Nobody's Baby but Mine(75)
“Oh, dear.”
“I can’t understand her doing something like this. It really has him upset.” He drained his beer and glared at her. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore, so would you mind keeping your questions to yourself.”
He was the one who’d volunteered the information, but she didn’t call him on it.
He jabbed his empty can toward the distant screen. “With all your chattering, I can’t keep my mind on the movie, and Maria’s singing one of my favorite songs. Damn, but that woman looks good naked.”
“Maria does not sing naked in The Sound of Music!”
“I’ve got perfect eyesight, and that woman is naked as the day she was born. You can even see her—”
“You’re mistaken. The person who’s naked is Baron von Trapp. And he is certainly one impressive figure of a man.”
“You call that impressive? That puny—”
“I do.”
“Man-oh-man, if you think that’s impressive, I could sure make you one happy woman.”
“Braggart.” Had she gone completely crazy? She was deliberately baiting him.
“You, on the other hand, might have warts on your belly for all I know.”
“I do not have warts on my belly.”
“Says you.” He took her apple juice from her hand, and tossed it, along with his beer can, into the cooler, which he picked up and put in the front seat. “Okay, you can show me now.”
“Show you what?”
“I’m being serious here. If you’ve got warts, my boy’s gonna end up with them, and if that’s true, I need time to prepare myself.”
“You are a certifiable lunatic.”
“Just unzip your jeans a little bit there. Enough for me to get a peek.”
“No!”
“Okay, then. I’ll have to go by feel.”
She slapped his hands away as he reached for the snap. “I told you I’d make out with you! I didn’t say I’d let you give me a medical exam.”
By the time she realized what she’d said, he was grinning as if he’d just won the lottery. “That’s right, you did say you’d make out. Well, come on now, honey. Show me your stuff.”
“I will not.”
“Coward.”
“I won’t be baited.”
“You’re scared to make out with me.” In one motion, he pulled off her bulky sweatshirt and tossed it on top of the discarded cooler. “Scared you won’t be able to handle me. You are one big scaredy-cat.”
“I am not.”
“Scared to show me what you’ve got. Scared you won’t measure up to all those thousands of women in my past.”
“There aren’t thousands of women in your past.”
His grin looked so much like a fox’s that she could almost see the chicken feathers stuck to his mouth.
Her heart thudded against her ribs. She was frightened, aroused, and amused all at the same time, which made it difficult to frown and sound grouchy. “Oh, all right. I guess I’ll make out with you. But keep your hands to yourself.”
“That’s not fair since I’m gonna let you put yours wherever you want.”
A dozen locations sprang to mind. “I’m sure I won’t want to.”
“I seriously hope that’s not true.” He switched off the dome light and plunged them into darkness so thick she felt as if the stars had been turned off.
Her eyes gradually adjusted enough to make out his shape, if not his features. He cupped her shoulder, and she felt him come close. “Maybe you just need me to remind you where some of the best places are.” His lips brushed past her trashy hoop earring and settled on the tender spot beneath. “This one, for example, is a nice warm-up spot.”
She caught her breath and wondered how he knew she was sensitive there. “If you’re going to talk through this, could you at least manage to say ain’t a few times so I can fantasize?”
His lips tugged on her earlobe, right next to the gold wire, and his elbow bumped against the door. “Who could you fantasize about that’s better than me?”
“Well . . .” She struggled to speak as her skin turned to goose flesh. “There’s this studmuffin physicist who used to be a top-quark hunter at Fermilabs . . .”
“I doubt he says ain’t.” He played at the corner of her mouth. “You’re supposed to be showing me what you’re made of. So far I’m doing all the work here.”
She lost what remained of her restraint and tilted her head just far enough for her lips to meet his. The contact jolted her so that she forgot all about playing games, and as their kiss deepened, she abandoned herself to the pleasure of the erotic. She tasted beer and popcorn, along with a hint of toothpaste and something dangerous that reminded her of thunder.