Her eyes flashed and twinkled with amusement at his expense. The last bit was said in a low, raspy voice that sounded more like a dare and a challenge than anything else.
Lightning fast, he snatched the bagged chips out of her hand and carried them to the trash, dumping them out of the bag atop the rest of the garbage inside where they belonged before dropping the bag on top and crunching the mass of it down.
“That’s just wasteful. Why did you buy them if you weren’t going to allow me to eat them?”
“I made a mistake.” He shut the top by removing his foot from the lever and turned to glare at her. “You’re fighting a losing battle by exercising when you’re refilling it with that crap.”
“I’ll have you know I exercise just so I can eat that crap. It’s a yin and yang kind of thing. Like us,” she said, her lips widening into a smile that made him want to kiss it off her.
His body stilled at the thought. Atthatimage. He couldn’t think like that about her. Of her. Brat though she was.
Walking chaos. Obvious trouble. Rebound city. You do not want to mess with her.
He didn’t. If she were any other woman, maybe he’d take the bait but not Quinley. Not when having her meant disrupting his carefully balanced life on every level to an extent that could destroy him and all he’d worked so hard to achieve.
Quinley stepped closer until his every breath held the sweet, salty scent of her. Her body had started to cool, the glistening sweat not as apparent now as when he’d first walked in. But she smelled of vanilla and citrus, maybe a bit of jasmine from the soaps provided by the cabin, and he swallowed a growl because he wanted a taste. Just one…lick.
She took another step, this one leaving her black-clad chest a half inch from his, and a glance down at her cleavage with her so close…
He swallowed hard and barely managed to bite back a groan. “What are you doing, Quinley?”
Her beautiful eyes sparkled as they held his, the challenge in them daring him to—what? Come and get it? Gether?
“You took my food.”
He narrowed his gaze on hers and the ridiculousness of her statement. “That wasn’t food.”
“Agree to disagree,” she mused softly, still looking up at him with those gorgeous eyes of hers.
The soft green made him think of new grass or the Atlantic on certain days when the sun hit the water just right, luring him to dive in. “I bought it. I’m allowed to toss it.”
It was a poor excuse, but he used it because he had nothing else to fight her with. Nothing left as his defenses fell faster than he could shore them up.
She made a tsking sound with her tongue, and his gaze followed the movement, and then held there, watching, waiting, to see if she’d be bold enough to kiss him again.
Did he want her to? He could—he would—control himself where she was concerned and not make a move on her, he vowed.
But ifshekissedhimagain…
She took another step forward, pressing her entire body flush against his as she braced her hand on the countertop at his hip where he now leaned.
Quinley blinked up at him, innocent and—predatory at the same time. A heady combination for a man who liked a woman who knew her mind yet liked to play. And at the moment, it seemed as though Quinley was both.
This woman was a far cry from the one who’d clutched his shoulders and wept for an hour, broken on her bedroom floor. This woman was just the right amount of strength and softness, aggressiveness andbrathe ached to get his hands on.
She lifted her face, her lips parting as she continued to stare up at him. He had a good six inches on her height which was above average at five-seven or eight.
He watched her, waiting, barely daring to breathe because of the things the scent of her did to his already white-knuckled control.
With a small sound like a sassyha,she snatched something from behind him then shot him a satisfied smirk over her shoulder as she raced for the other side of the island, carrying a new bag of junk food with her as she went.
She turned and taunted him by waving the bag in the air and giving him a smile that dared him to do something about it.
The urge to give chase filled him, and he fought it with everything he had inside of him. She wasn’t for him. Forbidden. Would be a huge mistake.
She wouldnotshatter his control and make him want things he couldn’t have. Didn’t want. He ran two businesses, already had a family the size of several families combined, and he didn’t— Heknewbetter than to give himself over to the pain and chaos she could cause. “Don’topen that.”
She ripped the top wide with a grin that fired his blood. “You need real food for breakfast, Quinley. Don’t eat another??—”
