She inhaled and tried to find her breath. “I like you too.” She swallowed, since he wasn’t smiling. In fact, he was expressionless. “But? I heard a but in there.”
“But I’m not the sticking around kind,” he said.
She digested his words, admittedly surprised by them. Kind of sounded like he planned to leave Texas. “Do you mean with women or your job?”
He loaded their dishes into the dishwasher and straightened to face her. “Both. I’m not sure what I’m doing. My job with Mac is temporary. My future is uncertain at the moment.”
“Oh. I see,” she said, although, she didn’t. Not really.
Isla had been under the impression that like her, he was making Harland County his home. Maybe he still did that black op stuff her cousin had mentioned.
Not that it mattered to her.
“It’s getting late. I should go,” he said, taking a step toward the door.
She stepped with him. “Why?”
Taking the movement as encouragement to join in, Loki was at their feet in a flash.
“What do you mean, why?” Sinjin frowned. “I just told you.”
“Yeah, that you’re not a ‘stick around’ kind of guy. That’s okay.” She smiled, absently bending to pet her dog’s head. “I’m not looking for that. I’m twenty-nine, finishing college a bit late.I have studies, clinicals, assessments, and tests. I don’t have time for something serious. Heck, I haveseriousout my…ears.” She chuckled. “What I need is stress relief. Something light and fun. In a sense, you.”
His lips twitched. “You think I’m light and fun?”
Suddenly feeling shy and more than a little exposed, she swiped an unused napkin from the counter at her side and twisted it in her hands. “I was hoping you would be.”
Sinjin didn’t utter a word, and when she found the courage to glance at him, intent gleamed in his arousal-darkened eyes.
Damn, that was sexy. Too sexy to quell the responding tremor racing through her body.
He took the napkin from Isla’s hand and set it back on the counter. She opened her mouth to command her dog to sit—a command Loki would no doubt ignore—but Sinjin snapped his fingers and the Shepard immediately walked to his bed and settled down in front of the window.
Wow.
She blinked. “You’re good.”
If only she possessed an ounce of his imposing presence. Without it, the cute rescue walked all over her. One blink of his big, brown eyes and he had her in the pad of his paw.
Come to think of it, she acted exactly the same with Sinjin. Except, of course, the guy had her in the palm of his hands.
That thought made her heart skip a beat.
She’d love to be in the palm of his hands.Couldn’t wait to be…
“We’re going to be good together,” he said, stepping behind her, sending a delicious wave of shivers down her spine.
She was suddenly hot. Very hot.
Before her cousin had stopped by, she’d been studying, which had required study clothes—an old pair of shorts and aloose tank top. Hindsight would’ve been great, though. Comfort while studying had been her number one priority, not seduction.
But at the moment, those priorities switched places. Right now, seduction was exactly what she wanted. A night filled with heat and passion with Sinjin. The sexy man made her crave and ache, he made her burn with a need she’d never experienced.
There was never any doubt. Isla wanted Sinjin Acothley.
And he knew it.
But she didn’t care because she knew things too. Like the fact she evoked the same, strong urges in him. She also knew they both understood what this was and what it wasn’t. Temporary, not permanent, and there was something so freeing about that.
