Her breath sighed past my ear. I closed my eyes at how good it felt to be so close to her. I lowered her to her feet and wedged her against the countertop with my hips, never intending to move again. The ends of her damp hair tickled my knuckles. Her spicy candy smell drew me closer until her big brown eyes were all I saw.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
I dropped my gaze to her mouth and the sexy way it moved. “I should be asking you that. Were the cupboards trash-talking you? They can be really rude sometimes.”
“There were spicy...spices...” she said, then swallowed.
“Well, we can’t have that, can we?” I smiled. “Spicy spices?”
She shook her head, but before she could look away, I dug my fingers into the fabric of her shorts to hold her there, to keep her focus on me. I needed to take her, right fucking then. Living with her for six weeks without touching, tasting,havingwould drive me absolutely insane. No way could I hold back anymore. Not if she wanted me, too.
My eyes locked on hers, I inched my hands down over her hips. Her mouth opened on a silent moan. Her pelvis rocked forward against mine. My dick strained against my zipper at her heat, at the dangerous need in her eyes.
But before I could sink into her and recreate her fantasy with the real thing, she blinked all the desire away and glanced at the island. She placed her palms against my chest and pushed.
“I bought you something,” she said.
She’d bought something for me? Always the unexpected with her.
“It’s there.” She pointed and her voice held a little of that hard edge it had earlier. “Next to the salt.”
Her gaze slid down my front as I backed away, probably noticing the very obvious erection bulging from my jeans. I grinned since there was no use in hiding it. All she had to do was ask. I would show her mine if she showed me hers. She searched the tile floor for something to look at besides me and pointed again.
Among the spices, there was a strip of cardboard bacon with a circle meant for scratching. A scratch-and-sniff bacon bookmark. For me.
“That’s so you don’t have to use your phone bill as a bookmark. You know, in case you pay it,” she said.
“Why would I do that?”
She gazed at her bare feet with a kind of lost expression on her face. “People do crazy things sometimes.”
True enough.
I scratched and inhaled the smell of salty soapy chemicals. It didn’t matter that it didn’t smell like bacon. At all. She’d bought it for me because I was getting to her, because she thought of me, and that made me smile. I could probably count the number of times girls had given me something, other than sex, on the scabbed fingers of my right hand. None of them.
And that wasn’t the first thing she had given me, either. Before she’d moved, she’d given me a necklace. It was now in my jeans pocket. I’d put it there to show it to her. I wasn’t a sentimental person or some shit like that, but I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. Or wear it, either. It looked like an ugly, melted dreamcatcher. But still.
“Thanks,” I said, and I meant it.
“You’re welcome. I guess we should get started on dinner. You hungry?”
“Always.”
She twisted her lips to the side—to hide a smile or because I disgusted her?—on her way to the refrigerator. Seriously, what was wrong with her today?
“Will Riley be home for dinner?” she asked.
“Don’t know.” Didn’t care. “Hey,” I started, fishing the necklace from my pocket. “Remember this?”
She turned, and the first real smile I’d seen since that morning lit up her face. “You kept that?”
“Well.” I cleared my throat. “Yeah.”
She stepped closer to see it, and the light reflecting off the metal and glass shined across her cheek. “That was my one attempt at making jewelry. I had just readThe Catcher in the Ryeand was really into symbolism....and, wow, I don’t remember it being that hideous. I can’t believe you kept it.”
Slowly, carefully, she set the necklace against her chest, and the shaky design that had bounced over her face vanished. So did the doubtful, hard expression she’d come home with. A need that was far from angelic flashed in her eyes. She slid her empty hand up to my chin as if to hold me in place.
A jolt zipped down to my dick. I grabbed her wrist and squeezed while she searched my face. The muscles in her jaw worked as if she struggled against something screaming to be let out.
