Beck caught her hand in his and held it to his face. His whiskers were both coarse and silky against her skin. And then he turned his head, his thick eyelashes dropping, and his mouth found her palm in a long kiss.
Heat shimmered through her veins, gathering in her pussy, and her belly flipped with lust. “What are you doing?” she whispered.
One corner of his mouth lifted as he moved it from her hand. “You seem like an intelligent woman.”
She swallowed. “I am.”
“That was a kiss, science girl. You want to analyze it?”
He was teasing her, and in her experience teasing was usually hurtful and cruel. But the warmth in his eyes and the curve of his mouth, the way he looked at her as if he thought it was cute that she might want to analyze the kiss, didn’t feel like that. It felt as if he knew her too, somehow, the way she somehow knew him, and he liked that she was smart and analytical and curious. It was heady, feeling like that, the way she’d felt when her crazy experiments had resulted in success—a sweet euphoria coursing through her veins.
So instead of taking offense, she smiled back. “I don’t want to analyze it.” Her voice came out husky. “I want you to do it again.”
His eyelids lowered and slowly, deliberately he brought her hand to his mouth and opened his lips on her palm. This time his tongue lingered when he drew away. Her throat closed up and more heat rushed through her body. Her mouth longed to taste him and her lips parted involuntarily as they stared into each other’s eyes. The air around them crackled.
“Here’s how hot I think you are.” He turned and set his ass against the edge of a desk, tugging her closer. Her breath caught in her throat as her body neared his, close enough to feel his heat. His gaze landed on her mouth and her skin flashed hot from her hairline to her toes. “I’m not a scientist, but I know a little something about explosives.”
“Oh yeah?” Her voice came out breathy and she set her fingertips lightly on his chest.
“Yeah. Chemical.” He bent his head and brushed his lips over hers. “Biological.” He kissed her again. “Nuclear.”
“Um, wow. That seems pretty extreme for a bartender.” She gazed up at him wide-eyed and her hands flattened on his chest as he pulled her closer to him, between his spread thighs. His heart thudded against her palm. He smelled amazing, a crisp, woodsy, spicy scent, and she wanted to press her nose to the skin of his throat and breathe him in. “I don’t think flaming sambucas are that explosive.”
His chuckle was low and sexy in his throat as his hands closed tighter over her hips. “Nope.”
Chapter 4
She thought he was a bartender.
Well, he was. A lot of the time. Beck had discovered an affinity for tending bar that had more to do with his enjoyment of socializing than it did with mixing drinks, although he’d learned a lot about mixing drinks over the last year since they’d bought the bar. It wasn’t rocket science. Nor was it locating, identifying, neutralizing, and disposing of ordnances like sea mines, torpedoes, and depth charges, which he’d been pretty damn good at.
But it was a helluva lot of fun.
So was this—holding this sweet, sexy woman in his arms, tasting warm, spicy tequila on her soft lips, flirting with her. He was good at that too, which was excellent for increasing their female business. He didn’t usually drag women into the back to kiss them, though. The heat between him and Hayden had definitely been combustible.
Was still combustible. Holy hell. It had taken him by surprise, because the other day when she’d bounced off that signpost and he’d caught her, he’d noticed she was pretty and had great legs, but she’d been flustered and all buttoned up in a modest shirt and skirt. Tonight, she looked way different, showing lots of smooth skin in that skimpy top, her hair down with messy curls around her face that made him think of sex hair…yet the shy, serious look in her eyes was the same.
She intrigued him. Her earnest questions about tequila, her focus on the tasting as if she was going to be tested on what she’d learned, the tidy notes she’d made…so damn cute. She was clearly smart, and apparently more serious about tequila than Marco was. And sure, this was about learning something, but it was supposed to be fun too.
It seemed like she just needed a little nudging to edge over from the intellectual world she lived in to the physical one. To just using her senses to enjoy the tequila.
And maybe to enjoy another kind of physical pleasure.
He watched her tongue slick over her bottom lip, her gaze focused on his mouth. She wanted to be kissed. And he was going to do it. His dick throbbed behind his fly and with his hands on her hips, he eased her closer still until she pressed against him. Her fingers flexed on his pecs and he felt her breathing change. Her eyelashes fluttered, lowering, and he dipped his head and found her mouth with his.