AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He set her on the edge of the counter. Hands firmly on her waist, he held her in place, his groin pressed tight against her core, softening her limited defenses with his hard body and charming smile. “You feel so good.”
“So do you.” God, did he ever. And for the moment, she had carte blanche to feel as much of him as she wanted—which happened to be every inch, many times over.
Sam wasn’t a massive guy, but he was solid. Six feet of lean, hard muscle, currently wrapped up like a sexy present in well-worn jeans and a mossy-green, button-front shirt with the sleeves rolled halfway to the elbow.
Right there, she had her target. While she had a healthy appreciation for the entire male body, good forearms always made her a little weak in the knees. Sam’s forearms were a whole lot better than good, and since she wasn’t on her feet, no need to worry about her knees giving out.
She unlocked her fingers from the back of his neck and slid them down. A brief stop to knead his trapezius and shoulders, his nicely shaped biceps, then it was skin on skin as she curled her hands over his forearms.
His move to pull her closer caused his muscles to flex under her palms. Mmm…so strong. She ran her hands up and down, pushing his shirtsleeves higher for more access, then toyed with the hair dusting his tanned forearms. Not too long or thick. Sort of soft, yet somehow, a little bit coarse. Perfectly masculine.
“You were doing that last night,” he said, as she smoothed the hair on his arm.
“Was I?”
“Yeah.” His voice had dropped to a deep, delicious rasp. “Every time my face was between your legs.”
She meant to answer, really, she did. But when she opened her mouth, nothing came out. Well, except maybe some drool.
“Babe, you’re killing me here. Your touch. The way you look at me with those incredible eyes.”
Shewas affectinghim? Wow.
He stepped back and helped her off the counter. “Grab your purse,” he nodded toward the door, “and let’s get out of here.”
“I can’t. I still have work to do. Mop the floor, wipe down all the counters, put out the garbage.”
“You really are Cinderella.” He winked, unleashing the trademark charming smile while giving her hand a little tug. “Come on, Leigh. Good times are just beyond that door, I promise.”
“I believe you, but—”
“No ‘but.’” Another tug, this one more determined. “Forget the work, it’ll wait until tomorrow.”
“It would wait, but I won’t let it.” She reclaimed her hands, shoving the clammy things in her back pockets to prevent fidgeting. “I’m a single mom and a sole entrepreneur. I always know what needs to be done to stay on top of things and I don’t quit until that list is clear. If I did, everything would start to snowball behind me.”
His gaze shifted to the mop bucket, then back to her face. “Leigh, it’s some light cleaning. What’ll it take, half an hour, tops? That’s barely a couple of flakes, definitely not a snowball.”
“That’s how snowballs start, Sam. With a few innocent flakes.” She rounded the counter, needing a physical buffer between them. “Do you see why this—whatever this is we’re doing—won’t work?”
“No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
A bitter laugh left her lips. “Exactly my point. You show up looking hot and handsome, wanting to take me out for a fun evening, and I ruin it by lecturing you about responsibility. You’re twenty-eight, spontaneous, and carefree. I’m forty-two, methodical and obsessive-compulsive about my schedule. We’re not in sync. Not outside the bedroom.” She shook her head, another of those resigned sighs leaving her lips. “I have work to finish. You should go.”
“Or I could stay and help.”
“You have better things to do than cleaning.”
“So do you.” He walked to the bucket, lifted the mop and nodded at her while swiping the mop back and forth across the tile floor. “Get to work on those counters, Cinderella. You’ve got a ball to get to.”
“Two, if you’re lucky.” There she went, abandoning seriousness in favor of flirting with him. How could she resist when he was so damn charming and sweet?
A sexy smile curved his lips. “Feeling pretty lucky lately.”
Her too. Since about two-thirty Wednesday afternoon.
To think, she had almost turned back that day. If that single car in a stream of traffic hadn’t stopped to let her cross Dundas Street, she wouldn’t have bumped into Sam in the coffee shop. Her life would be on an entirely different trajectory. Crazy.
Maybe, just this once, she could stray from her routine. The working minutes she’d lose tonight could easily be tacked on to next week’s schedule. Adding those extra minutes to her personal time with Sam would be worth a bit of extra hustle before she opened on Monday morning. One time wouldn’t lead to a snowball, she’d make sure of it.
