"I…" I frown, shaking my head. "Still don't understand you."
More bubbly, happy laughter. "What's not to understand? I didn't think I was all that complicated."
I shrug. "Keep waiting for you to come to your senses. But you don't. You're still here. Letting me talk to you. Letting me touch you. Don't make any damn sense."
This makes her brows furrow. "We'll have to pull that statement apart at some point. For now, just know that I'm in full possession of my senses."
She lets go of my neck with one hand and runs it down the outside of my arm, caressing my bicep, fingertips tracing the horseshoe outline of my tricep and then gliding down to my forearm. Her hand covers mine. Moves my hand from her waist to her hip. Pinning my eyes with hers, she slides my hand further down to cup the taut curve of her ass.
"Does that clarify things?" she whispers.
My erection goes full-bore. I can't help it, can't fight it down any longer. Surely she can feel it. I keep still, barely breathing, rocked with disbelief.
"Noelle…" I growl. "Crazy woman."
"Why am I crazy?"
"Playing with fire."
"So burn me."
I give in to need—graze the side of her face with my palm, soaking up the exquisite softness of her skin with the rough calluses of my big, hard, clumsy hand. She nuzzles into my palm, and my breath boils in my throat at the movement.
Her beautiful face is inches from mine, her deep, burning, verdant green eyes searching me ceaselessly. Her lips are parted, and her tongue darts along them, moistening them.
Fuck, I want to kiss her so goddamn bad.
All indications point to her wanting me to. I just…it's hard to trust that. Hard to believe she'd want that—withme.
I'm a brute. A criminal. A monster with a horrible, violent past. She doesn’t know half of it.
She covers the side of my face. “You're not ready yet, are you?”
"For what?"
She doesn't answer. instead, her lips touch my cheek next to my nose. My cheekbone. The corner of my mouth. Teasing. Tempting. Tantalizing. "This."
My dick turns to steel, aching under the firm weight of her lush backside. My hand curls into the soft cotton of her pale green dress, and beneath the thin material, her skin is warm and her curves generous and supple. I can't help but seek more, my hand spreading to greedily cup more of her full, soft bottom.
She lets out a sigh that contains a note of a moan—of pleasure. She nuzzles my jaw with her nose and then kisses my cheek again. "I like that," she whispers. "A lot."
My breathing is ragged, harsh. "Noelle."
"Yeah, Bear?"
"You’re too good for me."
"I happen to feel otherwise."
She brings her face in front of mine, noses tip-to-tip, lips almost touching. I feel her breath. I can almost taste her mouth.
A sudden, sharp, loud trill jars the moment, and she jerks upright, gasping in shock. “Holy crap, that scared the poop out of me."
Without leaving my lap, she reaches past me to snag her phone out of her purse, glances at the screen, and pulls an annoyed face. "Gotta answer it. It's my dad." She swipes the answer slider. "Hey, Dad. What's up?"
A pause as she listens; I can hear him speaking on the other end, but it's muffled and tinny and indistinct. "Yeah, I'm planning on coming, of course. Oh, um…sure. Yeah. Okay, I’ll pick it up and be there soon. Okay, yeah. Yup—love you too, bye." She ends the call and leans past me to toss the device back in her purse. "They need a few extra things for the cookout, and Mom wants me to help her prep the food."
"Oh. Okay."
