Page 94 of Can't Help Falling

CHAPTER TWENTY

FINOUTRIGHTLAUGHEDwhen she came back from the bathroom. Tyler supposed he must look ridiculous. He knew his hair was a mess, his sweater tugged to one side and the expression on his face could only read: stupefied.

He leaned against her kitchen counter, one hand covering the bottom half of his face while his eyes rested on the takeout menus she’d fanned out for him to choose from. But he didn’t see a thing. He was still stuck in the land of twenty minutes ago when she’d been straddled across his lap, his hands lost on the oasis of her body, her heat grinding desperately into his aching lap, her mouth taking and giving, remaking him into a different person.

Even though it had just been kissing, Tyler felt different. Very different.

He felt newly hatched. Like a very nearly middle-aged man who’d just pecked his way out of a shell he hadn’t known he’d been wearing.

“I feel like I just woke up from a coma,” he told her when she leaned against the kitchen door and just stared at him from across the room, that goofy smile on her face.

“No luck on choosing takeout, then?”

“I’m pretty sure I left my ability to read somewhere in your mouth.”

She laughed again. “Feeling a little befuddled, Ty?”

He dragged a hand over his face, hearing the scrape of his late-afternoon stubble. “And you’re not?” He’d seen her face when they’d realized it was time to peel themselves off of one another. They’d both known that, at that point, it was either strip down or get up. Tyler hadn’t been sure his blood pressure was ready for the strip-down option yet. They’d both opted for ordering some takeout and seeing where the rest of the evening led them. Either way, she’d been dozy-eyed and exhilarated and just as baffled as he’d been.

She smiled at him, light eyes through dark eyelashes, one of her fingers tracing her lips. “I’m definitely...something.”

“Come over here,” he told her and was downright shocked when she listened. He’d fully expected her to argue, to get him to come to her, which he totally would have done. On his knees. Over rusty nails. But instead she sauntered on those long, long legs across the kitchen, her palm skimming over the tops of her indoor herb garden as she walked past, her eyes pinned to his.

He gulped. Luckily, his body knew what to do. The second she got close enough, he reached out and caught her by the waist, tipped her weight forward so that her hips knocked into his, her soft chest sinking forward into his rib cage. He laced their fingers together on both hands and something caught his attention.

“You’re not wearing any of your jewelry.” Now that he was really looking, it was strange to see her without it, like the bejeweled tiger had decided to take off her stripes for a while.

“I usually don’t when I’m at home.”

“I thought jewelry wearers generally wore their things all the time. Bed, the shower, that kind of thing.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe some do, but I don’t wear my jewelry absently. I wear it with a lot of purpose. Meaning. And that meaning usually goes away when I’m at home.”

“You mean you wear it for protection when you’re out of the house?”

“Sometimes.” She nodded. “Or for courage, or creativity, or luck. Mostly, it just helps me to interface with the world. I know which crystals I’m wearing, what they’re purported to be good for, and it helps me put my best foot forward. But when I’m at home—”

“There’s no world to interface with.”

“Exactly.”

He lifted her hand and absently kissed her palm. “If you’d known I was coming would you have worn some?”

“Definitely.”

He caught her eyes and was pleased to see her looking lazily aroused by the sight of him kissing up her wrist, making tracks toward her elbow. “What would you have worn?”

She considered his question with a solemnity that made her look momentarily regal. “I have a necklace with a spirit quartz pendant I might have put on.”

“What does spirit quartz do?”

“Protects innocent women from scoundrels.”

He stopped midkiss at her elbow and quirked her a look. “Is that right?”

She laughed. “No. But it banishes fear.”

He stopped kissing her then, and for a moment, just nuzzled his stubble against her inner arm. He let her hand drop and laced his fingers around her waist. Her stare was always intense, with those icy-light eyes and that unblinking intake thing she did. But he was starting to be able to read the nuance there. If he looked, really looked, he could just sense the edges of her vulnerability. She could have just made a joke about what the crystal did. She didn’t have to answer the question honestly, but she had.

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