“Oh?”
“I found out where you lived, parked nearby, and walked your neighborhood.”
“Why?”
“To test my magnetic response to you. And you know what?” She smiled a little. “It was worth it.”
Pleasure poured into him. “You hammered out several terms for tonight’s date. But there’s one term you didn’t insist on this time.”
“I didn’t specify that we would not kiss.”
“Exactly.”
“That was not an oversight on my part. I omitted that term because I no longer wanted to abide by that term.”
His body howled with need, but he made himself move slowly. He supported her jaw with his hands. Shared her breath.
With effort, Leah stayed immobile while her body flushed.
When he pressed his lips to hers, his mouth was warm, soft, confident ... and her physical form turned to flame.
She tasted him. Smelled his spicy scent. Felt his hands sliding into her hair.Confound it.Kissing him was like standing, exhilarated, at the edge of Niagara Falls. Hearing the roar. Letting the emotions shake through you.
Opulent minutes spun, one into the next.
No wonderwomen behaved foolishly over men! This was splendid and humbling. She’d been so smug about her good, safe decisions when it came to the opposite sex. But that was before she’d experienced for herself the mighty temptation a man could present.
“Will you,” he said when they pulled slightly apart, “meet me for another non-date?” His voice sounded gravelly.
Her lips tingled. She didn’t want to talk. She wanted to kiss him more. And not so that she could enlarge her data set of interactions with men. Because of how he made her feel.
He kissed the inside of her wrist, then drew it up and behind his neck. “Please?”
“You’re a hard man to say no to.”
“So I’ve been told.”
A sound of amusement escaped her. “Fine. I’ll meet you for another non-date.”
His lips met hers again. Demanding and raw. Intimate and tender.
Kissing Sebastian consumed her consciousness and forced her to live so fully in the present that every one of her concerns dropped away.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Atentative knock sounded on Leah’s classroom door the next morning.
Leah straightened from the stack of quizzes she’d been grading. “Come in.”
Claire Dobney shuffled forward for their scheduled tutoring session wearing a voluminous sweater, this one in shades of beige. Black leggings and Converse that had seen better days completed the outfit.
Shortly after Leah learned about the stress the teenager was under at home, she’d suggested Claire meet her for math tutoring twice a week during Leah’s planning period, which was also Claire’s advisory period.
Leah waved her to the chair nearest her desk. “How are you?”
“Okay.”
Leah had learned from Claire that she was the oldest of four. Her sister Becca was in middle school. Her brother Mason was in fourth grade. Her sister Annie was in first.
