Dating Trouble (Grover Beach Team Book 5) (17 page)

I let out my breath. Thank God, nothing shattered into a million pieces during that stunt. At my horrified face, he only chuckled. Next, he beckoned me with a tilt of his head and patted the corner of the kitchen counter. Thinking I’d only be in their way, I shook my head and remained seated at the table, happy to watch from here.

Chris crooked his finger.

“No,” I told him, but he wasn’t happy about that. Exhaling an exaggerated sigh and rolling his eyes, he walked to me, took my hand, and pulled me to my feet. It all happened very fast, but when he swirled me around him and caught me to his chest, a startled laugh escaped me. Thank God for the dancing lessons we were forced to take in tenth grade—I didn’t trip.

In a way that matched the samba rhythm of the song, Chris moved me to the kitchen island. He held my right hand up, wrapping his other arm around my waist, and never broke eye contact as he made me dance with him across the room. That was probably the hottest thing I’d ever done, and with one of the two hottest guys on the planet. Did he notice how deep I breathed in his scent when I was so close to him? Hopefully not.

The dance was over far too quickly. Dropping his hands to my waist, Chris lifted me onto the kitchen island, right where he wanted me to sit before. Feet crossed at my ankles, I clasped my hands in my lap and enjoyed the view from here.

Spicy smells wafted around us as Ethan fried the meat and bacon-wrapped veggies. From the other side, a sweet scent crawled toward me from where Chris was mixing a cream of yogurt and mascarpone.

When he was done, he stuck his finger into the cream and held it out to me.

“Seriously?” I grimaced. “Gross.”

Laughing, Chris shrugged and stuck the finger in his mouth, sucking off the cream. Seconds later, he startled me once again as he grabbed my hips without warning and slid me along the edge of the island. The music muffled my shocked shriek, but he just wanted to get me out of the way so he could fetch a kitchen knife from the top drawer that I’d been blocking with my dangling legs. Really, he could have asked me to move. Instead, he placed his hands on my hips again and slid me back to my original spot. This time, I didn’t shriek but giggle.

“I need the oven in a minute,” Ethan said, filling a ceramic bowl with the meat and pouring some creamy sauce over it.

Chris went to retrieve a baking tray from the oven to make room for his brother’s dish. From the look of it, he’d prepared a cake base earlier today. I loved the biscuit smell that crept up my nose when he placed the tray next to me on the counter.

After Ethan shoved his part of the cooking deal in the oven, he wiped his hands on a dishtowel and announced, “Half an hour.”

Chris, who’d smeared the cream on the cake by now, picked a few oranges from the fruit bowl and juggled them, singing along to “All About That Bass,” until one of the oranges dropped to the floor. Ethan picked it up for him while Chris grabbed a few other fruits. He dug a little deeper into the bowl and finally turned around to his brother, a frown on his face. “Where are the kiwis?”

Ethan sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Crap.” He gave me a guilty look. “I completely forgot about them.”

Annoyed, Chris suppressed a groan. “Go get me some, now.”

Of course, he’d asked me about my favorite fruit, but I didn’t see what was so tragic about not having any kiwi on the cake. As long as there were no peaches in my dessert, I was fine with any fruit. But Chris seemed to want everything perfect.

“How about you go get them yourself?” Ethan taunted him.

Chris braced his hands on the counter and leveled Ethan the same mocking look. “I’m grounded.”

Grimacing, Ethan let go of a sigh. “Right.”

“Hey,” I said, drawing their attention to me. “I can go get them.”

About to slide off the counter, Chris put a hand on my knee and held me back. “Ethan can go.
You
stay right where you are.”

My heart knocked against the base of my throat. Last time I was alone with Chris, I ended up with a hickey on my neck. It would be wise to insist I run to the store. But Ethan was out of the kitchen before I even had a chance to argue. “Be right back,” he shouted from the hallway. The sound of the front door slamming shut drifted to us.

Oh shoot…

MY NERVES IN a sudden tangle, I eyed Chris hesitantly. To his credit, he didn’t act as if he had any hidden motives or as if he planned to roast me and have me for dinner. No, he just turned off the music and fished for another stainless steel bowl in a cupboard.

In this one, he dropped several bars of dark chocolate and a chunk of butter. Heating the mass in a bain-marie, he stirred it nonstop with an egg beater. Every now and then, he dipped his finger into the melting chocolate and tasted it.

Strange that he wouldn’t talk to me now that we were alone. It heightened my tension, but like hell would I let him notice that.

The next time he dipped his finger into the chocolate, he jerked back his hand, wincing. A stain landed on the collar of his white t-shirt. “Damn,” he murmured under his breath, trying to wipe the chocolate away, but the dark spot remained.

He turned off the burner and pulled the bowl aside—the chocolate was probably hot and liquidy enough now. Shrugging out of his shirt, he pulled his tee over his head and tossed it across the room. It landed on one of the empty chairs.

I stopped breathing, my chest gone too tight at the sight of his toned body. Heck, did I need to wipe some drool off my lips? Hopefully not, but I couldn’t guarantee. Chris certainly noticed my gaze on him. With a smirk, he pulled the dark gray shirt on again and buttoned it up, leaving only the top two buttons unfastened. His set of silver chains glinted against his skin.

Unaware he’d left me feeling a little woozy with his unintentional strip show, Chris calmly continued stirring the chocolate sauce, improving it with a splash of rum and some grated orange peels. A sweet, warm smell spread in the room, reminding me of birthday cakes and Easter candy.

Next, he peeled an orange and a banana and plucked some grapes from the fruit bowl. Between chopping the fruits on a board, he continued to stir the chocolate and occasionally tested the temperature with his finger. It looked so delicious, I wished he’d let me dip my finger into that bowl, too.

When he finally seemed pleased with the consistency, he retrieved a small plate of strawberries from the fridge and set it on the counter next to me. “Close your eyes and open your mouth,” he said softly, his attention on the food in front of him rather than on me.

I did, but a moment later, I opened one eye again to scrutinize him. “You’re not going to stick your finger in my mouth, are you?”

Glancing up, he laughed. “Now that would be a little
gross
, right?”

It would
so
be, but he’d offered me his cream-dipped finger before, so who could know with him? I closed my eye again but shot both open the next second. “And you’re not going to kiss me, either?”

Chris, still working the molten chocolate with the egg beater, cocked his head and gave me a funny look. “I wasn’t thinking about it.” A short pause. One corner of his mouth tilted up to a crooked smile. “But now I’m wondering why you were.”

Very funny. “You better play nice, if you want me to stay through dinner.”

“I always play nice, little Sue,” he promised with a touch of mischief in his voice. “Now close your eyes.”

The back of my neck tingled, but I did as he told me.

I could hear when he put the egg beater away and I could feel the warmth of his body as he moved closer. He took his time preparing whatever he was going to put in my mouth, and with each second that ticked away, my heart galloped faster. My knees trembled, so I pressed them tightly together. If Chris saw my shaking legs…that would be the death of me.

“Open your mouth,” he repeated in that same soft tone as before.

I parted my lips a little.

“You don’t trust me?” There was a smile in his voice.

Warily, I opened my mouth a tiny bit more. When something touched my tongue, I closed my teeth on it and pulled it out of his fingers. The taste was a mix of sour and sweet, fleshy and juicy. It was kind of hard to figure out what exactly he’d fed me with my eyes shut, but in the end I knew. It was half an orange wedge, coated with warm, dark chocolate.

As a moan of pleasure escaped me, Chris asked, “Good?”

“Jeez!” Good didn’t even begin to describe it. “This is
awesome
!”

He chuckled, but I didn’t open my eyes yet. “Next one,” he said and gently put another fruit into my mouth. This time, however, he didn’t pull back his fingers fast enough and I closed my lips on them. With the speed of a shooting star, heat traveled through my veins and in that instant I was aware of him in every single cell of my body.

Chris dragged his finger across my bottom lip, leaving me vibrating when he pulled his hand away. Maybe now was the right moment to open my eyes and run from the room. But I was struggling so hard to just keep breathing, I couldn’t manage anything else.

“Susan?” His voice was barely a whisper.

I swallowed the strawberry, then croaked, “Hm?”

His breath teased the skin on my cheek as he gently said in my ear, “What’s the temperature in Hell right now?”

This time, my eyelids flew open and my jaw dropped, but all that came out was a shaky breath. From three inches away, we gazed into each other’s eyes. Chris was so quiet, I wondered if he could catch the sound of my drumming heart.

Lifting his hand to my face, he brushed my cheek with only the tips of his fingers.

Jeez, he was going to kiss me, and I was going to let him, and then he would go break my heart, and I was going to regret it, but still I would let him kiss me now and,
oh my God
, please don’t let there be strawberry bits left between my teeth, and of course I should jump off this kitchen counter and run as fast and far as I can, but heck… I closed my eyes.

Chris touched his lips to the corner of mine. And the butterflies were back. All ten thousand and then some.

“Are we getting close to freezing point?” he breathed.

As an answer, I turned my head slightly his way. Splaying his fingers, he cupped my cheek and he placed another gentle kiss on my lips. It felt so incredibly good that I wanted to press pause on this moment, call Sam, and tell her all about it. An excited squeak built up inside me. I was going to explode! But of course, I contained it all, even when Chris tilted his face a little and slowly molded his mouth to mine.

I’d never been aware that lips could actually feel so soft. And boy, when he made me open my mouth and touched my tongue with his for the first brief moment, my stomach became too small a place for the butterflies in there. I had the feeling all of them were pushing up and trying to escape through my mouth, nose, and ears.

Chris’s other hand graced my right cheek. It moved to my neck until his fingers brushed the skin behind my ears and his thumbs stroked my cheekbones. This way he had total control and tipped my head up a little as he stepped in front of me, pushing gently against my knees until I opened them and let him stand between my thighs.

Unclasping my hands, I prayed they weren’t coated with cold sweat. There was nothing I could do about their soft tremble, however, as I flattened them against his chest. My fingers dug into his shirt, needing something to hold on to.

His tongue came back for another sample of mine, this time not as fleetingly as before. In fact, Chris took his time feeling his way around my mouth and teased my tongue out of hiding. Everything was amazingly tender.

From the taste of his mouth, he’d been nibbling an orange while he fed me fruit. Maybe he could also taste chocolate and strawberries in mine? Chris deepened the kiss, seeming hungry for whatever I was ready to give him. In spite of a small voice at the back of my mind telling me that this was dangerous, insane, and stupid even, I didn’t hold back.

The next moment, I was reminded that I’d grown a perfect pair of boobs since last summer, because they pressed against his chest—that’s how close he was. The touch gave me chills of a funny kind.

I moved my hands over his shoulders, feeling up the back of his warm neck until my fingers slid into his cropped hair. A slight shiver traveled through him. His lips tightened to a smile, and he kissed a path along my jaw to my ear. “Hey there, Frosty,” he teased.

A little shy, I pulled my hands way. I didn’t want to give him chills with my cold fingers, but Chris caught my hands in front of his chest and led them back to where I’d touched his neck.

Bracing his hands on the counter on either side of my hips, he nibbled the length of my throat. These small kisses didn’t feel slobbery like when he’d given me the hickey. They were just warm and very, very gentle.

When I exhaled a sigh, he moved his mouth back to mine and traced my bottom lip with his teeth. Tenderly, he bit down and suckled with a sensual pull. He might’ve been sucking the life right out of me that way, because my head began to spin from the sensation. Eyes closed, I let my brow dip against his, surrendering with everything I had when he deepened the kiss once again.

I could have done this forever—
wanted
to do this forever. Except, Ethan chose that precise and utterly wrong moment to come back from the store.

Chris heard it first—the sound of a car parking in front of the house. He inched away from me, growling with irritation and a good deal of unsatisfied hunger, but soon enough a warm smile crept to his face. With the tip of his finger, he brushed a few unruly wisps of my hair out of my eyes. “Now…that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

I licked my bottom lip, savoring the last taste of him there, and shook my head, grinning.

He stepped away from me and resumed stirring the cooling chocolate as if nothing at all had happened between us, just as Ethan walked through the door.

“Hey, guys,” he called out. “Here are the kiwis.” He tossed one after the other across the room at Chris, who put them on the counter with the other fruits he’d already chopped. With Ethan checking the meat in the oven, Chris cast me a half-smile and winked.

Once again, I clasped my hands in my lap, suppressing a smile of my own, but a wave of warmth surged to my cheeks. I couldn’t hold Chris’s gaze for long and lowered my eyes.

Ethan went to pull the scalloped fillets of pork out of the oven and prepared three fantastic-looking meals on white porcelain plates. Hopping off the counter, I helped him lay out the table for only the three of us, while Chris finished decorating the cream cake and put it in the fridge to cool for later.

“God, Ethan, this is delicious,” I complimented him a quarter into my meal. Other than that, we didn’t speak much as we ate, and I wondered if Ethan sensed that something was off. He sent me glances across the table, but so did Chris, and at some point I just didn’t know where to look anymore, so I focused only on my plate.

Dinner over, Chris checked on the cake but told us, “It could do with another twenty minutes.”

“Maybe we should clean up the kitchen before dessert,” I suggested.

“Good idea,” Chris replied. “Ethan can do it.”

His twin brother crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. “Why me?”

“Because you forgot the kiwis today.”

“Well, I actually drove to the store again and got them. You clean up here.”

The guys stared each other down in a tight match until they both said at once, “Let’s play it out.”

Like a couple of racehorses that could barely control their energy, they stomped to the backyard and I followed them. Most of the ground out here was lawn and flowerbeds, but a square was paved right behind the house, too. Only a fifth of the size of a real basketball court, it had a basket mounted on an iron bar cemented into the ground. Ethan brought a ball from the little shed at the very back of the yard and the boys made me toss it in the air for an unbiased start.

I knew that Chris was a pro, fit for college basketball, no doubt, but it surprised me to see that Ethan could totally keep up with him. There was no way of telling which of them would win this game.

I watched them jump, run, dive for the ball, and dunk it for several minutes. Finally, I decided to contribute my share to today’s date with the two of them and went inside to clean the kitchen myself. Rinsing and scrubbing the plates, pots, and bowls until they were clean enough to go into the dishwasher, the sound of their game drifted to me through the open window above the sink. The guys laughed and cussed all the way through it, and with Ethan’s counting out loud, I knew the score at all times.

Once done with the dishes and wiping the cutting boards clean, I headed outside again, but something caught the corner of my eye and stopped me in the kitchen door. Chris’s stained t-shirt still hung over one of the chairs.

Safe with no one here to observe me, I sneaked closer and snatched it from the backrest. Holding the fabric to my nose, a deep breath filled my head with Chris’s enticing scent. Reminded of how the car had smelled of him after we played soccer the other day, I closed my eyes.

On a sad note, I wondered if I’d done the wrong thing when I let him kiss me. A while back, I’d told him that I could never kiss a boy without having some feelings for him. Today, I’d proven myself right.

Now, a nervousness crept over me that the deal was over for Chris. He’d finally gotten where he wanted with me. The challenge was over…he’d won. What was going to happen now? Would he walk away and find his next challenge?