I’d noticed him taking painkillers before he got into the car. And since we’d been on the road now for almost forty-five minutes, he should be feeling better, not wincing with every breath.
“Why don’t you close your eyes? We’ve got a couple hours more.”
“And waste this time with you? No way.”
I snorted. “I’ll make a deal with you. If you rest now, I’ll let you take me out for a real dinner tonight. No press. No hotel fires. Just a simple—”
“Old-fashioned date?”
I grinned. “The last one worked out okay, didn’t it?”
“It did on my end. You?”
I flashed again on the feeling of having him catch me as I fell. Of the way he’d licked me while I’d tried not to scream. Of his gaze, when it seemed as if he couldn’t take his eyes off me. “Oh yeah,” I murmured, my legs clenching against the wet heat in my belly.
When he didn’t respond, I turned to look at him. He was staring at me with that same dark focus I’d just been fantasizing about.
“What?” I asked.
“What are you thinking?”
Heat crept up my neck and into my cheeks.
“Will you do that with me?” he asked.
“What?”
“Whatever it is you’re thinking about.”
My cheeks blazed even hotter. “You don’t know what it is. It could be kinky.”
“Does it involve Jell-O?”
I snorted. “Absolutely not!”
“Pity.” He shifted in his seat. “So what was it?”
I shook my head. It was too embarrassing to say out loud.
“Come on,” he coaxed. “You can say anything to me.”
I was beginning to think that was true. And given the sparkling temptation in his eyes, I felt daring enough to try. “I, um, just really enjoyed last night. Before the fire, that is.”
“Good. Because I was thinking, maybe you’re doing this whole exposure therapy thing wrong.”
I jolted. That was not what I had expected him to say. “What do you mean?”
“Well, last night I told you no.”
In a backward kind of way.
“Maybe tonight, you could practice making demands and expecting a yes answer instead.”
I slowly turned my head, my thoughts a riot of possibilities. But even as very graphic images ricocheted around my brain, I wondered if I was bold enough to say any of them out loud.
“I’m really not the kind of sex kitten you’re used to.”
He grinned. “That’s why you need to practice.”
