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“You’re in a good mood.”
“Mm hmm,” he said, his body coming into contact with hers.
Tess laughed again. “You know someone could walk in here.” He just nodded and didn’t back off. “Something serious is happening.”
“I know.”
Her next laugh was louder. Tess laid a hand on his damp tee-shirt. “With Garrick and Harry.”
He brushed her hair from her brow. “What?”
“I don’t know. Garrick just came in here looking for Harry. I asked if it was important, he said it was… Did you know they called my mom Helen of Troy?”
“The face that launched a thousand ships.”
That Tess had said the same thing brought a smile to her lips. “I don’t think she meant to start a war.”
“Helen or your mom?”
Tess rolled her eyes. “My mom… I don’t know the real Helen of Troy… if there ever was one.”
“She didn’t start the war,” he said, laying a hand on the back of the nearest dining chair. “The men started the war.”
“In the story?” Tess asked. “If she went willingly then yes, it was the men’s fault, but if she didn’t…”
“There’s no better reason to start a war.”
Tipping her head up, she showed him her frown. “No better reason?”
“For love… for the woman you love… I love.”
“Daire,” she exhaled his name, pressuring his chest, not that her pushing made an ounce of difference. “What’s gotten into you?”
“I’m keeping my distance,” he said. She just raised her brows and glanced down at the non-existent space between them. “This is distance… compared to how close I want to be.”
Apparently, getting the blood pumping raised his mood and his libido. In having fantasies since they’d last been intimate, Tess believed herself to be the one out of line. The only one still infatuated with the idea of being intimate with him.
“I am not tempting you,” she said, though it was difficult to keep a straight face. The notion that they might ever be able to play with each other was enough to kick up her pulse rate. “I am not doing anything.”
“You’re not backing off either,” he murmured, licking his lips as he zeroed in on hers.
True. It hadn’t even occurred to Tess to retreat. Although the dining table was at their side and she had a chair behind her, there was still space for her to flee if she wanted to run away.
“Are we playing chicken?” she whispered, pushing to the tips of her toes.
“You better hope not, baby. You wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“Okay,” she said, sliding her hand higher. “Then be a gentleman and don’t put me in that position.”
“Don’t feel like being a gentleman right now,” he said, his fingers skimming up her hip to her waist. “You said be whatever the honest me is in the minute.” She nodded, relaxing her jaw. “The honest me wants something.”
“Is this the unrestrained you?” His dimples almost wrung a delighted laugh from the tips of her toes. “I need someone to help me take the sewing machine upstairs… and you need a shower.”
“I think you might be dirty now too,” he said, his lazy gaze falling to her cleavage.
He’d been leaning on her for a while, not long enough, but he was suggesting she’d need to shower him off her. The shower might be a good idea, though there was no way Tess ever wanted to cleanse him from her soul.
The whispered words of his seduction song that came from his lips put a smile on hers and strength in her hands.
