"Fry the bacon. Scramble the eggs. Toast the bread. It's easy and satisfying. What more could you want?"
She looked up at him, allowing herself a moment to admire his solid chest and shoulders before meeting his eyes. "Yes, but this cookbook doesn't tell me how to fry bacon. Or scramble eggs. The toast I can maybe do."
He took a step toward her, closing the distance between them. She waited, expecting him to do something dramatic. But he simply threaded his fingers into her hair and adored her in silence. His eyes roamed her face. It felt like he was touching her all over. But he wasn't.
And then suddenly he stepped back and started looking around him. "Nice place. You gonna give me a tour?"
Arden, bereft at losing his attention so suddenly, gaped at him. "A tour? Aren't you hungry?"
"Sure. But I'd still like to see the place. Never been in a house this big."
Arden shrugged. "Okay." She grabbed his hand, offering him her best, flirty smile, and led him out of the kitchen into the dining room. "This table is an antique. It's got black, iron legs and the top is mahogany..."
"It's lovely. What's upstairs?"
She turned, momentarily irritated. Then her mood softened. "Nothing interesting. All the good stuff is down here."
"Really?" he said, acting as though he were really interested. "Seems like I remember you saying your room was on the second floor. That might be interesting."
"Why would that be interesting?"
Travis shrugged. "You can tell a lot about a person by the decor of their bedroom."
She grabbed his hand and walked backwards, pulling him toward the stairs and grinning up at him. "Why do I get the feeling I'm being conned?" she asked.
He laughed. "You know exactly what's going on. You don't get to show me your pink underwear and then act all innocent all of a sudden."
She laughed and then turned and ran up the stairs. He pursued, taking the steps two-at-a-time. She took a left at the top of the stairs and ran into her room. She stopped, halfway in and turned. He had stepped in the door and stopped, looking around in awe.
"Holy shit," he said. "I had to share a ten-by-ten room with two brothers."
Arden shrugged. "Yeah, well, after they had me, there were complications and Mom couldn't have anymore children. So they knocked out a wall between two rooms and gave me all of this space. They put in the bathroom over here." She walked through the entryway to her bathroom and waited for him to catch up.
She had a huge, whirlpool tub. On the opposite wall was her sink and vanity which stretched along the whole wall. The mirror above was also full length. The surfaces were immaculate and organized. The floor was marble tiled. The shower itself was probably as big as Travis's whole bathroom.
"Fancy," he said, clearly trying to sound unimpressed.
She shrugged and smiled up at him. He had his hands shoved in his pockets and seemed slightly uncomfortable. These were not surroundings he often found himself in and she knew it had to feel weird for him. "You want me to fill up the tub?" she asked.
This worked like a charm. "Yes, please," he said, grinning brightly.
She skipped to the edge of the tub and turned on the water. When she turned around, Travis was gone. She stepped out of the bathroom and found him laying on her bed on his back, hands folded behind his head, boots kicking back and forth. "This is the biggest bed I've ever seen," he said. "I stayed at a Holiday Inn, once. But it wasn't this nice."
"You're making too big a deal out of this," she said. She walked over and climbed onto the edge of the bed. She pressed her hands to his chest and swung one leg over, sitting on his hips. She couldn't help admiring his strong body and thinking to herself, all of this is mine. She leaned over him, moving her hands to the bed on either side of his head. She hovered over him for a few seconds, her hair hanging on either side of his face, hiding them both from the rest of the world. She could practically hear the energy humming through his body, and yet he waited patiently for her to make the first move.
She leaned down and pressed her lips to his. He slid his hands up the outsides of her thighs and rested them on her hips. She kissed him on the cheek and then at the place between his eye and the curve of his nose. His hands tightened. She kissed beneath his jaw and then nipped at his earlobe.
He groaned. "This is heavenly torture," he said, his voice already husky with desire.
She giggled as she kissed his throat and slid her hands beneath his shirt, enjoying the soft hair of his chest and the firm muscles beneath.
She backed up and he sat up. She pulled at his shirt, tugging it over his head and messing up his hair. She examined the tattoos on his shoulders while he unbuttoned her shirt. Then she closed her eyes in pleasure when she felt his lips on her breasts. She held his face against her chest and ran her fingers through his hair. He pushed her shirt off her shoulders and licked his tongue beneath the lace edge of her bra.