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Jesus, I’m rambling like a teenage boy. Why isn’t she saying anything?
“Do you mean that?” she whispers, looking up at me and licking her lips.
“Yeah, not one romantic streak—”
“No!” she interrupts. “The other thing.”
“Oh, yeah. I do. I love you.”
Her shoulders relax on the spot, and my stomach loosens. Dragging my thumb across her lips and then cupping her cheek, I zero in on her eyes, wanting to read what’s going on in that pretty little head of hers.
Her lips lift up at the corner in a smile. “I’ve loved you since I was nine.”
Holy shit. So much for always being able to read my woman.
“You’ve been holding out on me.”
“Not really.” Biting her lip, she leans into my touch. “It’s just something I realized recently.”
“Mmm, my burned pancakes made quite an impression on you, then.” Tilting her head up, I kiss her wildly. Before I know it, I push her against the wall of the nearest building, feasting on her delicious lips.
“Max.” She pushes me away, out of breath. “You can’t kiss me like that in the middle of the street.”
“I just told you I love you, and you admitted you’ve been hung up on me for nineteen years. We can do whatever we want.”
“You’re twisting my words.” She slaps my shoulder, darting out her tongue. On a whim, I bite her gently on her tip. “Ouch. What was that for?”
“You just made me a happy man, Emilia.”
“You’ll bite my tongue from now on when you’re happy?” Her grin is contagious.
“Maybe.”
“I think you need to reassess your reactions, mister.”
I still have her trapped against the wall, and there are endless possibilities to what I could do to her. But there is a street full of cars behind us, and the sidewalk is bustling with passersby.
“What do you want me to do to you when I’m happy?” I ask her. “I’m not letting you go until you say it.”
She eyes one of my arms and then the other, as if assessing her chances of escaping. But my palms are firmly pressed against the wall at her sides, caging her in between. She makes a “come here” motion with her finger, and I lower my ear to her mouth.
“I don’t know about that… but I do know what I’ll do to you. Drive you crazy.” After a brief pause, she adds in a barely audible whisper, “Go down on you.”
Jerking my head, I step back, gawking at my spitfire of a woman, who never talks dirty. Hell, even now, she’s blushing. But as she slips away from me, I recognize this for what it was: a ploy to make me lower my guard—or in this case, my arms.
“Earned my freedom,” she says sassily, still blushing. “Let’s go have lunch, Bennett. You’re starving me.”
Yep, she’s definitely full of surprises today. “Let’s go.” Taking her hand, I lead the way, wondering if she plans to catch me off guard with her womanly wiles again today.
***
Emilia
We’re sitting in a remote corner of the busy restaurant, and we’re halfway through lunch when I have the hunch Max wants to tell me something. His brow has been furrowed for minutes now, and he’s chewing his food slowly, as if he’s searching for the right words to break some bad news to me. Maybe he wants to take back his love declaration. My heart clenches at the thought, and suddenly my burger tastes like paper. I’ve been on the receiving end of a love retraction before, and it stung like hell. But my feelings for Paul weren’t nearly as strong as they are for Max. What if he’s concluded he said it too soon? Or maybe I scared him off with my own admission. Or maybe I’m just overthinking this, and his serious demeanor is because he has a lot on his mind at work. I’m about to ask about that when Max’s phone starts buzzing.
“Sorry, it’s Pippa,” he mouths to me, placing his phone to his ear. “Hi.”
Pippa speaks quickly on the other end, but I don’t catch a word.
