“I have to work today,” he said as he glanced at the clock.
“Are you late?” I wondered, thinking he usually went in early when he had to work.
“Yeah,”
My eyes widened. I made him late! I wallowed all over him in bed and caused him to miss his alarm.
He chuckled, taking in my expression. “Relax, I told them last night I would be late on account of the police coming by today. Their visit is technically work related.”
Relief poured through me. “Do you have to spend the night tonight?”
Since I’d been here, he had yet to pull an overnight shift, but I knew it was something he often did. It was only a matter of time before he announced he wasn’t coming home. The thought of him not being here tonight was very disappointing for two reasons:
One, I didn’t relish the idea of being in his home alone.
And, two, if he wasn’t here, I couldn’t look at him without his shirt.
“Normally, yes,” he began, and I hid my regret, but then he said, “But a couple of the guys agreed to take my night shifts so I could be here.”
It made me wonder how much he told the guys he worked with about my situation. Surely they were curious after responding to three incidents involving me. I wondered what his relationship with them was like. Was it a formal “yes, sir” “no, sir,” or was it more friendly and open?
“Oh, well, I hope it isn’t taking them away from their families.”
His eyes softened at my concern over his coworkers’ lives. “It’s not. I’ve taken a lot of the overnight and weekend shifts the past year since I was separated and divorced from Taylor. They owe me.”
His mention of Taylor left me feeling a little sick. I didn’t like to think of her perfect Barbie hands touching him.
I murmured some sort of agreement and then moved past him to go tame the nest of hair on my head before heading out.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he said, catching me around the waist and towing me backward.
“To brush my hair?”
To my astonishment, he began to nuzzle the side of my neck. I felt his deep inhale of breath and thought, Did he just smell me?
Tingly shivers raced across my skin, all the way down to the floor where my toes curled against the linoleum. Brushing away my hair, his lips moved across my neck, pressing moist, gentle kisses to my extremely sensitive flesh. One of his arms wrapped around me from behind, pulling me fully up against his body. It certainly didn’t escape my attention that there was something very hard and very large poking me in the back.
Apprehension slithered like an unwanted guest up my spine. I had no idea how something like that was supposed to fit into someone like me. My body certainly didn’t seem to think it would be a problem, but my brain wasn’t so sure.
I turned my head to the side and he moved up, capturing my lips in an all-encompassing kiss. Slowly, he spun me around so I faced him and he could fully claim my mouth. Before pulling his head away, he cupped my butt, giving it a gentle squeeze and then looking down at me with a thoroughly satisfied smile on his face. “Good morning.”
Something had changed between us. Last night was the first time since our morning kiss in the kitchen. I’d thought after that kiss he wasn’t interested because of the way he pulled away. But now… now we felt closer. The magnetic energy that pulsed between us was harder to ignore.
“What’s the matter, Freckles?” he said, pressing a light kiss to the tip of my nose.
“What changed?” I blurted out.
He drew back. “Changed?”
“You seemed like you were trying to keep distance between us before, but after last night…”
“I should get a medal for managing to keep my hands off you that long.”
“It was only a few days,” I reminded him dryly.
“Felt like a lifetime.”
“So those first kisses… you liked them?”
His eyes widened. “You thought that I didn’t?”
“Well, after that you didn’t touch me.”
“Shit,” he swore beneath his breath and ran a hand over his head. “I liked it too much. The sparks between us are so hot, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to stop. I was afraid I would scare you off. Thank God I did because you’re so innocent.”
Innocent? Ugh.
I folded my arms across my chest. “So what changed your mind?”
His smile was sexy and filled with innuendo. “I realized you could handle the heat.”
I still wasn’t so sure, but I didn’t tell him that. “Well, you are definitely hot.”