Grace had only agreed to buy the shiny red number to shut Felicity up. She’d never intended to actually flounce around in public in the darned thing. After all, who did she think she was? Jessica Rabbit?
But after much arm-twisting and ego-stroking on Felicity’s part, she’d squeezed herself into the dress for the charity event. Which had turned out to be the right decision if the look in Hunter’s eyes right now was anything to go by.
“I don’t have it with me unfortunately,” she added a little breathlessly. Seriously, thelookin his eyes. It was desire made palpable.
“At some point I hope I can convince you to drag it back out of the closet,” he said…or ratherrumbled.
“Big fan of fundraisers, are you?” she asked cheekily.
“Not particularly. Iama big fan of Grace Beacham, though. And that cocktail dress leaves little to the imagination.” His lashes lowered along with his voice. “Although please don’t think I haven’t imagined. I have. I’ve imaginedplenty.”
She shivered at the idea of him fantasizing about her in that dress and touching himself. Stroking himself. Getting himself off while moaning her name.
Using a single finger, he softly traced a path from her forehead, over her nose, and down to her lips. He stopped with the pad of his finger pressed lightly over the seam of her mouth. And when she kissed it, his gaze became so acute she thought she could feel his eyes touching her mouth as surely as she could feel his fingertip.
I could kiss you forever.
His words echoed through her head and settled in her heart.
She desperately wanted to believe him. Believe that forever kisses were possible. But, lord, the way his eyes had gone wide when she’d made that comment about him meeting her family told her everything she needed to know.
Hunter Jackson wanted her for now. Not forever.
So whatever this is,she told herself, it will begin and end here.
Left to her own devices, shewouldfall in love with him. She knew it as surely as she knew her name was Grace Lynn Beacham. The man was just too wonderful.
The cabin is the boundary, she decided. The safe zone.The place where I can pretend, just for a little while, that Hunter Jackson is mine.
And when it was over, she would let him go, grateful for the time they’d spent together. For the intimacies they’d shared. And for him helping her feel like a desirable woman again and not some dried-up divorcee.
“You have the best mouth,” he whispered, his eyes still glued to her lips. “You realize it’s upside down, right?”
“Upside down?” Passion made her voice rusty, like the hinges on her granny Pearl’s old garden gate.
“Mmm. Your top lip is fuller than your bottom.” As if to prove his point, he leaned forward and caught her top lip between his teeth. The tip of his tongue was soft and warm as he leisurely tasted her.
And then tasted her some more.
She had no idea how long he spent making love to her mouth. And that was definitely the best way to describe it. Not kissing. Not making out. Butmaking love.
By the time he let her up for air, her toes were curled and she felt her heartbeat hammering at the juncture of her thighs. She thought he might climb atop her then. Thought he might yank down her borrowed boxer briefs, rip open his fly, and thrust inside her before she could catch her breath.
Her hands landed on the button at the top of his jeans before she made the conscious decision to move. She had the button undone and was ripping down his zipper when, in the farthest corner of her mind, she registered the ringing of a telephone.
Surely not.She shook off the distraction and returned her full attention to his recalcitrant zipper. It was stuck halfway.
“Hold that thought.” He gripped her busy fingers.
She whimpered and he made a face of regret. Pressing one of her hands flat to his chest so she could feel his thundering heart, he said roughly, “If you make that noise again, I swear to Christ, Grace, I won’t be able to answer the damned phone.”
“Good.” She offered up a seductive grin. “Don’t.”
His expression went from regretful to pained. “You’re killing me, woman. You think it’s possible to die from lust?”
“Let’s find out.” She leaned forward to press a kiss over his pulse point, loving the feel of his strong heart hammering against her tongue. Then, because she wanted to put her theory to the test, she bit the bulging tendon in his tan throat.
“Fuucckk,” he breathed and moved her hand from his chest to his crotch.
