AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She reached out and ran just her index finger over the slope of his biceps, then cupped her palm around it. Her breathing was just a bit faster. It was everything he could do to keep a straight face.
“Miss?” he asked into her decidedly distracted face.
“Oh, yes. Most definitely…mhumm. Research.” She walked around him, that same hand following the contours of his shoulders, down his back over to his other shoulder and back down the other side of his arm. She faced him again, then ran that same finger over his abs that were completely transparent through his soaked T-shirt.
“Well? Your findings?”
“You do have the He-Man goods and what smart gal is going to argue with a Master of the Universe? But what about the Prince Charming part? Let’s see.” She stumbled and he caught her against him. “Oh, nice reflexes.” She wet her finger and said, “That goes in the plus column.” She looked down with a frown. “Oh, no.” She made a soft O with her mouth and covered it with her fingers. “I seem to have lost one of my—”
“Jimmy Choos?” He looked down to see her left mule had slipped off.
She smiled indulgently, like he was the smartest man in the world. “Would you be so kind?”
He knelt down to one knee and set her palm against his shoulder for balance. He cupped her foot in his hand, plucking the shoe from the driveway and carefully slipping it on her foot. Then he looked up.
She sighed softly.
His mouth twitched. “Do I pass?”
She sighed again. “Top marks,” she said breathlessly. “As much as I like a man on his knees. I can’t reach.”
She crouched down like a boss, slipped that same saucy index finger under his chin and drew him up with her.
“Reach what?”
“That beautiful, compelling, smart mouth.”
He looked up to find every neighbor lady on the street unabashedly watching them. She turned around and had the audacity to wave. “Ladies.” Then turned back around. “Your subjects?”
He laughed softly.
“Well, my Prince/He-man…” She frowned. “Does he have a name?”
He laughed again.
“Oh, never mind. Matthew is just fine with me.”
“You were saying?” He was enjoying every delightful, mischievous moment of this.
“Oh, yes.” She set one arm on his shoulder, then the other one, her hands clasping the back of his neck. She leaned in slowly, the anticipation building, his body tightening, his heart beating. “They can eat their hearts out.”
She pressed that wonderful body against his. “Babe, I’m all wet.”
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “So am I.”
He made a choked sound and drew in a ragged breath. His gaze slid to her mouth.
“You’re killing me, Jack,” he said, his voice even more husky.
“I don’t know who that is anymore. It’s Astraea.” She giggled as she claimed his mouth, whispering against his lips. “You’re oh, so…Easy.” He hadn’t been expecting an offensive maneuver, and it caught him off guard just long enough for her to make serious inroads into destroying whatever common sense and rational thought he might still have. And he wasn’t too certain he’d ever had any of that around her. It was as if he’d been let out of a dark, tight space.
“Oh, before I forget.” She reached into the skirt’s pocket and pulled out his watch and deposited it in his hands. Gratitude washed through him.
“Where did you get this?”
She told him how it had fallen out of Ramos’s pocket after their fight. “They must have taken it from that poor old man.” She touched it, lifting his chin. “It means something to you. I’m sorry you had to give it up for my damn shoes.”
He frowned. “Did you say shoes? Or Choos?”
