Page 45 of Trouble Walked In

He traced a path down her back while he waited for her to catch her breath, his own coming heavy against the side of her face. She’d done exactly what he told her to do: she’d taken what she wanted. It had been incredible to experience.

She leaned back far enough to see his face. Her eyes were dark, and her hair spilled out around her like a silken cloud. Light from the distant streetlamp glinted off her face, making her look like a combination of angel and devil, sent to torment him.

“My God you’re beautiful.” His voice was rough and low and more than a little shaky. He’d fantasized about having this woman in his arms so many times he couldn’t believe it had become reality.

She stared down at him, lips curled in an amazed smile, as if she’d never heard those words before.

A car door slammed nearby, startling both of them.

Lizzie sank lower.

“Oh my God.” She tugged her shirt down and then put a hand over her face.

He grinned. “They can’t see. If they could, they’d be really jealous right now.”

Voices rang out as one group greeted another, and music spilled out into the night from the bar’s open door.

“Oh…oh, sweet Mary and Joseph.” Lizzie moaned. “That did not just happen. I can’t believe I—we—just did that.”

“Itisa little surreal, but in all the right ways.” He winked at her. “Care for another round?”

She lifted her hand to glare at him. “No. We need to get going.”

“Why? Worried the inn fell into the lake while it was unsupervised?”

She hit his arm. “We’re in a parking lot.”

He looked around. “It was the logical place to park, yes.”

“We’re nearly naked.” She stared at him, exasperated.

He glanced down at where their bodies were still joined. “Not nearly naked enough, but I’ll concede the point.”

She smacked his arm a little harder than before. “We need to get dressed. We aren’t teenagers sneaking out of the house to do it behind the gym. God, I’ve been lecturing Della about her life choices and now here I did this. Withyou.”

“I think it was about damn time you did something like this with me. I’m sorry if the experience didn’t seem worth your time.” The ecstatic warmth they’d shared just minutes before was starting to cool.

Lizzie made a sound that he had trouble interpreting and wrinkled her nose at him. “I didn’t mean that.”

“What did you mean?”

“I don’t know what I mean.” She screwed up her face. “I don’t want to fight anymore.”

He slowly shifted her to the side. Cold air slapped at his overheated body parts and made him shiver. “In case you haven’t figured it out, I haven’t been fighting with you, Lizzie. I’ve been having amazing sex with you.”

“Iknow.” Lizzie groaned. “I feel like any second my dad is going to rip open the car door and catch us, and I’ll be grounded for the next thirty years.”

“Are you trying to say you’re embarrassed?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Do you regret it?”

“No.” A flash of defiance lit her eyes. “It was fun, and I’ve wanted to do that for a long time. But there’s nothing beyond this. It…we…have no future.”

He blinked. He hadn’t been thinking about the future at all; he’d just been thinking about her and this moment. “Did you want a future with me?”

“Up until a couple of hours ago I didn’t even want a present with you.” Her lips quirked into a half smile. “Let’s get back to what we’re supposed to be doing.”

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