She stopped drawing, wrapped his fingers into a fist to hide the graffiti, raised her head, and declared, “Done.”
He opened his hand and burst out laughing. She’d drawn a cartoonish face of a raccoon, bandit mask and all, but then had circled him and penned a slash mark across the creature. The words “Anti-Crowd Raccoon” were written underneath in bubbly ink.
“Our mascot,” he quipped. “Maybe someday I can convince you to take it to the next level with the raccoon. Give him a proper body, turn him into a tattoo for me.”
“Any time you’re ready for a raccoon tattoo, you let me know.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” he said, as he tapped her almost-empty glass. “Want more?”
“One’s my limit. My ex was a total party boy. That’s why I’m not into crowds.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. He was an internet start-up guy. Entrepreneur type, but he basically blew all his money on—” She stopped and tapped the side of her nose.
“Glad to hear he’s the ex, then. Not only because a woman like you doesn’t need to be around that shit, but because it means you can be here with me tonight.”
She smiled sweetly, and it was one of the first traces of softness he’d seen in her. She’d been like a good sparring partner so far, but now she showed a hint of vulnerability. Then she finished her glass. “And, as I said, I’m one and done.”
“So is that it?”
She gave him a seductive look. “That’s it for drinks…” She let her voice trail off.
“I take it you’re open to other things?”
She shrugged with a grin. “What sort of other things?”
“This,” he said, and stood up, pulled her from her chair, and put his hands on her cheeks. He looked deeply into her eyes, meeting her gaze, full of want. “I told you I’d be direct, and I’ve got my mind on kissing you right now.”
“Do it,” she said, confidence in her voice.
Damn, this woman knew what she wanted, and evidently, she wanted him.
He moved closer, capturing her mouth with his, sliding his tongue across hers. The first taste of her was intoxicating. She was sexy as sin; she didn’t hide it and she didn’t flaunt it, she just was it. She tasted like a woman who knew her mind, and knew her need, and wanted to be touched by him as much as he wanted to touch her.
She trembled against him, so he tugged her closer, letting her feel what it would be like if their bodies were aligned. She responded instantly, angling her h*ps against him as he crushed her delicious mouth. If you’d have asked him an hour ago what the chances were that he’d run into a gorgeous woman on his back porch, enjoy talking to her, and then tell her he planned to kiss her, he’d have scoffed.
Not because women were hard to come by, but because women like Megan didn’t come around often, and as he kissed her more deeply, he was consumed with one thought—get her back to his place, strip her naked, and take his time getting to know every inch of her body. As he moved a hand down her side, she shivered and arched into him, her luscious lips pressing harder against his, the taste of her mouth heady. She didn’t just let him lead, though. She grabbed the back of his head, her fingers diving into his hair, and kissed hard with a kind of fearless abandon, a confidence that was damn near dizzying and left his head foggy as the heat flared between them. The way their bodies responded to each other, it was as if this whole day, whole week, whole year had been leading up to this night, to the possibility of this sort of instant chemistry.
His hands found their way under her tank and up her chest. She breathed harder, moaning appreciatively as he cupped her br**sts; they felt as good as they’d looked. Round, full, and real. He broke the kiss. “Glad that bra was giving you problems,” he said in a low voice.
“Yeah?”
“You looked hot taking it off, and you feel amazing in my hands.”
She answered him with another kiss. Hard, hungry, and devouring. He inhaled sharply as she raked her fingernails against his scalp, picturing how she’d twine those hands in his hair as he buried his face between her legs. As soon as the thought had touched down in his head, there was no room for anything else in his life right then. He pulled apart for the briefest of seconds. “I live two blocks away. Let me undress you. Let me spread you out on my bed. Let me taste you,” he said in a low, raspy voice, his tone conveying his desire.
Her lips were parted and her eyes were filled with lust. “I’m just going to tell my friend I won’t be meeting her,” she said, sending a quick text, then turning her phone off. He liked that she powered it down. She could live in the moment, not in what she might be missing.
He didn’t bother saying good-bye, or locking the back door, or grabbing anything from the Panting Dog. He had his wallet and his keys and the sexiest woman who’d come through Hidden Oaks in the whole year he’d been here. She was someone who didn’t know who he was. Someone who didn’t have the time for more than the here and now. With her, there was no past. There was only the present.
That was all he wanted, and all he was good for.
Chapter Three
Megan had never imagined last night when her brother pulled up in the driveway of their childhood home, dropping her off after having covered miles and miles of highway from Southern to Northern California, that she’d walk into the town square the next evening and find a man like this.