“I like you, Rose Little,” he said. “I want to be with you whether we’re eating breakfast, talking about TV, or surviving explosions in service pits. I don’t need you to stop being Wildcard Rose. I just want to be by your side when you’re doing it. I want to help you, I want to fight for you and with you. I want to do the hard stuff and the boring stuff. I want to finally tell Mr. Donahue I officially can’t date his daughter because some loud woman one day pulled up into my garage without an appointment and then told me she couldn’t just leave me alone.”
He finally smiled.
“I want your good news and your bad news, Rose Little. I want your chaos and your calm. I want—”
The man sure was talkative. That was what Rose was thinking when the last vestige of her self-control finally snapped.
It was her turn to do the interrupting and interrupting she sure did.
Rose threw her arms around James’s neck and fastened the two of them together. She started with their lips and then folded against him with every curve and surface of her body that she could.
If James was mad at the cutoff, he certainly didn’t stay that way.
His tongue was hungry, and it parted her lips in unison with his hands running down her sides. It was light work after that.
James cupped her backside in his hands and had her airborne in a second flat. Like they had rehearsed the move, Rose wrapped her legs around his waist, all without breaking their kiss.
If anything, the new position made the pace even more frenzied.
James made surprisingly quick work of getting them from the living room to the second-floor bedroom in one heavy-breathing journey. And he did so in a way that only stoked the fire within Rose higher.
He had her horizontal two steps inside of the bedroom, careful to cushion her body from the drop down.
Sadly, the move ended their kiss.
Luckily, it gave him the space to do something even more riveting.
James Keller was already a handsome, good-looking man, but the second he rid himself of his clothes, Rose knew something else to be just as true.
His height wasn’t the only big thing about him.
Rose couldn’t help but stare a little longer than she originally meant to. James noticed and let out a laugh.
“I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news,” he said, his fingers working the last of her clothes down her legs.
Rose struggled to keep her composure as cold air started to hit all the right spots.
“What—what is it?”
James didn’t smile. He smirked.
“Good news is, I’m about to spend a good amount of time with you in this bed, Deputy.” To emphasize his plans, he brought his naked body flush with hers and moved his fingers down between her legs.
Rose gasped in surprise and felt her breathing quicken from a new kind of pleasure.
James’s gaze went from hers and then down to her lips. He pushed deep inside of her and watched as her mouth opened in appreciation.
Then he laughed again.
“Do you want to know the bad news?”
He picked up the pace and all Rose could do was manage a nod.
Still, he didn’t answer right away. At least not with words.
He hit the right spot and worked it until Rose’s body bucked up against him in a dazzling twist of release. It wasn’t until he captured her mouth in his and devoured her a little longer there, that he moved himself to the part of Rose that wanted him most.
His words weren’t warm or soft. They weren’t gentle or quiet.
