Page 120 of Love Among Vines

“Remember the evening of torture you had in store for me before you’d finally consent to touching my body?”

“I don’t think a thoughtful date and careful wooing count as torture.”

“It. Was. Torture.” She punctuated each word with a poke in his chest. “And now it’s your turn to wait. Go make your ice cream.”

He frowned at her but reluctantly withdrew his hands. “For the record, I do not approve.”

“Remind me to play the world’s smallest violin for you.” She turned back to her beef. Ha. It served him right.

There was something so freeing about moving around the kitchen, fall air blowing in from the sliding door she had cracked open. Rett’s long glances as he whisked eggs and carefully measured sugar. The scrape of fabric against her bare nipples. As long as she managed to not burn them on the frying pan, the evening was looking good.

Rett baked like a scientist. She half-expected him to pull out some beakers and goggles. He crouched down at eye level to measure liquids, carefully spooned and leveled his dry ingredients.

Jade, on the other hand, measured with her heart. How much of a difference could there be between four and six cloves of garlic?

“Excuse me,” she said, brushing past him to open the freezer door. With heels on, she was only a couple of inches shorter than him. When she retrieved a bag of frozen vegetables, he grabbed her hand and pulled her roughly to him, then pressed her against the refrigerator.

The frigid stainless steel pressing into her spine elicited a shiver. He did not relent, opting instead to lean in and kiss her, trapping her against the fridge with his hips. Her lips parted, and he plundered her mouth with a fury.

Heat welled deep inside her, and she couldn’t stop herself from reaching for him. The bag of vegetables fell to the floor. Screw dinner.

His hands were back too, palms skating along the curve of her ass and coming up to skim the side of her breast. A thumb rolled over her nipple and was nearly enough to bring her to her knees.

Her desire to make him suffer was quickly being outstripped by her desire to let the shepherd’s pie go to hell and have her way with him right there against the refrigerator.

“Sorry,” he said, breaking away and releasing her. “Just needed to get the heavy cream.”

“Did you find it behind my tonsils?” Even though he had moved away, her hands were curled into claws and the rest of her body was on high alert.

“No.” He opened the fridge door and peered inside. “There it is.”

He went back to measuring like nothing had happened. Theaudacity.

She took a beat, then bent down to retrieve the vegetables. Thankfully the bag hadn’t exploded. Although chasing down all the bits of carrots and peas while on her knees would have made a nice show for Rett, she really was starting to get hungry.

She shot a glance at him out of the corner of her eye as she dumped the vegetables into the skillet. His eyes were on her, and he was smirking. She made steady eye contact and tugged the apron to the middle so that her breasts were significantly more exposed.

His eyes darkened. She triumphantly went back to stirring the contents of the skillet. That would teach him to try to seduce her. She was in charge tonight, damn it. No matter what her vagina was trying to tell her.

“Excuse me,” Rett echoed. “Just need to get something out of this cabinet.”

In a second, he had come to a knee and planted himself between her legs. His hands guided her knees apart as she stood at the stove.

A retort was on her tongue. But then he touched her. First with his fingers, gently trailing between her folds. Softly teasing, gently caressing.

Her toes curled in her stilettos. The spatula clattered into the spoon rest. She was completely at his mercy.

When his fingers were replaced by a tongue, her knees buckled. She barely had time to move the pan off the burner before the first orgasm rocked her from head to toe. When she could breathe again, she pulled his face toward her until he was looking at her.

Those big green eyes, like a glimpse into a meadow she desperately wanted to paint. Something ancient and powerful unfurled deep within her like a coiled snake.

She dragged him over to the couch and threw him back onto the pillows. Slowly, deliberately, she released the tie on the apron until it fell to the floor.

His eyes raked over her body, and he reached for her. She climbed over his muscular thighs and straddled his hips. She tipped his chin up so he had to look at her.

Eternity shone back at her through those eyes. In an instant, she could see their future. A beautiful fall wedding at the vineyard. Penny chasing a gaggle of giggling dark-haired children across the front lawn.

Her own studio on the village green next door to Margie’s Café. Weekly dinner with Cindy and Tom. Morning runs and steamy afternoons with Rett. Gray-haired and knobble-knuckled, rocking together on the back porch overlooking the lake. It would be beautiful. She could feel it in her bones. Maybe she could pretend that this was all within her grasp. Just for tonight.

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