“Take yours off, Icountered.”
“Not gonna happen.” But she wasgrinning.
“Well, I think at least one of us should be topless.” I started to sit, then noticed something missing. “Would you like a drink withthose?”
“Just water, please. I don’t care if I never see vodkaagain.”
“That’s fair, considering your first experience. But I would like to point out, in defense of alcohol everywhere, that in slightly smaller, slower quantities, it has its advantages.” But I took two waters from the mini fridge and left all the little bottles of alcohol alone. If she wasn’t drinking, neither wasI.
“Here.” I handed her an unopened water bottle, then crawled onto the bed and sat cross-legged next to her, in front of the row ofdesserts.
“You know, I’m perfectly willing toshare.”
“Well, okay. If you insist. But you go first.” I gave her a wicked smile. “And just so you know, that’s my policy in all other areas, aswell.”
Her brows rose. “Or we could gotogether…”
“That’s a lot easier with dessert than with other things, but sure, I’m game.” I cut off the tip of the cheesecake slice and fed it toher.
She moaned around the bite, and the sound was…pleasant. So I fed her a bite of red velvet cake, and she moaned again. Next, I tried the tart, but some of the cream filling stuck to her lip, and she licked it off,and—
“Are you aware that you aredirtywhen you eatdessert?”
Kaci froze. “What?” she said around a mouthful oftart.
“You make erotic sounds when you eatdessert.”
Her eyes went wide. She slapped both hands over her mouth and chewed furiously. “I donot!”
“Yes, you do. And that may be the hottest thing I’ve everseen.”
She dropped her fork onto the cake plate and pushed it toward the end of the bed. “Well I can’t eat thatnow!”
“Whynot?”
“Because you’ll be sitting there thinking dirty things about me while Ieat.”
“Kaci, I’d be thinking dirty things about you no matter what you were doing. You’re wearing a ring I gave you and sitting on a hotel bed. Also, you’regorgeous.”
“You’re not bad to look at, yourself.” She cut another bit of cake without meeting my gaze. Then she changed the subject, as if the admission made her uncomfortable. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could eat room service every day? Neither one of us would have to cookorclean.”
“Actually, I could probably make that happen. We could live in a hotel on our island, if you want. You could have room service for every meal, and I could feed you cake for breakfast every morning. On the balcony, or inbed…”
“You can stop trying to convince me that life is more fun when you’re rich. I can’t imagine anyone would argue with that premise. The problem isn’t the money. It’s leaving the countryforever.”
“Ihave to leave forever.Youcould come back and visit Faythe and Marc, and their ever-expanding litter ofkidlets.”
“Oh, stop it.” She shoved my shoulder. “You know the boys areadorable.”
“Yes. But you’re more adorable.” I leaned in and nibbled on the tip of her shoulder as I slid one hand beneath the hem of her tee.Slowly.
She took my hand and her gaze captured mine. “Stop.”
“Why? Iknow you want me. I can smell arousal in yourscent.”
“Oh my God!” She looked scandalized. And self-conscious.
“There’s no reason to be embarrassed. I think it’shot.”
