Page 57 of Breaking the Ice

Samantha shook her head. “Looked already.” She’d hunted around it an hour ago.

“Are you sure? I’ve seen that bag hold two hundred condoms. It’s full of surprises.”

Samantha ignored his condom reference, but dumped the contents of her bag on the lift floor because what if he was right? Itwasa roomy bag and she did tend to just toss things in.

A plastic wrapped tampon rolled free and before she could stop it, rolled beyond her reach, coming to rest against Nick’s foot.

Excellent! Diet, Timmy and now this.

Crouching, Nick retrieved it and handed it over. Ignoring the embarrassed girly screaming get-me-out-of-this-elevator hysterically inside, she returned to her hunt, acutely aware of him as he also sat his ass on the floor opposite.

She picked up everything one by one, faltering when she came across a little foil packet. Damn things were like prickles, just when you thought you’d gotten rid of them all, along came another.

That’s when it hit her. She was alone in an elevator with Nick. Worse than just alone because that implied she could change the situation if she wanted. She was actuallystuckwith him.Stuck with Nick and one condom and his orgasm boast working its insidious way into her brain along with his response to her drunken proposition.

Shewassober now. And theydidhave a potential hour to kill.

Samantha stared at the condom.Then at Nick. He was looking at it also before his gaze slid to her. They stared at each other for long, laden moments, a slight tremble not remotely linked to hypoglycemia, vibrating through her fingers.

If she pounced on him now, where would they stand afterwards? Could she plead that what happened in the elevator stayed in the elevator?

“Can’t eat them,” he said into their growing silence.

Right. Absolutely. Samantha gave herself a mental shake then laughed to cover the clash of feelings tumbling around inside. Thank the stars for Nick pulling them back from the edge.

“Nothing,” she announced a minute later as she replaced the last piece of paraphernalia back into her bag.

“Not even a Tic Tac?”

“Sorry,” she said ashisstomach growled.

Which left them with nothing to do and very little distance separating them. Just a nine-by-nine area laden with two carts and two grown adults trying to ignore their chemistry. Until finally Samantha’s addled brain realized there was something she could do other than Nick.

Books. Of course!

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I need something to take my mind off my stomach.”And my ovaries.“So pardon me ignoring you but I think I’ll read.”

Then, rising to her knees, she leaned over and reached into her cart, grabbing the first book she touched – a Marshall Grover – before reclaiming her spot and opening the book.

Nick figured it was as good a ploy as any to take his mind off the temptation only a hand’s reach away, so he followed suit, ending up with a Rita Summers and for the next forty minutes they read. Or at least he pretended to, in between sneaking peeks of Sam, of whom he was exceedingly conscious.

Her every breath and wriggle, the little furrow between her brows and the constant press of her teeth into her bottom lip made him want to kiss her there so badly he couldn’t even read the words in front of him.

Thoughts of her exchange withTimmytonight didn’t seem so funny anymore. He’dburnedwith jealousy watching the two of them chat, watching her stroke that God-awful, stupid necklace which sat majestically against her décolletage in her V-necked T-shirt like some voodoo high priestess wearing an ancient relic.

Witnessing Sam flirt with Timmy had made his skin itch and the more his gaze dwelled on her mouth the more he knew there were bigger problems for them to worry about than growling stomachs. Like, how was he going to stop himself from touching her?

From kissing that kissable mouth? And how he should be the only one doing that –ever.

“You’re not seriously going to see Timmy, are you?”

She startled a little at his voice but didn’t look up from her book. “I might. He was nice.”

Oh for fuck’s sake.Enough with the nice already. “His name isTimmy.”

“I know. It’s kinda cute, don’t you think?”

Nick snorted. “Sure, for a toddler.”

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