Part 14 (2/2)
”Need some help?” he asked, careful to sift just enough careless unconcerninto this tone to save her pride.
The elegant shoulders he'd dreamed of tracing with his mouth went rigid. ”No,thank you.” Her voice was m.u.f.fled and a little tense the way it got when she was busy convincing herself her life was ticking along just fine.
He started to tuck his hands into his pockets, then realized he was stillhalf-naked. Hooking his thumbs in the elastic of his shorts instead, he ambledcloser.
”Smells good, whatever it is.”
She cleared her throat, surrept.i.tiously scrubbed her cheeks with her freehand.
”It suddenly occurred to me that I always made fudge to take to the lake,”she said, her head still bent over the stove.
”Ah.” He'd conducted enough interrogations to know when to push and when tohang back and wait.
”Jimmy-if he remembered being Jimmy that is, which he doesn't but hewill-would have expected fudge.”
He considered it a mark of his experience in the surreal world of the streetsthat he understood the twists and turns of her logic.
”Sure would. Heck, he's probably dreaming about his first bite as we speak.”
Her laugh almost fooled him. Almost. ”Remember how he screwed up his face andmade smacking noises the first time you gave him a tiny piece?”
”I remember how you reamed me out when he woke up screaming with a tummyache,” he countered with just enough dryness to let her keep on believing shehad him fooled.
”You walked him for hours, even after he was asleep.” She stopped stirring.”I wanted to be furious with you. I should have been, but ... you were socontrite.”
What he'd been was terrified, his own belly full of acid at his carelessness.”Contrite, h.e.l.l. I was d.a.m.n deaf. The kid always did bawl loud enough to crackgla.s.s.”
He s.h.i.+fted, remembering how he'd buried his guilt in making love to her.
”Yes, well...” She cleared her throat, as though she too remembered. ”The senseof taste often triggers memory.”
She banged her wooden spoon against the side of the pan, then for goodmeasure, banged it again before fiddling with the burner control. When she hadit exactly right, she resumed stirring.
”Ree, he'll come back to us. All he needs is some time.”
”I know. I've told myself that same thing a thousand times, but it's tearingme apart to be so close to him and not be able to hug him the way I used to.Or kiss him or even nuzzle his neck.” She drew a shaky breath.
He wanted to touch her so badly his muscles burned. ”You'll do it again.”
”I know I shouldn't complain. I'm not, really. It's just that I have so muchsaved up.”
”I know, sweet. But you'll get to hug your little cub soon. He's a Hardin. Noway will he be able to resist a pretty lady.”
She dropped the spoon and turned, challenge in her eyes and her cheeks anadorable pink. ”Make love to me, Grady.”
His mind went blank. His throat closed. He opened his mouth, then shut it,almost certain he would stammer something d.a.m.ned embarra.s.sing.
”Is that a yes or a no?” she asked, her voice a little hoa.r.s.e.
He felt the world tilt as she framed his face with her small hands and tuggedhis head closer until she could press her mouth to his. Desire had sharp,painful claws, tearing away layers of armor until he was raw with need. Still,he'd been bloodied too often to step blindly this time. So he made himselfdraw back, his hands cuffing her wrists.
”What's going on, Ree?” he demanded, his body already hard and ready. ”Whythe sudden change of att.i.tude?”
Her lashes flickered, and her breath stuttered. ”I wantyou.Isn't thatenough?”
Not in a million years. But a man who was starving to death took crumbs andwas grateful.
”It's enough,” he grated out an instant before cras.h.i.+ng his mouth down onhers.
He put all the years he'd spent dreaming about this into his kiss. Thelonging, the regret. The love he couldn't kill.
Her mouth trembled, then met his eagerness with hers. She arched up, herhands diving into his hair, her nails raking his scalp. She was heat andhunger and soft, moaning pleas that fired his blood and shattered his control.
He found a breast, his fingers trembling slightly as he teased the nipplewith the flat of his hand. She gasped, then moaned. He drew back, breathinghard, to see the glitter of pa.s.sion in her half-closed eyes.
”Not here,” he managed, his voice thick. ”I want you naked and sweaty.”
Her breath shuddered out, then splintered into a little cry of alarm as heswung her into his arms.
”Wait, Grady, the burner!” Leaning down, she turned off the flame, thenburrowed against him, her breath warm against his neck. Pulse pounding, hecarried her to the bedroom, pausing only to kick the door closed behind himbefore striding through the sudden velvet darkness to the bed. The mattressdipped beneath his knee as he deposited her on the rumpled sheets.
”Lock the door,” she whispered, impatience and need in her voice. ”Jimmymight hear another scary noise in the closet and come looking for his newhero.”
”It's the scary noise in the bedroom I'm worried about,” Grady said with agrin that felt c.o.c.ky as he snapped on the lamp by the bed.
”That's something else that would be familiar,” she murmured, blinking like alittle owl in the sudden splash of light.
”Somehow I don't think that's what Dr. Roth had in mind.”
The door safely locked, he slipped off his shorts with hands that fumbledwith impatience.
”Oh, my,” she said on a rush of air.
”Well, it's been a while,” he muttered.
”I'm glad,” she whispered, lifting her arms to pull him down.
”Not yet,” he said gruffly, his hands already on the hem of her gown. ”Notuntil I can see all of you.”
Riawent hot all over, even as she fought down a fast flurry of trepidation.They weren't getting back together, she reminded herself. Simply satisfyingperfectly normal urges.
Perfectly glorious urges.
Impatient to feel those wonderfully rough hands on her, she sat up quickly,feeling as awkward as a virgin. His movements were jerky, his expression harshwith need as he pushed the gown over her thighs. His callused palms brushedher skin, arousing little tremors of reaction beneath her skin. Tiny urgentpulses of need, spreading heat.
”Lift your arms,” he ordered, his eyes glittering.
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