“Thank you. I’m working on getting rid of it.” He spoke Hungarian and over the course of the sentence, the burr that clearly marked him as Scottish disappeared from his words.
“Impressive.” Very impressive. There was a slight roundness to his pronunciation that marked him as a non-native speaker, but she wouldn’t have been able to identify where he was from.
“Thank you.”
Nikolett took a bite of the tart. Sweet caramel, buttery pastry, and tart, crisp apple. She closed her eyes, savoring. She chased it with the final sips of her dessert wine. A perfect, sweet combination.
“Lass.” Gus was back to English and his voice sounded rough. “If you keep making that noise and licking that spoon, I’m going to kiss you.”
Nikolett’s eyes popped open. When he’d merely held her, when he’d seemed to pull back when she jumped off his lap, she assumed any chance of intimacy between them was done.
She was wrong.
Gus was leaning forward, into the table, his gaze on her lips.
Decision time.
Ignoring the cacophony of thoughts and emotions warring inside her, Nikolett scooped up a bit of caramel sauce with the spoon and placed it in her mouth, curved side up. She hummed as the sweet caramel hit her tongue, then slowly pulled the utensils from between her lips.
Gus was out of his seat a moment later.
His movements were fast and sure, almost alarmingly so, as he came around the small table. He held out a hand, and when she placed hers in his, he pulled her to her feet.
He bent, she strained up, and their lips met in a kiss that felt like both a beginning and an end.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The kiss was hot but chaste, his lips firm and smooth against hers. Nikolett wrapped her arms around his neck, trying to get closer, to deepen it.
Gus pulled back. “Lass, you’re short.”
Nikolett sputtered out a laugh.
“Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…” With a groan, he pressed his forehead to hers, and that made her heart race more than the kiss had. “Can I pick you up?”
“Yes,” she breathed, though it took all her courage to speak the word. This felt both wrong and right, her body oddly heavy and quiescent.
Gus’ hands slid down her sides until he cupped the back of her thighs. She couldn’t help, couldn’t hope to make it easier, but he lifted her, wrapping her good leg around his waist and holding her there, big hands spanning her thighs.
Nikolett braced her elbows on his shoulders, lifting herself a little until they weren’t eye to eye, but she was looking down on him.
Gus was sexy and sweet, careful and self-assured but in a reserved way.
Once again, for a moment, it was a different set of blue eyes she was looking into, and the hands on her body were much harder. Dominate. Dangerous.
Not Eric.
Gus.
Gus was here. Gus was the one holding her, his hands large and hot on her thighs, his shoulders rock-hard with muscle under the fabric of his dress shirt.
It’s not enough. He’s not enough.
Desperate to blank out that voice, she kissed him.
This time, he deepened the kiss when she parted her lips, inviting him in. His tongue swept into her mouth and she tasted the buttery caramel of the tart and the faint bite of wine.
The world spun, and a moment later, she was seated on top of a tall, chinoiserie cabinet that had them nearly eye to eye.
