Page 13 of Heart of Dixie
“Hey! That’s a six-hundred-dollar bag; you don’t throw it around like it came from Walmart.”
I may as well have been yelling at a wall. A wall of muscle I wouldn’t mind licking up one side and down the other. He latched onto my shoulders and steered me toward the stairs.
“Where are we going?”
“Upstairs.”
I rolled my eyes. “I got that, Deke. I’m tipsy, not dim-witted.”
It was possible I was slurring my words just a tad because he chuckled again. “Okay, then. More specifically, my bedroom.”
I grabbed hold of the banister with both hands and held on tight. “Not happening, Deke.” My libido may be on her knees and beggingyes, please, but I wasn’tthatdrunk. I had a serious sit-down with myself before I arrived and promised myself—no sex. In hindsight, a regrettable decision, probably made in haste, but I was sticking to it.I twisted out of his arms and steamed back toward my purse.
I got exactly one step before the broad wall of Deke blocked my path again. “Dixie, no way you’re driving tonight.” He stood with his long legs spread wide and his hands propped on the waistband of his shorts, hanging low on his hips and causing all sorts of gooey things to happen to my insides.Come on, Dixie! Maybe just a little sex?The slut inside me wasn’t looking at the big picture.
He lifted his arm and motioned into the mostly empty room. “I’m not kidnapping you, for chrissake. You have options. You can take the sofa in the living room—”
I followed his finger to the thick black cotton futon. College experience had proven those to be killers. “What’s my next choice?”
“Cody’s room.”
Little kids had little beds, right? I was only five-five; I ought to fit. “That’s fine, I can sleep in his—”
“Sleeping bag.”
I glared. “Are you kidding me?” The room was beginning to spin nearly as fast as my thoughts.
“Nope.” The wall was grinning; he reallywasa bastard. “The kid likes to pretend he’s camping out when he spends the night here. We bust out the flashlights and eat hot dogs. I draw the line at an indoor campfire, though.”
My sigh came from way down deep. About where my patience was hiding. “How many more options do I have?”
“Just one, princess.”
My finger shot into the air as inspiration struck. “Why don’t you drive me home? I can come back for my car tomorrow.” He seemed to think about it.What was there to think about?It was a sound plan.
“Nope.”
“What, nope?”
He took my elbow and turned me around to face the stairway. “I don’t want to.”
I could huff. I could stomp my foot like a child. I had a perfectly good cabin at the lodge waiting for me to snuggle in only a few miles away. Or I could march my butt up the stairs and climb in his bed—which washere, and hopefully super-duper large—and sleep. With all my clothes on. Another yawnescaped. I’d been awake for far too many hours. Sleep sounded really, really good.
He pushed his hair off his face as he waited, the poster child for amused tolerance. Did he realize his hand had left my elbow and was even now rubbing up and down the bare skin of my upper arm? I lifted my chin until our eyes met and offered what I hoped he took as an angry glare to mask the dance party going on in my belly. He really was tall. And broad. And Jesus, where had all those delicious muscles come from? I huffed, simply because life was sometimes so unfair. “Which way?”
He laced his fingers with mine and led me up. At the end of the hallway he stopped and pushed the door open, but pulled me close and trapped me in his arms. I caught a quick glimpse of a huge room with a wide—oh, thank God!—bed, but the rest was a blur with Deke’s massive body wrapped around me.
The steady beat of his heart pressed against me was soothing. And tempting. But this was where I hopped off the Deke train. I’d ridden it once before and been tempted to stay on till the end of the line. But we both had bigger lives to lead than anything offered in Kissing Creek, Tennessee.
My thoughts must have telegraphed themselves. Two fingers lifted my chin and I made the mistake of meeting his gaze. The look I got was heated and searching and made me glad my days here were limited.
“Dixie, I’ve seen you naked. My body has been inside your body. But I promise you, princess, nothing you don’t want to happen will happen tonight.”
Now why’d he have to go and say that?My blood pounded through my veins, sending heat to neglected regions. My insides fluttered with longing—all reactions I didnotwant to happen while I was in this town. Those were the things that would get me thinking about staying, and that wouldnothappen.
He lowered his head until his lips met my ear. “I want to taste you.” The heat in his darkened eyes held a question, almost a dare.
“I’m not dessert.” My voice was trapped in my throat, filled with indecision. Warning sirens were screamingDanger! Danger!But this was my chance to discover the answer to my earlier pondering. Were his lips still soft or had they turned firm? Was he hesitant and unsure, or had maturity made him strong and decisive?
