Truly Madly Yours (19 page)

“Your cheeks are red.”

“It’s a little cold in here,” she said, but wasn’t sure temperature had anything to do with it.

“You’re not going to last the winter.” He wrapped his hands around her coffee mug for a few seconds, then cupped her cheeks in his palms. “Any other parts you need warmed up?”

Uh-oh. “No.”

“Sure?” The tips of his fingers brushed her hair behind her ears. “I’ll warm you up real good.” His thumb slipped over her chin, then fanned her lower lip. “Wild thing.”

She made a fist and punched him in the stomach.

Instead of becoming angry, he laughed and dropped his hands to his sides. “You used to be more fun.”

“When was that?”

“When you used to get all wide-eyed and mad and look like you wanted to hit me but were such a little goody-goody you never would. Your jaw would get all clenched and your lips puckered. In grade school, all I had to do was look at you, and you’d run away.”

“That’s because you practically knocked me unconscious with a snowball.”

A frown creased his brow and he straightened. “That snowball thing was an accident.”

“Really, which part? When you accidentally packed snow into a hard ball, or when you accidentally threw it at me?”

“I didn’t mean to hit you that hard.”

“Why did you hit me at all?”

He thought a moment then said, “You were there.”

She rolled her eyes. “That’s brilliant, Nick.”

“It’s the truth.”

“I’ll have to remember that next time I see you in a crosswalk and my foot gets a little itch to mow you down.”

His smile showed his straight white teeth. “You’ve become a regular smart ass since you’ve been away.”

“I’ve become my own person.”

“I think I like it.”

“Gee, I guess I can die happy.”

“Kind of makes me wonder what else is different.” He reached out and flipped up the tab of her zipper. The cool metal hit her collarbone and rested against her skin.

Delaney took a shallow breath but refused to look away. He raised his gaze from her throat, and she looked up into his eyes. Within the space of a second, he’d gone from being a somewhat regular guy to the ornery boy she’d grown up with. She’d seen that silvery glint too many times not to know he was about to stomp his foot and yell boo and make her run like crazy. Make her think he was going to throw a worm on her, or something equally hideous. She refused to let him intimidate her. She’d always let him win, and she stood her ground now for all those times she’d lost. “I’m not the same girl you used to antagonize all the time. I’m not afraid of you.”

He lifted one black brow up his tan forehead. “No?”

“No.”

His gaze locked with hers as he reached for the metal tab of her zipper again. He slowly eased it half an inch down its silent track. “Are you afraid now?”

Her hands clenched at her sides. He was testing her. He was trying to make her flinch first. She shook her head.

The tab moved down another few teeth then stopped. “Now?”

“No. You’ll never scare me. I know what you are.”

“Uh-huh.” The zipper slid another inch, and the heavy zebra collar fell open. “Tell me what you think you know.”

“You’re full of bull. You’re not going to hurt me. Right now you want me to think you’re going to strip me naked while people walk by my big window. I’m supposed to get all uptight, and then you can go away and have a really big laugh. But guess what?”

He pulled the tab to the gold satin rose that closed the front of her bra. “What?”

She took a big breath and called his bluff. “You won’t do it.”

Zzziiiiip.

Delaney’s mouth fell open, and she looked down at the front of her sweater. The black ribbed cotton lay undone, the edges gaping an inch apart, revealing her leopard print bra and the inside swells of her breasts. Then before Delaney knew how it happened, she found herself picked up and plopped back down on top her appointment book. The soft fabric of his jeans brushed her knees, and the green Formica top felt cool beneath her thighs. “What do you think you’re doing?” she gasped as she clutched the front of her sweater.

“Shh ...” He touched his finger to her lips. His gaze was pinned to the big window ten feet behind Delaney. “The owner of the bookstore is walking by. You don’t want him to hear you and press his nose against the glass, do you?”

Delaney glanced over her shoulder, but the sidewalk was empty. “Let me down,” she demanded.

“Are you afraid now?”

“No.”

“I don’t believe you. You look like you’re about ready to jump out of your skin.”

“I’m not afraid. I’m just too smart to play your games.”

“We haven’t started to play yet.”

But they had, and he was one man she didn’t want to play with. He was far too dangerous and she found him far too alluring. “Do you get some sort of warped thrill out of this?”

A slow sensual smile curved his lips. “Absolutely. That leopard bra you’ve got on is pretty wild.”

Delaney let go of the front of the sweater long enough to zip it up again. Once it was closed she relaxed a little. “Well, don’t get excited. I know I’m not.”

His deep quiet laughter surrounded her. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

His gaze drifted to her mouth. “I guess I’ll have to see what I can do about that.”

“It wasn’t a challenge.”

“It was a challenge, Delaney.” He brushed his knuckles across her cheek, and her breathing became a little shallow. “A man knows when he’s being challenged by a woman.”

“I take it back.” She wrapped her hand around his wrist.

He shook his head. “You can’t. You already put it out there.”

“Oh, no.” Delaney lowered her gaze to his strong stubborn chin. Someplace safe, away from his hypnotic eyes. “No. I never put out anything.”

“Maybe that’s why you’re so uptight. You need to get laid.”

Her gaze snapped to his and she forced his hand from her cheek. “I don’t need to get laid. I get laid all the time,” she lied.

He slanted her a doubtful look.

“I do!”

He lowered his face to hers. “Then maybe you need someone who knows what he’s doing.”

“Are you offering your services?”

His mouth lightly brushed hers as he shook his head. “No.”

Delaney’s breath got stuck in her throat. “Then why are you doing this to me?”

“It feels good,” he said barely above a whisper and placed soft kisses at the corner of her lips. “Tastes good, too. You always tasted good, Delaney.” He brushed his lips against hers. “All over,” he said and opened his mouth wide over hers. His head tilted to one side and in an instant everything changed. The kiss turned hot and wet like he was sucking the juice from a peach. He ate at her mouth and demanded she feed him in turn. He sucked her tongue into his mouth. The inside of his mouth was warm and slick, and she felt her bones melt. She was helpless to stop him now. She let herself go and kissed him, matching his hunger. He was so good. So good at making her feel like this. Making her more than happy to do things she had no intention of doing. Making her breathless. Making her skin itchy and tight.

His hands moved to her knees and he pushed them apart. She felt the brush of his Levi’s as he stepped between her thighs, felt his grasp on her wrists as he lifted her hands to his shoulders. One of his hands cupped her breast and she moaned deep in her throat. Her stomach clinched and her nipple tightened. Through her sweater and satin bra, she felt the heat of his palm. She arched toward him, wanting more. Her hands slid across his wide shoulders to the sides of his head. Her thumbs brushed his jaw, and she slipped her palms down the sides of his neck. She felt the heavy thumping of his pulse and uneven pull of air into his lungs, and pure female satisfaction poured through her. Her fingers moved to the front of his shirt and went to work on the buttons. Ten years ago he’d seen almost every inch of her naked body, and she hadn’t gotten even a glimpse of his chest. She opened the flannel to satisfy an old curiosity. Then she pulled back from the kiss for a good look at him and wasn’t disappointed. He had the kind of chest that inspired women to shove money down his pants. Dark brown nipples and corrugated muscles, taut skin and black hair that trailed down his flat stomach, circled his navel, then disappeared into the waistband of his jeans. Her eyes lowered to the front of his pants and the thick bulge beneath his button fly. She raised her gaze to his face. He looked back at her from beneath lowered lids, his mouth still wet from their kiss. Her hands slipped across his chest, and her fingers made furrows in his soft hair. Beneath her touch, his muscles bunched.

“Be still a minute,” he said, his voice all husky, like he’d just gotten out of bed. “Unless you want the blue-haired lady at the door to know what we’re doing.”

She froze. “You’re kidding, right?”

“No. It looks like my first grade teacher, Mrs. Vaughn.”

“Laverne!” she whispered loudly and looked over her shoulder. “What’s she want?”

“Maybe a haircut,” he said and brushed his thumbs across her nipples.

“Stop that.” She turned back and slapped his hands aside. “I can’t believe I let this happen to me again. Is she still there?”

“Yep.”

“Can she see us, do you think?” she asked.

“I don’t know.”

“What’s she doing?”

“Staring at me.”

“I can’t believe this. Just last night my mother bitched me out for my scandalous behavior with you at Hennesey’s.” She shook her head. “Now this. Laverne will tell everyone.”

“Probably.”

She looked up at him, still standing between her thighs. “Don’t you care?”

“Exactly what am I supposed to care about? That we were just getting to the fun stuff? That my hand was on your breasts, and your hands were all over my chest, and both of us were having a good time? Damn right I care about that. I wasn’t finished. But don’t expect me to care that a little old lady looked in the window and watched. Why should I care what people are going to say about that? People have talked about me since the day I was born. I stopped caring a long time ago.”

Delaney pushed at his shoulders until he took a step backward. With desire still pulsating along her nerves, she jumped down from the counter and turned around in time to see Mrs. Vaughn totter away in a pink housecoat and support hose. “People in this town already think we’re sleeping together. And you should care since you stand to lose the property Henry left you.”

“How’s that? The last time I checked, at some point during sex, someone gets off. Otherwise it’s nothing more than a grope.”

Delaney groaned and put her head in her hands. “I don’t belong here. I hate this town. I hate everything about it. I can’t wait to leave. I want my life back.”

“Look on the bright side,” he said, and she heard the thud of his boot as he made his way toward the back. “When you leave, you’ll leave a wealthy woman. You sold out for Henry’s money, but I’m sure you’ll think it’s worth it in the end.”

She looked up at him. “You’re a hypocrite. You agreed to your part of the will, too.”

He walked into her storage room and popped back out a few seconds later. “True, but there’s a difference.” With his shirt still unbuttoned, he shrugged into his leather jacket. “That particular stipulation is no hardship for me.”

“Then why were you trying to take off my sweater?”

He bent down and picked up his drill. “Because you let me. Don’t take it personally, but you could have been anyone.”

His words hit her like a punch in the stomach. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from crying or screaming or both. “I hate you,” she said barely above a whisper, but he heard her.

“Sure you do, wild thing,” he said as he wrapped the cord around the drill.

“You should grow up and became an adult, Nick. Grown-up men don’t have to grope women just to see if they can. Real men don’t look at women as sexual playthings anymore.”

He stared at her across the distance that separated them. “If you believe that, then you’re the same silly naive girl you always were.” He yanked the back door open. “Maybe you should take your own advice,” he said, then closed the door behind him.