Page 84 of Rowdy Hearts

“You finished? Or do you want more?”

I looked down and realized I’d cleaned my plate while we’d talked.

“No, thank you. It was delicious.”

“Thanks.” That grin again, the one I was beginning to realize covered a great deal. “Glad you liked it.”

I did like it. I liked him. A lot. I liked his family. I liked St. David. Maybe it was the circumstances. Maybe it was my state of mind. Hell, maybe itwassomething in the water.

I only knew I couldn’t get enough of him.

He stood, reaching across the table to pick up my bowl and take it over to the sink with his. I got up and followed him, leaning against the island behind him.

“When do you have to be at the arena?”

He looked over his shoulder at me, his brows arching as his smile grew wider.

“Not for another hour.” He turned and leaned back against the sink, arms crossed over that broad chest that made me want to lick him. “Why? You got something in mind?”

His voice and the look on his face made all the air in my lungs vanish. Seriously, I had to suck in a deep breath just to be able tothink clearly. Because I did have something in mind. I had him on the brain. Well, him and a bed. Or maybe we didn’t even need the bed.

Because it was so hard to breath when he looked at me like that, I lifted my hand and crooked an index finger at him. His smile got just a little bit more wicked, and my lungs began to demand air in large quantities.

He crossed the couple of feet separating us, bringing him almost close enough for me to rub my nose along the side of his neck. Or lick the hollow of his throat. Instead, I looked up into his eyes and smiled. It was impossible to be this close to the man and not want to smile when he looked at me like that.

“You,” he put his hands on my hips, “are really short.”

I huffed out a laugh that was cut short when he lifted me straight off the floor and set me on the counter. My hands found their way to his shoulders, grabbing and holding on.

“But this is much better,” he said as he leaned in. We could almost look at each other directly in the eyes now, although he was still a little taller. “Now, what exactly did you have in mind, beautiful?”

I’d never had anyone call me that. Not in this situation. The guys I’d dated since moving to New York just hadn’t been the kind of guys to say things like that. I would’ve found it disingenuous coming from one of them.

From Rowdy, it was…heart-stopping.

I had to swallow before I could make myself answer. “You.”

“And what exactly do you want to do with me?”

I wound my arms around his neck, tilting my head so I could press my lips against the skin just below his ear. He sucked in a sharp breath, his hands squeezing into the soft curve of my hips before moving around to my back to press me closer.

“Devour you.”

He made a sound in his chest that set my every nerve ending on fire. It lit me up from my core outward.

“Fuck, Tressy. You can have anything you want.”

Then he turned his head and took my mouth in a kiss that I wouldn’t have thought possible just a couple of days ago. That kiss made me lightheaded, even as every inch of my body went red-hot and heavy. I wanted to lean into him and let him wrap that big body around mine. To shut out the rest of the world for one hour and let me gorge on him.

I’m not really sure I got to do that last night. First times can be amazing, but the second time around is when you really get your groove going. When everything either aligns or falls apart.

And I had a feeling we were going to align like laser-cut edges.

The kiss seemed to last forever, with his lips and tongue working in concert to create an absolutely unbearable sense of longing. My hands slid into his hair and tugged on those waves that were messy and sexy and silky.

Sliding closer to the edge of the counter, I slid my hands down his arms then to his sides and finally back around to his ass. I coaxed him forward, feeling the bulge of his erection behind the zipper. I moaned at the lust that flooded me, making me wet and hot and almost frantic with need.

His hands slid down my back to grab my ass and crush me even tighter against him. I was running out of breath, but I couldn’t get enough of him, even as I brought my hands to the button of his cargo pants and worked the button open, then zipped down the fly.

---