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His lips parted, and she braced herself to hear that she’d been an experiment. A mistake.
Instead, he pressed his mouth to hers.
Her whole body sagged in relief, tipping her toward him on the couch even more. His arm slipped around her as he softly—so softly—kissed her mouth open. When their tongues touched the taste of his spicy chai mingled with her orange zinger. It tasted like Christmas morning. Like coming downstairs and getting that first glimpse of all the presents under the tree. Promise and possibility and wonder.
He sighed against her lips, and that was how she knew. He wanted her. He wanted this. At least as much as she did. His hand cupped her jaw, his fingertips stroking her skin as his mouth moved over hers slowly. Intently. Savoring her like a new and wonderful flavor of ice cream.
Feeling emboldened, she twisted her body toward him and swung her legs up onto the couch, tucking them beneath her. The arm around her tightened, pulling her even closer. Encouraging her. She slid a knee over his thigh and he let out a low groan as it settled between his legs.
He kissed her harder and she ground her hips against his thigh. She couldn’t help herself. She was lost in the softness of his lips and taste of his tongue. The prickly scrape of his stubble. Her knee slid up higher between his legs and he groaned again, head lolling back and eyes closing. She smiled smugly, reveling in the newfound feeling of power over him.
His hand glided up her spine as he gazed at her with hunger in his eyes. Experimentally, she moved her knee again and laughed as he groaned a third time. The hand on her spine slid into her hair. His fingers grasped the nape of her neck, pulling her mouth to his as his other hand grabbed her leg and moved it so she was straddling both his legs.
She nipped playfully at his lower lip and shifted her weight until she was comfortably settled in his lap. “Is that okay?” she asked, afraid she might be too heavy for him.
His hands cupped her ass. “Better than okay.” Gifting her with another of his rare smiles, he gave her cheeks a squeeze.
So many smiles. She felt blessed. No wonder he was so careful about showing them to anyone. The women who came into the coffee shop would throw their underwear across the counter if they saw Caleb smile like this.
Penny gazed down at their legs, marveling at the size and strength of his thighs. They were even bigger than hers. But where hers were soft and pliant, his had been chiseled out of marble like a Michelangelo.
She caught sight of the tattoo on his biceps and reached for it. Pushing up his sleeve to expose the full length of it, she ran her fingers over his skin, tracing the words as she read them: Transit umbra, lux permanet.
“What does it mean?”
He played with a strand of her hair. “Shadow passes, light remains.”
“I like that.” She smoothed her hand down his arm, unable to believe this was really happening. She’d never been this close to anyone half as good-looking as Caleb. Looks had never mattered to her as much as personality—or at least that was what she’d always told herself. In truth, an opportunity like this had never presented itself before. And now here she was sitting in this gorgeous man’s lap, for crying out loud. What was even her life right now?
She placed her hand on Caleb’s chest and felt his heart thud against her palm, quick as a rabbit’s. His chest rose and fell, his breathing heavy, and it shocked her to realize it was because of her. She’d made his heart speed up and his lungs heave just by touching him.
She slid her hands down his torso, enjoying the heady feeling as his rib cage expanded under her hands with every breath. He watched her with dark, heavy-lidded eyes as she ran her fingertips over his abs. Following the ridges like a topographical map, she settled her hands on his waist. There wasn’t an ounce of give to it. Not a single pocket of excess fat to be found. She could only imagine what he must look like under that T-shirt. Images from the cover of Men’s Health danced before her eyes. There was definitely a six-pack under there, and she longed to see it. Did she dare lift his shirt up?
No, not quite. Not yet anyway.
She stroked his stomach with her thumbs, smiling as his muscles contracted at her touch. “So I’m the best part of your day, huh?”
“You have no idea.” He lifted both his hands to her face, cupping it gently as he drew her in for a kiss. Their mouths met in a slow, luxurious slide. One of his hands curled into her hair while the other traveled to her shoulder, then over and down to graze the side of her breast as his fingers spread over her ribs.
She let out an embarrassing little whimper and felt him smile against her mouth.
“All this time I had no idea you even liked me,” he murmured.
She pulled back to stare at him. “Are you kidding? I was always nice to you.”
He pressed a kiss to the corner of her jaw. “Yeah, but you’re nice to everyone.”
“Well, that’s true.” She ran her fingers through his hair as his lips moved down her throat.
“How was I supposed to know you weren’t just being polite?” His breath heated her skin as he pressed a series of open-mouthed kisses over her throat.
“I was being polite, but you could have given me some encouragement. Then I would have been more than just polite.” Teeth nipped at her skin and she shivered.
“I was afraid to. I knew I was leaving.”
“Not for months.” Her fingers tightened in his hair as her chest clenched. “We could have had so much time.”
She felt him hesitate. “I was sort of seeing someone last year.”
