“I’m not cunning.” He completely lost his edge around her.
Her tone softened on a sigh. “You’re dangerous, Caleb.”
“The last thing I want to do is hurt you.”
She started to say something, but seemed to stop herself.
He touched his index finger to the bottom of her chin, tipping her head ever so slightly. “Can this date at least end with a kiss?”
“Caleb.” She sounded sad.
“I really want to kiss you, Jules.”
The silence stretched.
Her blue eyes blinked once. “You know what’s going to happen if you kiss me.”
“I’m going to want you so bad it might kill me?”
The defensiveness slipped away from her expression. “We step over that line, we can’t control ourselves.”
He didn’t have a counter to that. He knew she was right. Still, he didn’t care. This was too powerful to let slip away. “And what does that tell you?”
Her shoulders relaxed an inch. “We have chemistry.”
“We have chemistry. That’s not a crime. It’s not going to hurt anybody. It’s just you and me, Jules, maybe for the one and only time.”
The silence stretched again.
“If we do this,” she said.
Anticipation nearly burst through his chest.
“What happens in this hotel room has to stay in this hotel room. We can’t talk about it. We can’t think about it. We can’t ever, ever do anything like this again.”
He didn’t hesitate. “Deal.”
Her head tilted to the side. “Did we just agree on something?”
“We did.”
“You don’t have a counter, a caveat, a condition?”
“None.”
She moved her hand, and their fingertips brushed together. A small smile curved her lips. “Then what are you waiting for?”
He stopped waiting.
* * *
Caleb’s kiss nearly buckled Jules’s knees. A rational part of her brain told her this was a bad idea. But there was a more powerful part loving the feel of Caleb’s strong arms around her. She leaned into his body, leaned into his kiss, let the fear and uncertainty of the night, of their circumstances, of her world slip completely away.
She pressed her palms on his arms, sliding them up over his muscled shoulders, along his back until she’d wrapped herself around him. She opened to his kiss, tasting the sharp wine, inhaling his musky scent, feeling the power of his heartbeat thud right through her skin.
His kisses grew deeper. His hands slipped down her back, finding the seam between her pants and her T-shirt. When his fingertips feathered along her skin, she shivered. He wrapped his hands around her shirt, drew back and slowly peeled it over her head.
Coming out of the shower, she hadn’t bothered with her bra, so her breasts were bare to his gaze.
“Beautiful,” he whispered under his breath.
She pulled off his T-shirt, smiling as she gazed at his broad chest, his perfect pecs, the strength in his arms and shoulders.
“Beautiful,” she told him in return.
He smiled at that. “I like the way we’re agreeing on things.”
She trailed her fingers along his washboard stomach. “It’s better when we get along.”
“Much better.”
“Let’s see what else we can agree on.”
“We’re overdressed,” he said.
She found herself grinning. She playfully hooked her thumbs under the waistband of her pants.
He did the same, and they both stripped off the last of their clothes.
“Better,” he said, his gaze feasting on her.
“Better,” she agreed, doing a visual tour of his magnificence.
“You’re too far away,” he said, taking her hand and drawing her to him.
“I can agree to that.”
“You’re talking too much.”
“I don’t think that’s a—”
His lips descended on hers again.
Okay, she’d give him that one. The kiss bloomed between them, and she sank deeper into his embrace. His skin was hot against hers. She reveled in the feel of his contours, the dips and hollows, the bulges fitting so neatly against her own.
“You’re so soft,” he muttered.
“You’re so hard.”
He coughed out a surprised laugh.
“I didn’t mean it that way.” She paused, desire ramping up inside her at the feel of him. “Okay, maybe I did.”
“We’re still agreeing,” he said. “I am hard, very hard, and I want you very much.”
“I want you, too.” She drew back to look into his eyes. “Very much.”
He kissed her forehead, the tip of her nose, her cheek, then her temple, then he moved his way down her neck. “You smell amazing. You taste amazing.”