“Why can’t you go to the store without me?”
“I always go to the store by myself.” He tugged her against him. “It’s lonely, it sucks and if I have a chance for a hot woman to be strolling beside me? I’m takin’ it.”
She studied his handsome face.
“What?”
“How is it that a man who looks like you is still single?”
Tobin blushed. “Jade. You’re sweet. But I’m not exactly a guy that turns women’s heads.”
“You turned mine.” She stood on tiptoe, letting the stubble on his chin abrade her lips because she loved how it felt. “So I’ll go to the store with you because I know how much it sucks to shop for one. But know what’s worse? Eating out by yourself every night.”
His eyes softened. “You end up doin’ that a lot, sweetheart?”
“Honestly? Yes. More than I liked. My roommate had a boyfriend and I never wanted to be one of those people that always tags along. I have other friends, but again, I felt weird calling up and saying ‘Hey, wanna hit the soba noodle joint on East Twenty-third because I’m tired of eating takeout in front of the TV?’”
He pressed his lips to her forehead. “Loneliness is loneliness regardless if you’re in a city surrounded by millions of people or out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by tumbleweeds and cows.”
So how did she explain she felt less lonely in the few weeks that she’d been here than in the past two years at home?
“Can I say something totally sappy?” he murmured in her hair.
“Sure.”
“I like you even more now that I know you understand that.”
Her arms snaked around his neck, allowing her to maneuver his head so she could get at his mouth.
Tobin hadn’t soothed her with sweet and gentle kisses. No, the man utterly seduced her, feeding her long, deep soul kisses that stirred something inside her she hadn’t felt for a very long time.
Hope.
Being Tobin’s lover meant he treated her differently in public. He held her hand as they crossed the grocery store parking lot. He touched her frequently—not in an overtly sexual way, though. But she did catch him watching her with that dark look of desire in his eyes. Then he’d blink and that intensity would be gone. Clearly she’d merely scratched the surface with him in the weeks they’d known each other, and she couldn’t wait to dig a little deeper to see what else she’d discover about him.
He pushed the cart and seemed to have a set path in his head.
“Did GG give you a grocery list?” she finally asked him.
“She doesn’t need to anymore.”
“Why? It’s the same every week?”
Tobin shook his head. “It rotates every three weeks. This is the list she gave me the first week I moved in.”
“It’s on your phone or something?”
“Nope. I memorized it.”
Jade peered into the cart. There were already fifty items in there. “How many—”
“One hundred and twelve items this week. Make that one hundred and thirteen if we buy lube here. But I’m leaning toward stopping at the drugstore so I can buy a case of condoms too.”
Her head whipped around. “A case?”
He crowded her against the shelves of crushed tomatoes. “A case to start with and we’ll go from there.”
“Tobin, you’re intimidating me.”
He bent down and placed an openmouthed kiss on the pulse point on her neck. “No I’m not. You’re as excited about our sex-fest as I am.”
“Sex-fest?”
“Yep.” His lips traveled up to her ear. “Hot, sweaty, dirty, sweet, fast, slow, quiet, loud, raunchy, fun . . . I want to try it all with you. And when I look in your eyes, tiger, I see the same curiosity and longing I know you see in mine.”
“It should annoy me that you read me so well.”
He chuckled. “But you’re already compiling a list of things you wanna try, aren’t you?”
“Here’s a dash of cold water. We’re living with my grandmother. It’d be embarrassing for all of us if she waltzed into the kitchen and found you on your knees licking—”
“Tobin?”
He straightened up and offered her a devilish smile before turning around.
“Celia! Lady, I haven’t seen you in forever.”
Jade took two steps away and immediately Tobin’s arm came around her shoulder.
The blond woman flicked a quick glance at them before spinning around to say, “Brianna Lawson. Get back here right now.”
A pigtailed little girl of about five raced back, her shoes sending out bright pink flashes of light with every footstep.