That’s when things went sideways. Gavin did not wipe his thumb on the napkin. He didn’t even offer that bit of chocolate back to her.
No.
Gavin held his thumb to his lips and flicked his tongue out to the chocolate.
Her chocolate.
The chocolate that had just been at the seam of her lips was now at Gavin’s lips, and heat pooled in places that were definitely not her cheeks. The intimate spot between her legs pulsed at one of the most erotic things that had ever happened to her. It was probably not even meant to be erotic. And how sad was that for the state of her love life?
She didn’t have a second to bring any sort of levity to the moment because Gavin leaned into her, right up to her space like he was going to test for more chocolate left behind on her mouth. This time he was going straight to the source. Dammit all, she wanted him to taste her. Wanted to smear chocolate everywhere.
Wished maybe she’d eaten sloppier, so he’d have more to work with.
He didn’t, though, he just moved further into her space so his lips were at her ear. The husky sounds of his breath tickled her earlobe.
“I’d take you everywhere,” he said, only for her to hear. “Just to watch you do that again.”
The heat was right back in her cheeks again. This whole back-and-forth thing was really hell on her circulatory system.
“And to be clear, this is definitely me coming on to you. If, for any reason, you question my commitment to this come on? Don’t.”
Whoa, boy. She licked at her lips.
He growled. Deep in his throat. Not obvious for the others around the table, but clear enough for her to notice.
“I was trying to be polite about how I ate it,” she whispered back, quiet since he was still in her personal space bubble.
The scent of him mixed with his cologne and chocolate strawberries. They could make all the innuendos they wanted about all the foods ever eaten, but the magic wasn’t in the banter. The magic was in whatever this was between them—this sizzle of baking soda mixed with vinegar in one of Ollie’s science projects. She wasn’t sure who was the baking soda and who was the vinegar, and honestly, it didn’t matter as long as the chemical reaction stayed the same between the two and continued fizzing like hell.
He brushed his hand against the little hairs at her neck, toying with the necklace like he had every right to do it.
God bless him, he did in that moment have every right to touch her anywhere.
“If that’s the way you eat it to be polite,” he said, “I want to see how you’d do it dirty.”
She sucked in an entire table full of air. Truly, it was amazing everyone else didn’t go right on ahead and pass out, given that she’d taken all the oxygen from the room with that inhale.
“You’re flirting with me.” She turned so her lips were near his. Not inappropriately so, but enough so the thread between them pulled tighter, tried to cinch them together.
He continued trailing his index finger along her bare shoulder.
“Yes,” he said.
“For real or for pretend?” she asked, the information incredibly pertinent to the direction of the conversation.
His mother was sitting at the table, after all. And Molly had promised to put on a good show for her. Even if that show was now the real thing for her.
Please be real. Please be real. Please be real.
“Can anyone else hear me?” he asked again, right next to her ear, so the words were only for her.
She gave a subtle headshake. “No. I don’t think so.”
“And does it feel real?” he asked, his fingertip still
trailing along her shoulder to the line of her necklace. He slipped it under the chain at the back of her neck and, yup, she had to adjust the way she was sitting. Push her thighs together to relieve a teensy bit of the pressure he’d built there.
She nodded because she couldn’t find words right then. “Then it’s real.” He said the words with his lips actually touching her earlobe. She held back the moan building inside her throat because…again…trying to be polite at the
