“Besides, wasn’t the smell supposed to last for two weeks?”
“I’ve been working overtime to get the smell off, and I guess it worked. That, or you’ve fully acclimated to it.”
I chuckle. “What I should have said is that you smell really good. I meant it as a compliment, but it didn’t come out right.”
“It made me laugh, so it came out perfectly,” she says. “Besides, I prefer blunt. I hate the way people pick and choose their words in an effort to be polite. I’ve never been good at it.”
“So what you’re saying is that you prefer rude people?”
Her smile is absolutely gorgeous. “Exactly my point,” she says. “You try to give me a compliment and it goes poorly. I try to make you feel better, and you misinterpret what I mean. People are an absolute mystery to me and politeness only makes it worse.”
“Am I a mystery to you? I’m pretty damn straightforward.”
She snorts. “Says the guy who’s building me a cat gym for no other reason than pure goodwill?”
“I told you. I want to spend time with you.”
She brushes my arm with her fingertips. “You don’t have to build me anything to do that. You could have just asked me out.”
Somehow, I doubt it would have been that easy, but I pull into my driveway and put an end to the conversation. “The wood’s in the garage. I cut what I needed last night, so I just need to load it up. It shouldn’t take long.”
The look she gives me is so full of heat, I have to rewind what I just said to make sure I didn’t say anything sexy. Nope. Nothing at all.
“You cut the wood last night, even though you didn’t think we’d need it for a few days?”
“Sure,” I say, completely out of my depth. Usually, women make sense to me, and I know exactly how to play the game, but I’m not understanding Amelia’s reaction at all. “I had the time last night, and I wanted to be sure I wouldn’t need to run out and buy more.”
She leaps across the center console and presses her lips to mine. I am so shocked it takes me a moment to respond.
That’s long enough for her to pull away.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “I—”
I grab her by the nape of her neck and pull her back to me. “Don’t ever apologize for kissing me.”
I don’t need to understand why she wants to kiss me. I don’t really care why, as long as she’s kissing me.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Amelia
Idon’t think I’ve ever been so turned on in my life. Not only is Deacon doing me this huge favor, but he’s doing it in his spare time and going the extra mile to make sure everything’s ready to go ahead of time.
I’m not an afterthought or a chore. He’s treating this favor and this project like it’s something he wants to do for me.
Who knew such thoughtfulness would be such a turn-on? Not me.
Probably because I’ve never experienced this level of care and attention from any man I’ve dated ever before.
Deacon just keeps beating my previous standards and expectations.
And the way he grabs the back of my neck and pulls me to him, so authoritatively, but also gently, sends a thrill through my whole body before his lips even touch mine.
The kiss is deep and passionate, and it’s only the center console between us that keeps it from becoming a whole lot more than kissing.
“I should get that wood?” Deacon says against my lips like it’s a question. And as much as I want to suggest we forget the wood and spend the day in bed, I really do need this cat gym.
This morning, Marmalade climbed the curtains in Harper’s room and brought them down along with the rod. Harper was so upset, both over the loss of her favorite curtains and her fear that Marmalade had hurt himself, I almost called in sick to work.
