He continued to gaze down at her and Halley would have sworn that he knew how fast her blood was pounding.
In the end, he dropped his hands, his head nodding towards the entrance where others were walking, entering the building. "You stopped walking. What's up?" He took her arm and re-started their forward momentum towards the church.
Halley gritted her teeth, trying to step out of his arms but his fingers tightened. "Let me go," she almost growled. "We're at a funeral. This is no time to be obnoxious."
He threw back his head, laughing while his hands pulled her to a stop, one big hand holding her arm to keep her still. Halley looked around, smiling politely when a few people glanced in their direction. She wanted to punch Mike, beg him to be more circumspect, but she knew that nothing ever hurt this guy, especially not a measly punch from her. He was just too big and too strong. And secondly, Mike didn't care about others' opinions. He was big and loud and gruff and everyone around town loved him for it because those were the very characteristics that kept their town safe.
When his laughter finally subsided, he looked down at her, amusement still shining brightly in those green eyes of his. "Is there a more appropriate time to be obnoxious?"
She wanted to grab his wrists and pull his hand away from her, to stop the heat that was quickly seeping through her clothes because of his hand, but she didn't want to touch him. Touching him was … dangerous.
"Let me go. We're here for a funeral and I'm not going to deal with you today."
He pulled her closer, once again stopping their progress towards the service. "Okay. What day are you going to deal with me?"
Her hands immediately shot up to his chest, but then her fingers pulled backwards since the temptation to explore was too strong. "Never. You never have to deal with me. Why don't you just go away and leave me alone?"
He chuckled. "Because you know there's something between us. Because every time we see each other, we want to tear each other's clothes off. And if we don't do something soon about this thing between us, we're going to burn to ashes."
Halley listened to his words, astounded. Her heart was pounding furiously in her chest and she could barely breathe, too scared of what she was feeling or what he might say next. "You don't really feel that way about me." But she looked up into his face, her blood racing as she waited.
A dark eyebrow went up with her assertion. "Really?" His hands jerked her closer and she gasped at the contact as well as that hard part of him pressing against her stomach. "You do this to me every time, Halley. Every time I see your cute car speeding down the road, just the thought of seeing you makes me hard and throbbing." He moved even closer, his hands pulling her up against his body. "You can continue to lie to yourself about that, but deep down inside, you know that it is true on your side as well."
She couldn't breathe! Halley was staring up into his dark green eyes and saw the truth there. He wanted her! All this teasing and flirting, he really wanted her?
Shaking her head, she pulled back, her fingers reaching behind her to wrap around his wrists to pull his arms away but he wasn't allowing that. "Please," she whispered. "I can't do this. Not here. Not now."
There was a heat in his eyes, a light that made her stomach tense up, her body turn not just warm, but hot, as if she were suddenly on fire. "Fine, not here and not now. When, Halley? Give me a date and time. Because if I can't … "
Her trembling fingers slapped over his mouth, not wanting to hear whatever it was he might say. "Mike, we have a funeral to attend. We can't do this here."
He sighed and she felt his arms tighten once again, but thankfully, he released her and stepped back. Not far enough so that his hands would fall away from her waist, but enough so that she could inhale harshly needed oxygen. "Date and time, Halley!" he growled, quietly because several other townspeople were walking through the parking lot towards the church.
Halley thought about her schedule for the next week. There really was no extra time in it. Not at the moment. For the next month, she was occupied with a dream she'd wanted for so long, it hurt to think of not realizing that goal. She was so close!
"Mike, please … " she pleaded with him. All she wanted to do was curl up into his arms, but there was too much at risk. Mike was a former Navy SEAL, with all of the muscles and brawn that a job like that entailed, not to mention the intuition of a fox and the eyesight of a hawk. He saw everything. He heard everything. He understood everything. He was the kind of guy who could sniff out a problem and fix it before people even knew the problem existed. She couldn't let him get too close. Not now! Not when she was so close to realizing her dream! She just couldn't let him find out … .no! Not even her family knew. Definitely Mike could never know!