He shifted, his posture more alert, his presence larger, and a pulse of feminine fear settled down deep. The kind of fear that had nothing to do with what a man was capable of and everything to do with what she was capable of wanting.
Drawing a deep breath, she compartmentalized as much as she could and addressed his sharp cheekbone. Because his eyes-thank everything the light was behind him. She wasn't sure she would hold up under the gaze of a man who radiated intensity just by standing there. "Sorry I took so long to get here." Shit. She wiped her palms on her thighs. "I take that back. I'm not really sorry."
"But you're a woman, and apologizing is what women do." At her noncommittal noise-really, what could she say to that?-he held out his hand. "
"Jude Burke."
Lily took his hand reflexively, but jerked away a moment later, startled by an electric zing. She stuttered out her name and some kind of greeting. It must have made sense because he took one step back and beckoned her into the shop.
With the assets she'd been blessed with, she could've used a little more room than that, but he didn't give another inch, and she felt too exposed to keep standing there. Plus, too tongue-tied-and stubborn-to let on that his proximity was doing things to her.
Trying to avoid the shards of glass protruding from the frame, she turned sideways. Her breasts grazed his hard chest. Heat licked at her, tightening her nipples, hollowing her belly and curling her toes.
He made a sound like a low, rumbling purr. Was that a vibration she felt against her breasts? Flushing, she glanced up to find is full, firm lips parted, nostrils flared as though catching a scent. Thick, spiky eyelashes, lazy, glittering green eyes.
And that was when it happened.
3
The laws of physics and biology and sciences she wasn't even sure existed went up in a puff of air-her strangled breath. As she gazed up into those lover's eyes, something surged inside her. Lightheaded, she swayed into him and arched her back, cat-like. They came together belly to groin and chest to chest, and God, the heat that tore through her. It rushed to her fingers and toes, the tips of her ears and the back of her neck. Down between her legs where no amount of willpower and good sense could contain it.
They just … they connected. A collision of contrasts. Hard and soft. Controlled-him. And not-her. For a split second, she smelled him, not the crisp scents of aftershave or detergent, but something earthy and wild, and she tasted. Blood and power and-and good. God. A flash of her own face, cheeks flushed and eyes glassy with shock.
"What … " Her breath wheezed out.
He started to shape a word, there was a movement inside the store, and then the tinny sound of voices across a police radio. The invisible thread between them snapped. Left her reeling, unmoored, and she recoiled so fast, her back teeth slammed together.
Cursing, Jude recovered first, the reflexes of a damn cat. He grabbed her upper arms with shockingly fast reflexes. "Glass," he said shortly as he pushed her into the store.
She stumbled. Actually stumbled, would have fallen on her face, except he slid his big hand around her hip, fingers spanning her belly, and steadied her with little more effort than the flex of one powerful forearm.
And the heat of his long, hard body at her back.
Halfway across the shop, a female police offer stopped walking. Her hand fell to her hip. "Ma'am?"
"She's the owner." Jude's words were steady, and how had he managed that?
When she wasn't even sure she remembered what words were.
"I see." The officer frowned, gaze dropping to Jude's hand.
Despite the pointed look, he took his time letting her go. Lily trembled as his palm skimmed over her hip, fingertips lingering like he had to talk himself into releasing her.
But finally he did and, confused and mortified, she pressed her hands to her cheeks and looked around under the pretense of searching for damage or missing inventory, when what she was really doing was trying to chase down her brain.
The sight of her neatly arranged wool-stocked cubbies actually helped, and soon, her confusion shifted to something else. She pivoted slowly, surveying the open floor plan. With the exception of the glass, the interior of the shop was just as she'd left it that afternoon. Well, at least she knew Paul hadn't found her. If he'd broken into her store, he would have left serious damage in his wake. His emotional violence always spilled into physical eventually.
Somewhat comforted by the knowledge she'd avoided her past for another night, she fixed her gaze on the female officer. "Officer. Thanks for coming out."