Page 36 of Cold Foot Komodo

You’re trouble. You distracted me all day, woman.

Good. I like being thought about. Fine, I don’t want to kiss you either because I’m a proper lady. See you soon, friend.Send.

Sasha.But he didn’t say anything else. Feeling like she’d won some unspoken game, she went back to rolling paint onto the wall beside the hearth. Timber and Katrina had been pros at taping off the edges, which made everything way smoother for Sasha to get color on the walls. Reed had picked the perfect shade of designer brown. They wouldn’t finish the whole house tonight, but they would at least get the living room and kitchen painted.

A knock sounded on the door, and Timber turned down the music they had blaring on a speaker in the kitchen while Sasha scampered over to the door and pulled it open. Reed stood there, looking like a tall glass of water on a scorching-hot day. He wasn’t wearing his jacket, so the fitted white thermal was exposed and clinging to the curves of his muscular shoulders. He wore a charcoal-gray beanie pulled low over his bi-colored eyes, and he lifted his chin higher, sparking hunger in his eyes as he drank her in.

“Hi,” she said softly, hoping he couldn’t hear how fast her heart was racing.

“I brought you a house-warming gift. Hold out your hands.”

“I love surprises,” she whispered, closing her eyes and holding out her hands, palms-up.

He set something heavy onto her palms and said, “Okay, you can look.”

When she opened her eyes, she gasped in surprise at what sat there. He’d given her a six-pack of grape soda. She laughedand lowered the sodas, because they were heavy and upper-body strength wasn’t one of her talents. “You listened!”

“Well, grape soda was all you talked about yesterday.”

“Oh whatever. I hooked you in with my smoothness, didn’t I?”

He waved to the girls inside, and then pointed to Sasha. “I’m stealing this one for one minute. Just one. I’ll bring her right back.”

Reed set the sodas down on the porch, and pulled her by the hand out into the night. She nearly tripped on the overgrown yard as he tugged her toward the side of the house. “Where are we going?” she asked breathlessly.

He pulled her up to the side of the house and picked her up, wrapped her legs around himself, and pressed her back against the wall as his lips crashed onto hers. Shocked, she froze for a moment, but as his hand slipped up the side of her neck and his lips moved against hers, a sudden fire was lit in her middle. She threw her arms around his neck and got lost in that kiss with him. His lips were soft against hers, and his short beard tickled her chin, and his cologne filled her senses. He tasted like mint, and was so warm against her. She should’ve panicked, being pinned against the house like this by a stranger, but it was thrilling instead. Reed sure didn’t feel like a stranger.

He angled his face the other way and kissed her deeper, brushing his tongue against her lips in a gentle ask. Sasha parted her lips for him, and melted at the feel of his tongue against hers. Holy shit, she’d never felt like this inside of a kiss before. Every cell in her body was reaching for him, and she wished she could ask him for more, right here, against the side of the house, where someone could walk around the corner at any moment.

Reed slowed the kiss, and began to ease out of it slowly.Kiss. Kiss. Peck. Peck.And then he rested his forehead against hersand closed his eyes. Her chest heaved with her shaking breath. Her adrenaline hadn’t spiked this high in years.

“I wanted to kiss you this morning,” he rumbled, pulling back by a foot so he could look her in the eye. “I wanted to kiss you last night, too, but you’re human and you don’t understand yet. You can’t. Physical touch for men like me means something bigger than I can explain to someone who doesn’t have the same instincts.”

“Physical touch means something to a girl like me, too,” she murmured softly.

“Truth,” he uttered, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “I haven’t kissed a woman in so damn long.”

“Well, you haven’t missed a beat. Also, if you mention kissing other women again?” She scrunched up her face. “I’ll stab you.”

He laughed and settled her onto her feet. “Jealous?”

“Territorial.”

“Well, I’m going to try and take this slow, so you have time to figure out exactly who I am. I don’t want any regrets, and I know there’s risk in this.”

“Risk how?”

“You just blew into town, Sasha,” he said low. “You’re high on the emotion of creating space between yourself and a shitty support system. You’re starting a new job, and rehabbing this house, and meeting all of these people in the Crew for the first time. You have to find your footing. And I’m not a good match. For anyone. I just escaped prison, and that’s going to hit you at some point. You need time to figure out what you really want.”

“I mean, I like your boner,” she said, cupping him between his legs. “I want that.”

“Mmm,” he rumbled, leaning into her touch. “Let me be a gentleman a little longer, will you?”

“Boring. I’m partying here. I’m free! I’m on a high! No one is telling me to stop being too much, or putting me down here. I just want to…”

“Want to what?”

She inhaled deeply and leveled him with an honest look. “I want to do whatever I want to do, with no judgement from anyone.”

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