Page 41 of Matched with the Player

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Isaac had planned his approach with Stacy carefully. He’d drawn up a mental blueprint and considered various executions to increase his chances for success.

Yet he’d never envisioned the level of enthusiasm of her response.

She was in his arms in a flash, her freshly washed hair still damp from a morning shower. With her arms wrapped around his neck, her silk robe and the jacket he’d given her had parted, allowing him to feel her curves through nothing more than thin cotton pajamas.

Her lush breasts pressed against his chest and her mouth fitted to his in a kiss that started out sweet and slowly turned… wow. Too erotic for a street corner. A whistle from the driver of a passing car told him as much even if he’d been too overwhelmed to string the thought together himself.

“We should… wait,” he urged, breaking away from the kiss while still holding her close. He couldn’t pry himself much farther from her. “This probably isn’t the best place for-”

“Making out?” she suggested, her blue eyes full of mischief as she rolled her hips against his.

Without question she could feel how much he wanted more than a make out session.

“That either.” He dragged in a deep breath to try and will away the reaction to her, but Stacy didn’t help matters when she smoothed a palm down his chest and dragged her fingers lower.

“Why don’t you come inside and warm up first?” she suggested. “You only just arrived.”

A gray-haired woman walked by wheeling a small cart with a grocery sack strapped to it, her appearance reminding him to back off the public display of affection. But as Isaac tugged Stacy toward the side of the street, the woman winked at him.

“I don’t want to misinterpret this,” he began, not trusting his instincts when they were operating on a primal level. “Are you seducing me?”

Her eyebrows lifted. A small smile twitched the corner of her lush lips.

“I’d prefer you seduce me -”

A roar of satisfaction surged through him and it took all his willpower not to pin her to the brick wall of the building and kiss her until they forgot their names. Instead, he spun her in his arms and steered her toward the entrance to the inn. Staying close behind her, he wrapped an arm around her waist to hold the jacket closed over her delectable body.

Ask and you shall receive, Stacy thought to herself, realizing now why she hadn’t ever truly voiced her thoughts and her heart to a man before.

She’d been waiting for Isaac. Someone who listened. Someone who looked in her eyes even if he was thinking about her body. And oh my, she could tell he was thinking about her that way now.

His body brushed hers as they walked into the bed and breakfast and up the stairs to her room, dogs leading the way. While she opened the door, the hard, muscular strength of him pressed behind her. Something had shifted between them- something besides the obvious – when she had playfully suggested she wanted to be seduced. Judging by the way Isaac marched her into the bedroom and closed the door behind them, leaving Tink and Belle out in the living area by their food and water, Stacy could tell he’d taken her very seriously.

She should have known there was no such thing as a playful suggestion with this intense, quiet man.

“I hope I didn’t rush things,” she blurted, suddenly self-conscious about her flirtation. “Sometimes I say the first thing that pops into my mind and-”

His dark gaze met hers. He crossed the floor in a heartbeat, lean muscle and long legs eating up the space between them.

“I like the way you think.”

She breathed in his words, the notion appealing to her on every level.

“You’re going to make me a very happy woman.” She knew it on a soul deep level, trusting her instincts with a gut surety she’d never felt about anything except her decision to leave home.

Isaac’s hands molded to her waist, then slid around to span the small of her back.

“Very happy,” he agreed, fingers climbing up her spine in a smooth dance that sent shivers down her spine. “Also very excited.”

Reaching the collar of her pajamas, he slid one hand beneath to caress the bare skin of her shoulder. The warmth of his palm rasped over her flesh with tender care. His touch was thorough. Thoughtful. It stole her breath to think about what it would be like to have all that Isaac intensity focused on her body.

A fire leapt in her belly. Ribbons of pleasure unfurled from the place where he stroked her.

“I’ve been fantasizing about you,” she confessed, splaying her fingers over the soft cotton button-down he wore. Through the fabric, his heart slugged hard.

“I hope you describe those fantasies in painstaking detail for me one day.” He eased open the top two buttons on her top. Parted the fabric. “But if this moment gets any better for me right now, I might not survive it.”

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