Page 47 of Outside The Wire

And then I couldn’t help the cocky grin that spread across my lips. She was so damn cute when she was angry. How thehell could she think I was breaking up with her? But the bigger question was how anyone hadn’t snatched her up yet.

“You’re pouting,” I pointed out, stalking over to her. I pulled her bottom lip from between her teeth with my thumb, then let my hand trail from her shoulder down her arm. “I wasn’t breaking up with you. I came here to apologize to you. And apparently, I did a really terrible job if you thought I was going to end things.”

“You…” Her eyes did this adorable flutter thing as she thought it over. “But, you saidlisten, and then you paused like you were trying to find the right words.”

“Yeah, because I’m a guy and I suck at apologizing.”

“Why would you need to apologize?”

“Would it be enough if I told you that I had a lot of shit on my mind last night and it screwed with my head today?”

“That depends. Did it have anything to do with me?”

“No.” That wasn’t completely a lie.

“Then that’s all I need to know.”

I eyed her skeptically. I expected her to dig into my life and try to pry every detail out of me. “Really?”

“Asher, if you want to tell me, I’ll listen. And if you don’t, that’s fine, too.”

“So…this really isn’t a trick. I’m not going to sit down, and then ten minutes later, you’re going to pepper me with questions?”

She rolled her eyes at me and dragged me to her table, shoving me into a chair. “Eat your chicken. It’s getting cold.”

“Fine, but if you steal all the mashed potatoes, we’re gonna have issues.”

She grabbed the container of potatoes and took a heaping scoop and plopped them on her plate with a smirk. “Oh yeah? Whatcha gonna do about it?”

I grabbed the gravy and poured it all over my chicken, licking my fingers in victory. She narrowed her eyes at me, her eye twitching as she tried not to show how much I’d gotten to her.

“That’s fine. I like my potatoes without gravy anyway.” She took a big bite and hummed in delight. “Delicious.”

I bit into my gravy-covered chicken and did the same. “Yep, nice and juicy.”

I was just licking the massive amount of gravy from the corner of my lip when a large dollop of mashed potato was flung at me and smashed into my face. Holly snorted, then started laughing as she hid behind her hand.

“Having fun?” I asked, not at all bothered by the potato covering my face.

“I think you look good like that. Maybe you need some more.”

“Go ahead,” I chuckled. “But you’d better be prepared to come over here and lick every scrap of food off me when you’re done, baby.”

Her breath caught in her throat at my words, and just to prove my point, I swiped a bit of potato off my face and stuck out my finger for her to lick. Her face flushed red as embarrassment hit.

Absolutely adorable.

I licked my finger clean and chuckled at her. “You’re so cute when you blush.”

“I didn’t blush. It’s hot in here.”

“It’s definitely getting hot in here,” I agreed.

She turned a shade darker and picked up her fork to eat, but after several frustrating seconds of not being able to pick up her potatoes, she threw her fork down in frustration and stomped away from the table, muttering about stupid, sexy men.

I needed to leave,but I was so damn comfortable on the couch with her. Since our mashed potato fight when things started to move a little too far into a territory our relationship wasn’t ready for, we cleaned up and settled on the couch for a movie. I thought that was a safe bet.

Then she sat down beside me and I laid my arm across the back of the couch. A simple move, yet so very bad. She snuggled in, pressing her body right up against mine. Her breast was crushed against my ribs and her hand settled on my abs. It took everything in me not to beg her to let it drift lower. I hardly paid attention to half the movie, just trying to keep my cock from getting any ideas.

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