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“No, silly,” she whispered.
“What do I do?” He shouldn’t ask. He knew that, but he did anyway.
“You kiss me.”
Whoa. He didn’t expect that.Shit. But without much thought, there was something incredibly appealing about kissing her. Something tempting. And as he looked into her sleepy eyes and took in her full lips, Josh bent toward her and made the dream come true.
The brush of her fingers on his face coaxed him into a trance. Kissing her was so easy, so natural, and his libido fired up in record time. He went deeper, letting his hand slide up her leg, under her skirt, caressing her gentle curves and pulling her close. His tongue played over her lips just a little, tasting her, and a voice in the back of his mind asked him what the hell he was doing.
Of course, he didn’t stop. He was just drunk enough that his ability to reason went out the window. Josh was about to slip his hand under her sweater when he heard Caroline gasp.
Opening his eyes, he saw she was staring at him. She was awake. For real. Their lips were touching, but nothing was happening. The tiny sips and gentle pressure had gone, and all he saw in her expression was a combination of fear and embarrassment. Not what he was going for. Not at all.
“Oh, my God.” Yeah, definitely embarrassed. “Oh, my God.” Caroline shot to her feet and circled around to the back of the couch, putting the immense piece of furniture between them.
Josh didn’t know what to say to her, because he knew he’d taken advantage of the situation. But part of him wasn’t sorry about it. Kissing Caroline had been a dream for him too, and that was the last thing Josh expected.
“Why were we kissing?” she asked. Her eyes were wide, darting around the room like she was looking for an escape, and he didn’t know how to answer her.
“Josh? There’s an explanation, right?” Was there one? She looked sleepy and pretty and she thought she was dreaming about him, and that Josh had had too much to drink…
It was the truth, but was it good enough?
“You, ah…damn.” He didn’t know how he was going to talk to her about this without sounding completely lame. Lame. He never had to make excuses for kissing anyone. But she was different. He should have felt fraternal, protective, but he didn’t. Looking at Caroline’s messy hair, flushed cheeks, and her big, chocolate-colored eyes, Josh didn’t feel brotherly at all. He felt like kissing her again.
It didn’t take a split second for him to move and in a few strides he was on her side of the sofa, hauling her into his arms. Caroline seemed to stop breathing as she looked up at him. He felt her hands against his chest and every inch of her fit snugly against him. She was tiny, but there was a strength in her—something powerful, and he couldn’t understand why he’d never noticed before.
When she finally drew a breath, she spoke. “Are you going to kiss me again, Josh?”
He nodded. Just nodded, because he didn’t know what to say.
“Oh,” she squeaked out. “Okay.”
Her consent, her acceptance, made him smile. It seemed that when she understood that he didn’t see it as a mistake, her embarrassment faded. The truth was, the path they were heading down was not a good one, and Josh should have put on the brakes, taken the blame and taken Caroline home.
He would take her home. At some point.
For now, though, he was going to kiss her again and see where that led.
Caroline thoughtshe was dreaming before, but with Josh’s arms wrapped securely around her she was sure she was still asleep, because this was just too good to be real. But then his lips touched hers and everything caught fire. Yeah, this was plenty real.
Caroline had imagined for years what it would be like to kiss Josh Campbell. She’d dreamed about him and let him take the lead in all her fantasies, but nothing prepared her for the warmth, the strength, the gentleness she was experiencing now. She burned from the inside out. Josh’s hands moved in a rhythm of their own. One hand slipped to her head, and she felt him pull the hair tie that was holding her ponytail. He cradled her head with one hand and let the other settle at the small of her back. He was firm, but so very careful it was almost like he knew.
Caroline froze. He couldn’t know the truth. Could he?
The kiss was a bright light flashing in her mind like a beacon, telling her exactly what she should do. She needed this.
Pulling back, Caroline looked into Josh’s eyes, enjoyed the perfect features of his face. She stroked his cheek because that seemed like just the right thing to do.
“Do you want me to take you home?” His voice was hoarse, raspy, like he was fighting to find the sound.
“No,” she said, shaking her head for good measure.
“No?”
“No,” she said again before stretching up to leave a trail of kisses along his jaw. Who had taken possession of her? This was not a stuffy, nervous engineer. It was possible the wine had Caroline channeling her inner romance-novel heroine. But it was Josh who lost his breath, and suddenly Caroline relished the power she had as the big man fell victim to the special magic she didn’t know she possessed. This was a heady thing.
“Josh?”
