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Penny froze, suddenly unable to recall whether she’d remembered to apply deodorant after her shower. The urge to lift her arm and do a sniff check seized her, and she clenched her hands into fists to keep them pinned at her sides.
Caleb shuffled his feet on her doorstep, his eyes darting uncertainly to the apartment behind her, and she pulled herself together enough to offer him a smile. “You’re here.”
The tension in his shoulders relaxed a microfraction. “I’m here.”
“Come in.” She stepped back to admit him, but as he moved past her into the apartment, she leaned toward him to steal a shameless sniff. She couldn’t help it. He smelled so good. She had to find out what that soap was so she could bathe herself in it every day.
Despite his recent shower, the subtle scent of coffee still clung to him. It must have settled into the hoodie he was wearing. This one was a dark charcoal gray, and it hugged his shoulders and biceps in a way that should be illegal in public. Penny couldn’t wait to peel it off him.
While he took his shoes off, she shut the door and twisted the deadbolt, which slid home with an ominous thunk. They were locked in now. No escape. Like Finn and Poe in the meat freezer, minus the imminent threat of hypothermia.
Penny wasn’t sure what to do next. Her internet search had failed to cover this part, and she was unfamiliar with the standard etiquette. Should they spend a few minutes making small talk, or get right down to business?
She elected to fall back on good manners, which had always served her well. “Do you want a beer or something?” she asked Caleb, who was now standing uneasily in the middle of her living room. Maybe this would be less awkward with a little social lubricant to smooth the gears.
He shook his head. “No thanks.”
So much for social lubricant. Now what? Straight to the personal lubricant stashed in her bedside table? Her mind shrank away from the possibility of an escalation that abrupt.
“Are you as nervous as I am?” she asked, hoping honesty would help break the ice.
His brow creased. “Maybe we shouldn’t—”
“I swear to God,” she interrupted before he could get any further, “if you try to leave again I will murder you.”
The corner of his mouth quirked in amusement. “Okay, then.”
“Just because I’m nervous doesn’t mean I don’t want to do this.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Okay? Do you believe me now, or do I need to say it a dozen more times?”
“I believe you.”
“Are you sure?” she asked him, suddenly afraid that in her quest to be assertive, she might have accidentally pressured him into something he wasn’t a hundred percent on board with.
He took long enough to answer that she’d almost convinced herself he was going to say no. “I’m sure if you are.”
“Okay.” She let out the breath she’d been holding. “Good. That’s settled, then.”
They regarded one another warily. Neither of them inclined to make the first move, apparently.
Penny broke the impasse by starting for the kitchen, because it was her safe place. As long as she was playing hostess she knew what to do with herself. “I’m getting a beer. Are you sure you don’t want—”
Caleb grabbed her elbow as she passed and spun her toward him. His arms banded around her as his mouth crushed hers. It was so sudden and so forceful it stole her breath, and she gasped against him.
He started to pull back, but before he could get away she wound her hands around his neck to stop him. She pressed his mouth open as their lips came together again, and he breathed out a sigh of relief.
Rather than the slow, precise, exploring kisses of the day before, this was more like an open-mouthed slide. Urgent, fumbling, and rough. Heat shuddered through her as his hands moved over her face, her hair, her shoulders, like he couldn’t get enough of touching her.
She scrabbled at his chest and pushed his hoodie off his shoulders and down his arms. Once again, only a single thin layer of T-shirt stood between her and what she was certain was a magnificent torso. As they kissed, she pressed her fingertips to his chest, groping him shamelessly, feeling her way down like she was reading a page of braille. Their tongues tangled as she traced the dense flesh of his pectorals, the individual bones of his rib cage, the rock-hard ridges of his abs.
When she got to his waist, she dipped her fingers under the hem of his shirt in search of bare skin, and he generously pulled his T-shirt over his head, tossing it onto the floor behind him.
Penny’s gaze consumed him, enraptured. Devouring every perfectly defined bulge and taut valley. “Wow.”
Caleb watched her watching him, his expression heated but also a little leery. “What?”
