anticipation that surged through her veins as his head lowered toward her.

      Then his mouth closed over hers and a wave of desire crashed through the last, lingering vestiges of her resistance. Overwhelmed by yearning, overpowered by need, she closed her eyes and surrendered to the sweet, mindless pleasure of his kiss.

      His lips were as masterful as she remembered. She’d never known anyone who could kiss like Colin, with a kind of arrogant confidence that might have been annoying if it wasn’t so darned arousing.

      Her lips parted on a sigh to welcome the teasing caress of his tongue as he deepened the kiss. She hadn’t felt his arms come around her, hadn’t been aware of her own reaching for him, but suddenly they were entwined together and the press of his long, lean and very hard body sent dangerous currents racing through her. She shifted closer, the friction of the subtle movement making her skin burn, her body ache.

      It had been years—five years, in fact—since she’d felt anything close to this kind of arousal. And all it took was a kiss.

      Or maybe it was Colin.

      She had no defenses against him. She never had. It was this fleeting thought, this reminder of their disastrous history, that finally penetrated the sensual haze fogging her brain and jolted her back to reality.

      She pulled out of his arms. “I want you to go, Colin.”

      “Making me leave isn’t going to make the attraction between us go away.” He brushed his thumb over the curve of her bottom lip, moist and swollen from his kiss. “The chemistry’s still there. You might not like it, but you can’t deny it.”

      He was right—she couldn’t deny it. But she could, and she would, resist it. What was chemistry without staying power, anyway? Nothing more than an invitation to heartbreak—and she’d been there, done that.

      She took a deliberate step back. “I have no intention of being a distraction for you while you’re in town.”

      “Do you think that’s all I want?”

      “I gave up trying to figure out what you wanted a long time ago.”

      He moved toward her, breaching the careful distance she’d put between them. “I want you, Nicole. I’ve always wanted you.”

      Her heart did a silly little flip-flop inside her chest, but she refused to show how much his words affected her. “What about me?” she countered. “What about what I want?”

      “Tell me,” he said, his voice as seductive as a caress. “Tell me what you want.”

      She steeled herself against the traitorous yearnings of her body, the inexplicable longing in her heart.

      I want you to go.

      Before she could speak, the familiar creak of the screen door snagged her attention. Every muscle in her body stiffened, her breath caught.

      Colin, his eyes still focused on her own, hadn’t heard the sound. His back to the house, he