Feeling a little strange since he’d never been in her home without her and Sophie, Hauk headed toward the kitchen. He swallowed a lump of discomfort that was forming in his throat. Even the past visits with Sophie had been light and fun. Something about this didn’t feel that way. It felt…monumental.
“Vic. Where are you?” He wanted to find her but wasn’t sure he wanted to find her in one of the bedrooms, unless maybe it was the one she used for an office. That one would be okay, but her room, after the other night…
His body tingled with the memory of their kisses. With the desire to taste her again riding him, her bedroom was definitely not safe.
“Why did you need me…” He stepped into the kitchen and his question trailed off.
Clad in a skimpy camisole and matching panties that hugged her petite curves, Vic turned from the coffeepot with a huge mug in her hands.
Oh shit. This wasn’t right at all.
She sauntered to him and offered the coffee. “Morning, Hauk.”
Unable to form words, or many thoughts for that matter, he cautiously took the mug and swallowed a long pull of the strong brew. He couldn’t remember having coffee with her, ever, but she knew how he liked it and she’d been kind enough to greet him with his addiction. Whatever she was up to, she didn’t want to torment him too badly.
“Vic, why am I here?”
“A couple reasons.” She circled him, trailing a nail over his shoulders.
Through the layers of his jacket and shirt, his back rippled beneath her touch. His cock twitched. “Why am I here this early?”
He’d been accused of not being the most polite person in the morning. Even he heard the edge of mean exhaustion in his tone.
“I received a call when I got home the other night.” She paused in front of him with a smile. Her nail found a path down his chest, tweaking a nipple. “Morning, actually. Byron wants us to work together on the music for the festival.”
“Why?” Even as he asked the question, his memory of talking with Byron about the same thing returned.
“The headliner backed out. I guess he feels that between you and me…” She trailed off and watched her finger move down his stomach.
He found himself watching too. “Between you and me, what?”
“We know everyone in town well enough to know what they would like.”
“Hmmph.” He blinked free of his daze and downed another long swallow of coffee. The caffeine rush wasn’t clearing his mind quickly enough.
“I don’t know. I told him we’d…” Not meeting his gaze, she rolled a pinch of his shirt between her fingers. “…get to work.”
A breaker in his brain blew. He had no idea what she was talking about. Nothing registered beyond her barely covered body before him. Her perky nipples begging for his mouth. Her fingers slowly edging his shirt from his pants.
“Couldn’t the festival stuff have waited until after the ass crack of predawn?”
“Yes.” She did a sort of shrug with her eyebrows and flattened her hand on his lower abdomen. With the soft scent of lavender and powder drifting around her, she took his mug and set it on the counter. “But I wanted to catch you before the demands of your day-to-day commitments took you over.”
“Vic?”
“See, I’ve noticed how you are on the go and surrounded by people from the moment you get up to the moment you go to your apartment, ready to collapse.”
“Vic?”
“Getting you alone isn’t easy, but we started something the other night.”
His cock saluted the suggestion of her words as much as the outfit she’d chosen to greet him in. He retreated a step. “Something we shouldn’t finish.”
“Because you didn’t enjoy it? Because you don’t want me? Or because you think I have been with another man?”
“Pick one.” He’d make any of them true if it meant he wouldn’t risk losing her as a friend.
Vic wasn’t going to be persuaded. She closed the distance he put between them. With her gaze locked on his and her bottom lip tucked between her teeth, she shoved his jacket off his shoulders.
“Vic, please.”
“Please what, Hauk?” She didn’t stop staring as she grabbed the hem of his shirt and tugged it over his head.
He fisted his hands at his sides, trying to restrain himself from touching her. “This is…”
“Dangerous?” She unbuttoned his jeans.
Unable to win the battle, eager to watch her eyes widen and her nostrils flare with another orgasm, he set his palms on her hips. “Yeah.”
“Tempting?” The zipper lowered.
“That too.”