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“You scared me to death when you grabbed me.”
“Is there something else going on with you?”
How did she begin to explain what she witnessed across the street? Kimber’s blatant audacity to flaunt her lie in front of the shop was a slap in the face. Lexi had vouched for her with the dress, had taken the heat from Stephen’s anger. And now here she was lying again.
“Oh.” Lexi bit her bottom lip. “My mind is preoccupied with my sister and her family.” In all honesty, Lexi’s concern for her sister had been on her mind. While they weren’t the closest, Lisbeth often dropped an email or a text to her every couple of weeks. Lexi hadn’t heard from her or her niece in a while now.
In concern, Stephen cupped her face. “Anything I can help with? You can talk to me about anything.”
Lexi smiled and pushed her sister and Kimber out of her mind. “I know.”
“I have a cousin who works with the US Marshals. One phone call and we can locate your sister.”
“You don’t have to bring your family into this,” Lexi said quietly. “If I don’t hear from her by the end of the summer, maybe I’ll take you up on your offer.” She hated lying to Stephen. He’d shown her he wasn’t the terrible monster she’d met first. But Lexi struggled with her place in this family matter. She’d already kept the secret about the dress. The last time she got involved in a family matter was with Ernest and look where that got her, a scandal to everyone in the pageantry world who knew about his nondivorce. Making her feel worse, his kind offer to help and ploy to get her to open up to him continued.
“You need to learn to trust me, not keep things from me. Okay?”
“Okay.” She blinked.
“Are you hungry?”
“For food?” she asked wantonly.
Stephen straightened her upright again. “I’ve got dinner planned for us upstairs.”
“I’ve got to get to work.”
“Work is taken care of.” He smiled and winked. “Andrew insisted on making me aware how he could handle the shop and work with Philly.”
Slowly she shook her head, fighting with the angel and devil on her shoulders. She had work to do. Her services were needed next door, but her body wanted service in here. “I promise to take full responsibility if anything goes wrong.”
“What did you have planned in here?”
Stephen cleared his throat and snapped his finger. Suddenly they were on a Greek balcony staring down at a village. He reached to the side of the sofa for a dish of Brie and red grapes, and fed her one piece of fruit. She nibbled on the tip of his finger.
“Are we alone?” she asked.
To answer her, he set the plate on the floor beside them and reached for her hips, yanking her down on her back. His hand slid under the hem of her skirt and up h
er thigh. “Something you wanted to do with me alone?”
Lexi bit the corner of her lip and batted her long lashes. “Well, I had one particular revelation when fighting for my life after being snatched off the street.” She tried to hide her giggle when Stephen rolled his eyes at her dramatic antics. “Never mind.”
Though she had no intention to leave, nor did she want him to let her go, she still had to pretend to make the effort to get away. Stephen caressed the curve of her waist, the pad of his thumb circling the buds beneath her bra. With kids at his home, they never got the chance to be alone. Their late-night movies were often marred with someone waking up and needing water. And they both just respected not having sex in the house. They made out a lot on the couch. Stephen would always get frisky, but they always broke apart like teenagers caught by their parents. It seemed too adolescent, but now faced with going the distance, Lexi shuddered. He was too fine to try and continue resisting.
“I’m sorry—go ahead and tell me what your last thoughts were before you nearly died.”
A cord of desire pulled at her center the minute his mouth covered her neck. She opened her mouth to speak but she could only moan. Her only way to respond was to slip her hands under his shirt again and stroke his rock-hard abs. Her thumbs dipped down to the waistband of his slacks.
Stephen pulled back. “Hey now, I didn’t set up this date for that.” He took her fingers and brought them to his mouth.
“Stephen, what my near-death experience taught me is I don’t want to waste another second we have together, starting now.”
* * *
He’d be lying if he said every inch of his body didn’t ache to make love to her, but he wanted to respect her wishes and go slow. Lying on the couch making out with her left him in need of several cold showers. So if she continued to kiss him, lying so close, he worried he would not be able to stop.
“Don’t tease me, woman,” he growled playfully as she nibbled on his bottom lip.
