Page 36 of Red Hot Roaster

Rafe’s eyes heated, and he ran the fingers of one hand from my mouth, over my chin and down my neck to the cleft between my breasts. “So soft,” he murmured.

He paused and rubbed his knuckles across the top of my bra, just where the lace met the swell of my breasts. My nipples pebbled right through the thin fabric.

My turn.

In my hazy pleasure, I may have said that out loud. Rafe stilled and dropped his hand. I started to lift the bottom of his T-shirt but ran into trouble right away—he was too tall for me to pull it over his head. He got the idea quickly, though, and reached to the back of his neck to yank his T-shirt off.

I immediately pressed both palms flat to his ridged abs. Rafe took in a surprised breath, and his muscles tightened even further under my touch. I slid my hands slowly, oh so slowly, up over his warm furred chest, grazing his nipples on the way. Spreading my hands over his shoulders, I gripped his bunched bicepshardfor a moment. Then wrapping my fingers around his head, I stretched to pull him down for another kiss.

About this time, Rafe lost patience. He groaned and picked me up by the waist to move me back flat onto the coffee bean bags. He crawled over me, propping himself up by his elbows, then grabbed my hands on either side of my head and slowly lowered his body to mine.

He used his strength to press against me, but not crush me. For just a moment, we stared into each other’s eyes, and I swore he was restraining himself. I was too—even though I wanted to rise and rub my breasts against his hard chest, my core against his hardening length.

Why hold back?my devil whispered. The fire coursing through our bodies might be smothered at any time. Who knows what the future holds?

But we shouldn’t go all the way in the café,my angel countered. Think of the exposed flesh, think of the health codes. Maybe one more kiss before we call it a night?

But I deserve this night,my devil claimed.And so does Rafe.

I surged up at the same moment that he must have reached his own decision to take what he wanted. Clutching our arms around each other, pressing our bodies closer, tangling our legs tighter, we melted into each other as we kissed.

It was that hot.

With the fever that gripped us, it took a while for the voices to penetrate.

Finally, we pulled apart and gazed at each other in horror. I was the first to get it.

“We forgot to lock the side door!”

Chapter 19

Rose

“Mateo was cool about the entire thing—which is more than I can say for Rafe!”

“Wait—did he get upset? You guys weren’t doing anything wrong,” Mica protested, laughing as she fended off Pirate’s smouches. She knelt next to my big boy on the exam room floor, trying to listen to his heart.

“You were just test-driving the fling-thing in private,” she added, “except for the whole windows-and-doors problem.”

Trust my girl to put a positive spin on our kissing-interruptus adventure after the Howl-o-ween party.

As soon as we’d arrived that morning for Pirate’s allergy shot, I’d jumped right in with my story. I was looking for a little sympathy because…what are girlfriends for?

Instead, I got a lot of laughter and even more encouragement because…whatarefriends for?

Luckily, we’d had enough warning before Mateo had switched on the brights. We’d slid off the bags and located our tossed T-shirts—plus a spare apron for me.

Still, we’d been caught in the act—what with my hurricane hair and Rafe’s wild eyes. Even more telling, I’d backed into Rafe to block Mateo’s view of certain hard facts and clutched the apron over my pebbly bits like a shy maiden.

Mateo had raised his eyebrows in mock shock. After winking, he’d turned off the lights and shut the door. We’d stood still and quiet—in the total dark—until Ana called that she’d found her backpack behind the counter. They’d left shortly after that.

I’d wanted to crawl under the pallet of coffee bags and never come out again.

“You know what Rafe did? He started to chuckle, not mad at all,” I informed Mica. “He swung me off my feet and roared with laughter. With the way he was carrying on, I was worried the neighborhood dogs would start howling.”

We’d gotten interrupted in the middle of making out like teenagers, and he was losing it.

“Good for him. So whatdidyou do?” Mica asked.

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