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“Yeah, you make a lasting impression.” She should step back, give him some space to come inside, but her legs weren’t listening and took her further into his space. “How was Portland, Rafe?” she asked, the whisper of his name on her lips sending a shiver through her body.
What was going on with her?
“Honestly, not everything I’d hope it would be,” he answered, cupping her elbow with his big hand and brushing his thumb over the skin of her arm with an intimate familiarity she wanted to question as much as she wanted to melt into. Because, wow, did that feel good.
A stitch pulled between Rafe’s brows as those light brown eyes tracked down to the point of contact between them. He looked like he was as surprised to find his hand on her as she was.
Shaking his head, he let her go and took a step further into the bar. “Sorry. Been a long day driving and I’m not really thinking straight.”
She blinked. “Driving in from…?”
“Portland. Or I guess Wyoming this morning.” He stretched his arms out, causing his shirt to pull even tighter across his defined muscles. “But yeah, as of about three and a half minutes ago, I’m officially back. You want to be the first one to welcome me home?”
A warm heat crawled up her neck and cheeks as she thought about how very much she did want to welcome him back. How she wanted to pick up from where they’d left off a year ago.
She froze, her body going rigid where she stood.
What if Aaron was catching this? No, he hadn’t already or Rafe would be starting to scratch or wheeze. And he’d told Opal he’d been too depleted to be around. Was it even possible that by some stroke of luck, she had another window? With the same man from the year before?
Could it be fate?
“I know this sounds nuts,” Rafe said, causing her head to snap up. “But I’ve thought about you a lot since I left. I was thinking about you the whole way back, if you want the truth of it. Hoping that if you hadn’t met anyone, you might let me take you out sometime?”
If she hadn’t met anyone? She wanted to laugh only suddenly her heart was pounding in her chest, and the sound of the crowded bar was fading into a low hum. Her vision tunneled to his face, his body.
“It doesn’t sound nuts,” she said, stepping closer because suddenly the space between them physically hurt. With every breath, she caught more of his masculine scent…felt it hit her like a drug. A really good, really potent…dangerously addictive drug. Wow. “It’s good to have you back.”
Rafe nodded, his eyes darkening as he lowered his gaze to where she’d splayed her hand between his pecs. Shocked, she jerked her wandering limb back. What the hell?
She didn’t just touch random guys. Heck she didn’t touch not so random guys either. But here she was standing in the middle of her bar surrounded by dozens of patrons—anyone of whom might send a stray thought in her brother’s direction—practically petting him. And as incredible as that kiss from a year ago had been, it did not give her license to grope. Uncool.
Rafe probably thought she was on drugs; one of those freaky X junkies who got off on touching everything. She might know how he’d taken her cheap feel if she could tear her eyes away from the muscular expanse of his chest long enough to glance up at his face…but every time she tried, she got tangled up in the sexy ridge of his collar bone… and images of her tongue teasing a wet path along it.
Whoa. How did that happen—her hand was on him again, her fingers playing with the top of his shirt, her thumb smoothing over the line of his neck, back and forth across the strong vein that seemed to pulse faster with every stroke. She needed to stop touching him.
She needed to apologize, explain that she wasn’t herself.
Forcing her gaze to meet his, she opened her mouth to tell him she was sorry. “I missed you.”
What? Shaking her head, she tried again. “I know it was just one night, but I think about you all the time.” Heat splashed up her neck and cheeks as her eyes went wide. She covered her mouth, but even from behind her fingers, the words wouldn’t stop coming…like something was possessing her. ”I was thinking about you today, thinking about that kiss.”
Rafe’s breath rushed out, something hot building in the eyes that searched hers. Leaning forward, he closed the distance between them, so his lips hovered a fraction of an inch above the shell of her ear. “That kiss has haunted me for a year straight. You’ve haunted me.”
Haunted. Something about that word tugged at her consciousness. Like there was a reason all these words spilling out of her and actions she couldn’t control might be a bad thing. But then all she could hear was the sound of his breath in her ear. All she could feel was the slow churn of anticipation deep in her belly, and the beating of his heart like it was slamming against her chest trying to get in.
She reached for his hand, gasped at the spark of low charge when their fingers caught.
Yes.
Contact.
A smile that was half relief and half exhilaration curved her lips as she met Rafe’s eyes.
“We’ve got to get out of here.”
* * * * *
Hell yes.
