I slant her a glance. “Cash might be a drunk, but he’s not deaf, dumb, and blind, Maggie May. And in case no one’s ever told you, you tend to wear your feelings on your sleeve.”
Her mouth opens and closes twice before she gives up on whatever is perched on the edge of her tongue and stares out the window. Since I’m fine letting her stew in her own juices (I reckon it’ll do her some good), we’re silent for the rest of the drive.
It’s not until I pull next to the spice shop that she says with a determined dip of her chin, “So then we’ll have to be more careful to mask our feelings when we’re around him.”
With that pronouncement, she pushes from the truck. I don’t follow her immediately. I’m stunned into silence as a slow, satisfied smile spreads across my face.
Ourfeelings?
After exiting the truck, I find she’s rounded the tailgate and is standing on the back wheel, trying to fish the basket and the blanket from Smurf’s bed.
When I grab her waist and lower her to the ground, she slaps at my hands. “Hey! What’s with the manhandling?” But there’s a breathless quality to her voice and a look in her eyes I recognize well.
My smile widens. I can’t help it.
“Show off,” she grumbles when I reach into the back and easily snag the picnic items. “I could do that, too, if I were as tall as you.”
“If you were as tall as me, you’d have a helluva time finding dresses to fit.”
She lifts an eyebrow. “Go dress shopping a lot, do you?”
“If I did, would you think less of me?”
She bats my question away, annoyed she isn’t able to get the best of me. Have I mentioned that Maggie in a snit is as cute as a bug’s ear?
“I’m more of a jeans kind of girl,” she says.
Setting the picnic basket and blanket on the sidewalk beside the wrought-iron gate leading to her courtyard, I lower my voice an octave. Cash calls it my Bayou Banger Baritone.He claims it can make panties drop quick as a whistle.
Right now, I’m not too proud to use every weapon in my arsenal.“I know exactly what kinda girl you are, Maggie May.”
Her mouth falls open. When I start her way with a determined step, she holds out a hand to ward me off.
“Wh-what are you d-doing?” she stutters as I walk right up to her, letting her outstretched hand press against my chest. Letting her feel the heat of me, the strength of me. ThemanI’ve become.
Cash says we need to figure out our shit?
I aim to please.
“I’m pressing the issue of you and me.” I keep my tone modulated and let the words sit between us.
“Y-you—” She shakes her head. “We had a deal. We were going to cool things off until Cash is better and—”
“Nope.” I shake my head. “That’s whatyousaid. I never agreed.”
Her eyes flash in the light from the streetlamps. “So, what? You’re planning to change my mind by seducing me?”
“Exactly.” I step into her, trapping her between the truck and the length of my body.
She stares up at me, and I give her a moment to tell me no, to say she doesn’t want this. But the seconds tick by and nothing slips past her lips except for a few panting breaths.
I accept the invitation of her open mouth, palm her face, and kiss her. Then I kiss her some more.
I kiss her until I’ve turned myself inside out kissing her.
Chapter Seventy-four
______________________________________
