Page 27 of Foreplay on Words

“Mmm, I’m okay with being compared to a God.”

I giggled and pinched his side.

“Hey, don’t hurt me. I’m trying to impress a woman with my godlike skills,” he teased.

“You’re terrible. One breathy compliment, and you’ve got an ego the size of Adrian’s.” My face was buried in his neck as he smoothed his hand down my back. “What happened to the kissing? I was enjoying that part.”

He pressed his hand into my hip, pulling his face back from my hair, ghosting his lips across my cheek.

“Oh, you were?” he teased, pecking my lips once and then easing back.

“Where do you think you’re going?” My hand grasped his shirt and pulled him forward again.

“Nowhere.” And his lips were on mine again, hard and insistent. Heat coiled up my spine as his hand slid further and cupped my ass, pulling my hips into his.

His other hand was tangled in the hair at the base of my neck, tugging slightly as he eased his tongue back inside my mouth.

I may have only met him recently, and our chemistry was unexpected, but we were obviously attracted to each other. It would probably be too presumptuous to assume we’d be jumping into bed anytime soon. Still, if the subtle gyration of his hips against mine was any indication, we’d be compatible there too.

My heart pounded as he finally released me and stepped back, sliding one of his hands into mine. “Should we continue our walk?”

“I don’t know if I can walk,” I laughed as I tried to regain my bearings. His kisses left me beyond flustered.

He tugged me along as he continued following the trail, slowly caressing my fingers with his thumb.

“What’s going on here?” I asked curiously. While I wasn’t a prude, I also didn’t go around making out with male coworkers I’d met a day earlier in the woods, for instance. A girl has got to have standards. “This whole situation is a little unexpected.”

“I honestly have no fucking clue.” He aimed an unintentionally charming grin in my direction, and my heart fluttered, as well as other parts of my body.

“Do you think we possibly crossed a line we shouldn’t have? We’re supposed to be working together. Aren’t there codes of ethics we should be following?”

I didn’t think we’d overstepped, but I wasn’t sure where this put us. We were supposed to be fixing his manuscript, not making out in the woods. Plus, I lived in Boston, where I was returning in two weeks.

“Do you think we did?” He stopped and turned to face me, his hands framing my hips.

“No. I don’t.” My hair fell into my face as I shook my head, and he reached up to tuck it behind my ear like he’d done the same thing a hundred times.

“Good, neither do I.” He pecked my lips once, gazing down at me. “I can honestly say that I probably started fantasizing about what it’d be like to kiss you the moment I saw your picture. I’ve never bought into instant attraction—especially with someone you’ve only seen a picture of—but it just intensified when you showed up here yesterday.”

Damn. For someone who claimed he was so awkward, he often said things that’d make any woman swoon. Or maybe it was his earnest delivery. From anyone else that comment would have seemed aggressively forward, from him it seemed like a confession. One he wouldn’t have shared without prompting.

“That’s a lot for a girl to live up to.” His answering smile did things to my heart. “Did I stand up to the fantasy?”

“Oh, you blew the fantasy out of the water.” He pulled me into him and kissed me again. We didn’t seem to be progressing much on this walk, but I didn’t mind. “You’re just as charming as I imagined you to be. Reading your work created quite the crush on my part.”

Something warm built in my chest at his words. Knowing someone enjoyed my books was a heady sensation, but knowing he enjoyed my words caused a flurry of butterflies in my stomach. Which was cliché as fuck, but true nonetheless.

“We probably need to try to get some work done,” he sighed heavily, and I shared his disappointment.

“This doesn’t count as research?”

“You have read all the pages, right?” I nodded as I smiled up at him. “Does Kallie strike you as the type to take long walks and engage in sensual kissing?”

“Sensual, huh?” Fuck hot seemed a more apt description, but we could go with sensual. At least he was using his new vocabulary.

“You keep telling me to use provocative words,” he smirked.

“Smartass.”

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