“I don’t have any friends who would think that was a good idea.”
“So you saw me across a crowded bar. Bought me a drink.”
“The likelihood of me doing something like that is practically in the minus figures.”
He rolled his eyes, over that one. Almost hit a sneer, with that usually soft voice.
But once he had, she could tell he was waiting.Holy fuckhe was just waiting for her to come up with the right thing. And even better: she had one that fit perfectly.
“Then maybe we were just the people you described outside that self-defense class. We hadn’t met before that moment. I mentioned I wanted to get better at it. You agreed to help. Nothing more.”
“Nothing more sounds better. But still not quite enough.”
“Okay. How about you never taught me at all?”
“I just turned up, and then we did nothing but talk.”
He sounded just as withering as he had when he mentioned the minus figures.
However, she could hear something else in there now, too.
A spark of eagerness, maybe.
Now all she had to do was chase it. “Sure. I mean, at times, we barely did anything else. We just talked. We even bantered, on occasion.”
“True. Though, I don’t see how that would lead to more.”
“But you wouldn’t even have to be, here.”
“I guess I wouldn’t.”
“You could just give in.”
“And what would you want me to give in to?”
“My mouth on yours.”
She held her breath through the silence that followed, just waiting for him to reject the idea. Only he didn’t. He didn’t at all. “That doesn’t sound so bad,” he said, finally.
And that meant only one thing:
She could push for more.
“It would be the way I want to do it.”
“So not just a simple kiss, then.”
“Maybe at first. But I think greed would get the better of me.”
“I don’t know what you mean by greed.”
“Yes you do. In fact, I bet you can picture it.”
“If I can, it’s only in some far off vague way that I don’t think about.”
“Then let make it clearer.” She paused then. In part to wrestle back control of her hammering heart, but also because she knew she had to judge this right. Not go too slow, not go too fast. Just ease him into it. “I wouldn’t be satisfied with one closed mouth kiss. I’d need to go back, and taste you more deeply. Lick those soft lips, urge them to part over mine.”
“And if I did manage to do something like that?If I did it for you, the way you want?”
