Fontana tried to ignore the way the R.E.M. T-shirt clung to his broad shoulders, his muscular chest. Frayed Levi’s circled an enviously flat tummy, doing a bottomless slide down long legs. He was nothing like she’d imagined—pampered and artistic, one of those frail creative types. Instead, he was a forbidden textbook version of sexy.
Oh, I have ideas, Atlanta.Plenty of them.
“Dangerous to keep eating me up with those baby blues, Quinn.” He glanced back to make sure they were alone, tossedhis jacket atop his bag, and advanced until the tips of his loafers brushed her filthy boots. Propping a closed fist against the window frame on either side of her, he hemmed her in. “You don’t even know why, do you?”
She took a breath, preparing to unleash a torrent of fury, always her first line of defense. But only succeeded in letting in the enticing scent of citrus and man, which sent her mind down an illicit path.
“I can still taste you,” he whispered, his dark eyes flooding with the deep amber of aged whiskey. “Theexactflavor, like I just left that kiss. Like I haven’t swallowed or had a drink in days.” He shifted the toothpick, stepping closer, maybe preparing to kiss her again. “Of all the women it could be, it’s you I’m savoring in my dreams.” His lips curved in a slow smile, setting off that dimple in his lovely cheek. “Which strikes me as insanely amusing for any numbers of reasons.”
It’s you I’m tasting in my dreams.
Fontana considered removing his toothpick with her teeth and getting down to business, but the heat of his body, his breath grazing her cheek in a ragged caress, extinguished all coherent thought.
Campbell exhaled and took a step back, casting a longing glance at the open window, making Fontana wonder if he was tempted to leap through it. “Listen, Quinn, I’m no saint. After years of depravity, you’ll have to excuse me if my finer sensibilities are deader than a goddamned doornail. I’m not exactly equipped to judge right from wrong in this situation, but I’m doing the best I can. You, on the other hand, are not making it any easier.”
“I missed out. On dating.” Shrugging, she dragged the toe of her boot across a scuff on the floorboard. “And mindlesssex.”
The words were out before Fontana could stop them, a confession she hadn’t meant to make. Her voice faltered, theadmission a little too real. She’d been busy raising her sister and focusing on work to consider a normal dating life. She swallowed hard, not wanting to explain further after embarrassing herself.
But the look on his face was far from pitying.
CAMPBELL
Campbell chewed on his toothpick while his mind drifting to the territory of mindless sex, his favorite topic next to photography. “I think I’m going to enjoy this discussion.”
Seemingly out of breath and flustered, she stalked past him. The worn painter’s pants, as old as Kit, hugged her hips, and the shaggy fabric he believed was called chenille clung to her pert breasts. Her fashion sense was nothing short of atrocious, but there was no denying she presented a dazzling package despite it.
“I never had a lot of time for...” Fontana waved a hand vaguely, avoiding his gaze as she skirted around him on the return. “Fun. Dating.Sex. I was raising my sister, worrying about where our next meal would come from.” She exhaled sharply, frustration creeping into her words. “A thousand times, I wanted to leave Hannah by herself, sneak out the window, go to a movie with the few friends I had managed to make. Hard to do when we never stayed in one place for longer than a couple of months. I wanted to play hooky from school,ride in the back of a truck sitting on some boy’s lap, hide him in my closet when he was supposed to be home, and then make out with him in my bed. Be irresponsible, you know?”
“I do know,” Campbell whispered, though he wasn't entirely sure he did—not in the way she meant—because he'd done all those things.
Her voice dropped, softening with a tinge of regret. “I’ve only recently figured out I missed something along the way.”
“Whoa.Whoa, wait a minute.” Campbell raised his arm, blocking her steady charge past him. Amazing, but he managed to not touch her.
He’d known Fontana Quinn was trouble, but the suppressed passion bubbling from her like runaway lava was more than he could handle while trying to keep his meager principles intact. Not when she was so damned appealing—with her crooked smiles, honest confessions, and that spark of vulnerability that drew him in like a moth to a flame. “I guess it’s stupid for me to be insulted, but you think I’m some gigolo, here for missed-life fucking lessons? Thatiswhat you’re talking about, right?”
Now he was beginning to understand her inexperience, and it should’ve made him want to run. Instead, it made him want to pull her closer, show hereverything.
She lifted her chin, her beautiful face flooding with color. “Crude, but yes. Though, I only expect one lesson.”
“To sound like some old broad from a black-and-white movie: well, I never.”
“The way you carry yourself, like an alley cat on the prowl with your zipper half-mast, how could you never?” She snapped her fingers, just inches from his face. “You’ve led me to believe you’d be a firecracker in bed, and I believe it. Now, I want to light the fuse.”
He opened his mouth, closed it. Completely at a loss for words.
Thoughts,yes. Words,no.
She clicked her tongue against her teeth, just like his fifth-grade English teacher who smelled like camphor had. “Or am I wrong to assume your dinner invitation came with the possibility of getting laid?”
Wrenching the window open, Campbell shoved his head out, hoping the sharp autumn air might slap some sense into him. When that didn’t work, he replayed images from his last photo shoot, a sedate commercial project for a travel company, willing his body to calm down.
“I guess I don’t understand how the seduction process works. I don’t see the difference between you asking and me accepting, or me asking and you accepting.”
Campbell jerked when her leg brushed the back of his knee, banging his head against the window frame. “No, Quinn, you don’t.” She didn’t understand what sheaskedfor, that was the problem.
While he sure knew what he wanted.
