AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re mad at me.” He wrapped her hair around his finger and gently tugged.
“Well, considering you just told me I’m a monotonous, unexciting, pain in your ass who should be thrown in the gallows for my eating and sleeping habits, I think you have some kissing up to do unless you want me to renege on ouragreement.”
Grant smiled slightly, interest sparking in his eyes. The scent of cooking still clung to his shirt—butter, herbs, peppers.
“Kissing up, huh?” A faint husky note roughened his voice.
Her heart jumped. She shot him a cool look from beneath her lashes, acutely aware that not only did he still have her hair looped around his finger, he’d lowered his palm to the side of her neck. His thumb rested right at the hollow of her throat.
Once again, she could not believe that she had never before noticed how big his hands were. He could cover every inch of her skin with a few sweeping glides of his palms. She attempted to control her breathing.
“In the form of an apology.” She tilted her chin, feeling every inch of her nakedness under her shirt. “From what I can tell, owner of the Mousehole, you’re no spontaneous thrill ride yourself.”
A smile tugged at his mouth. “I’ll have to prove you wrong.”
“Good luck.”
“Only you could make that sound like a challenge.” He rubbed his thumb against her throat.
“It was.”
“I accept.” He skimmed his gaze to her lips.
Anticipation flicked through her. She’d never seen eyes that shade of green before—like a leaf or a clover, or those grass-like things he’d chopped and added to the omelet. He could hypnotize her with those eyes. Maybe he was. She was getting a little dizzy. Or maybe that was from having a real food for the first time in days.
Had they ever been this close before? He was a solid wall of male strength—all muscles and sculpted tendons and whatever else men like him were made of. Testosterone and kerosene.
He stood like some sort of architectural support system—his feet planted securely apart, his body as stable as a pyramid, holding her in place by the weight of his hand alone.
Wait a second. This wasGrant. Her sparring buddy who hated her phone, grumbled about her love of fried cheese curds, and kept a singing fish on the wall just to spite her.
Why was she suddenly getting all soft and fuzzy inside because he had his hand on her neck? And because he was looking at her like he wanted to eat her up? And because he smelled so good that she wanted to bury her face in his shirtfront and inhale a deep lungful? Or twenty.
He edged his body between her knees. Her pulse pounded. She didn’t know what to do with her hands. She lifted them almost as if she was going to touch his chest. Then she dropped them back into her lap and curled her fingers into her palms. He swept his thumb over her throat in a slow, sweeping movement that she felt clear down to her toes.
She was totally unaccustomed to men like him. Her previous boyfriends, not that she’d ever called them that, had been from the opposite end of the spectrum—thin, pale computer geeks with poor eyesight who took the termsocial awkwardnessto a new level and considered her a weird, mutant species.
Grant didn’t look as if he thought she was weird or mutant. He looked at her as if he thought she was…edible.
A shiver raced down her spine. Her breathing went totally awry. Her nipples hardened against her shirt. She desperately wanted to squirm. He dropped his gaze to her mouth again and slid his hand up to cup her chin, tilting her face toward him.
“What’re you doing?” Her voice came out on a whisper.
“Proving you wrong.” He lowered his head toward hers. “Welcome to a spontaneous thrill ride.”
His lips touched hers. Before she could even grasp the reality ofGrant kissing her, everything went tense and bright, like golden threads were spinning in her veins.
She forced her hands to unclench and curled her fingers into his T-shirt. The warmth of his body heat clung to the soft cotton, and her knuckles pressed against his hard abdomen. He increased the pressure of the kiss, one hand under her chin and the other coming to rest on her bare thigh.
Heat flamed inside her.Spontaneous thrill ride.All right, then. She could prove she was impulsive, too. She opened her mouth and tightened her thighs around his hips at the same time.
A shudder rippled through him. He eased his tongue into her mouth, alternating the intensity of the kiss from gentle to rougher and back to gentle again. His breath was warm. He was hard. The evidence of his arousal was a thick, heavy ridge that Rory could practically feel throbbing between them.
Her heart hammered. She drove her fingers into his hair, holding him against her. She had never been kissed like this before.
Spontaneous thrill ride aside, Grant kissed her toperfection, as if he knew exactly what she liked and wanted—easy, hot, slow. He teased her gently, didn’t hold her too tightly, and asked for rather than demanded her response.
And, oh god, she responded. Every nerve ending flared like a Fourth of July sparkler, showering her with stars. She stroked his tongue with hers, licked his lower lip, trailed her mouth over his stubble-rough jaw. A hot, restless desire pulsed through her, inciting the urge to slide her hand right into his pants and—
