Page 38 of Rafael

She nodded and pointed to her other cheek.

He kissed that point. “Better?”

Again, she nodded. Then she touched her fingerto her lips. Her breath lodged in her chest as silent seconds passed and he didn’t move.

He didn’t want to kiss her. He really wasn’t that into her. He didn’t find her attractive. She was making a complete fool of herself.

Her heart squeezed so hard inside it hurt.

Then, like a light switch being flipped on, Rafael let out a groan. “Oh, hell,” he muttered. “Who am I kidding?” His mouth crashed down on hers, wiping away all her self-doubtand filling her with acceptance, confidence and...hot, raging desire.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him to her, deepening the kiss he’d started.

Her leg wrapped around his calf and slid up the back of his knee to his thigh, bringing him closer still.

It wasn’t close enough. Her fingers searched for and found the button on his jeans and flipped it free.

His hand tugged her blouse from her skirt and slid beneath to cup her breast.

As her fingers wrapped around the tab of his zipper, a loud, raucous squawk broke through her haze of desire.

Cheeky bastard, Johnny said.

“Ignore him,” Gisele whispered.

Bring me a beer, woman, Johnny persisted.

Gisele and Rafael remain motionless, her hand frozen on his zipper tab, his hand cupping her breast.

A moment of silence passed. Then another.

Gisele released the breath she’d been holding. “See? If we ignore him, he’ll?—”

A knock sounded on the door to the front entrance.

“Can’t they read the sign?” she whispered. “We’re closed. Ignore it.”

The knocking stopped.

Rafael’s hand squeezed her breast gently.

Gisele slid the zipper down a couple of teeth.

“Gisele?” a female voice called through the back door.

Gisele lifted her head enough to see a woman stepping over something at the threshold.

Rafael grabbed her and rolled her to the side and out of view of the woman heading their way. He leaped to his feet, yanked her up onto hers and helped her tuck her shirt into the waistband of her skirt.

They turned to face the woman rounding the corner of the hallway, dressed in a sheriff deputy’s maternity uniform.

CHAPTER 8

Gisele pasteda smile on her face, hoping she didn’t look like she felt—flushed, tousled and sexually aroused.

“Oh, there you are,” Shelby Taylor exclaimed. “I was getting worried. You didn’t answer my knock on the front door. When I found the back door wide open, I thought you might be in trouble.” Her gaze swept over Rafael, and her eyes narrowed. “Are you in trouble?”

Gisele forced a laugh that sounded more like a strangled squeak and smoothed her hair back from her face. “Not at all. I tripped over my own feet a moment ago. Rafael was just helping me.”

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