He snorted but sobered quickly. “I’m sorry for being weird.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m nervous, too,” she said, squeezing his hand. “Now, tell me more about this big, lawyer brain you think I have.”
“Would it do to tell you that you’re the smartest person I know? Or would you like me to recite a sonnet about how enormous your brain is?”
“You really think I’m the smartest person you know?”
“Of course I really think that. Why would I lie… doofus?”
“Shush. I’m no doofus. I’m the smartest person you know.” She grinned and looked down at her menu, but she kept her hand where it was. “So are we going to get some momos or what?”
“We’ll definitely get some momos and maybe even some yak meat, too.”
He studied his menu with a smile, loving the contrast of their easy banter and the electricity traveling up his arm from where his fingers entwined with hers. Same but different.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The momos were as fabulous as promised, but the food became a distant memory as Jack drove Lizzy to her apartment. Despite all her bravado that they shouldn’t be nervous about talking to each other, she couldn’t think of a single thing to say. Was their good-night kiss going to be as explosive as the kiss they’d shared this morning? If it was, would she want to stop kissing him when there was a bed right behind the door?
Oh, God. Sex. Sex with Jack. She couldn’t even wrap her head around it. But she’d happily wrapped her leg around his waist earlier. She could hear the thumping of her heart in her ears and feel it in her throat. She fought to keep her breathing even. Why was she getting so worked up about a good-night kiss? Probably because she wanted more than a kiss.
Thankfully, the drive back to Sparrow was a short one, and she was able to hop out of Jack’s car before she started hyperventilating. It had nothing to do with anxiety—it still pleasantly surprised her that her constant companion was so conspicuously absent these days—and all to do with lust. He came around to her side and stood smiling serenely at her. She couldn’t spot ahint of nervousness on him. No fair. Unreasonably peeved by his ease, she spun on her heels and stomped her way to the back of the building. She heard him following from behind.
By the time she reached her door, her flash of annoyance was greatly outshadowed by anticipation and desire. Weird or not, she was horny. She wanted this man.
“This is me,” she said inanely.
“Yes.” He cleared his throat and leaned back on his heels, his hands deep in his pockets.
Maybe he wasn’t as calm as he’d appeared. The thought eased some of her own nervousness. “I had a lovely time.”
“Yes,” he repeated. “I had a good time, too.”
Should she invite him in for a drink and see where it led? Was she ready to go wherever it led? Her body screamedyes,but her mind said in a small voice,This is Jack.Of course she knew that. But maybe she wanted to invite him in so muchbecausehe was Jack. She drew an unsteady breath to ask him to come inside.
“Well, good night.” He swiftly kissed her cheek and jogged down the steps as though he couldn’t wait to get away from her.
She blinked and lifted her hand to cradle her tingling cheek. What the hell just happened? That was it? That was all she got? A peck on the cheek? She was getting her panties twisted into a knot—wondering if she was ready to sleep with him—when he wasn’t even planning to kiss her good night? Well, she felt like a total asshat.
Lizzy let herself inside her apartment and got ready for bed. Alone. As some of her outrage subsided, she realized he was serious about taking things slowly. In all fairness, she had agreed to it, but she didn’t know he’d meant glacial pace. Hmm. Whether something was slow or not was subjective. She couldn’t help it if her definition of slow was much faster than his.
After sliding under the sheets, she clicked off the table lamp and hugged the comforter to her chest. She wasn’t planning to seduce him—it wasn’t about that at all—but the cheek-kissing nonsense was going to end. The point of this experiment was to see where their attraction led them. To see what it felt like to bemore.That, by necessity, included kissing. Lots of kissing.
“Good morning,” Jack said when Lizzy walked out from behind the building bright and early the next day.
“Good morning,” she replied in a pleasant, cheery voice.
Without further ado, she stepped up close to him, rose on her tiptoes, and kissed him on his full, unsuspecting lips. She didn’t stick her tongue into his mouth or anything, but it was a full-on, soft-mouthed, lingering kiss. Jack froze for two seconds. Just as his lips parted and he started returning her kiss, Lizzy stepped back from him, their lips separating with a satisfying kissy smack.
“Ah… good morning,” Jack said with his gaze glued to her lips.
She licked them for good measure and watched his eyes glaze over. This was nice. She felt much better. “So we’re going to jog through downtown today?”
“Uh… yes.” A deep groove formed between his brows as though formulating those words took great effort. He was still staring at her lips.
“Well, show me the way. I’ll just follow.” She unzipped her sweatshirt and shrugged it off.
Jack’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets. She hid her smile by pretending to do some hamstring stretches. She wasn’t sure if his reaction was entirely warranted. Yes, she was onlywearing a sports bra, but she was also wearing a pair of high-waisted tights, so only about three inches of her torso was visible.
