Page 33 of 40 and (So Over) Fixing It
“Carter!”
Her sharp tone snapped him out of his fascination. “Yeah?”
“I need a solution here.”
He forced his mind toward the practical. “Got it.” Reaching behind his head, he grasped the neck of his Henley and pulled it up and over. “Here.”
Once the shirt was off his body, he handed it over, using his opposite hand to smooth the undershirt he’d warn against the chill autumn air down his belly.
Erin stared at the proffered shirt like it might bite. “What?”
“Wear my shirt. It’ll cover you just fine.” He could just imagine it draping across her breasts, the soft swell visible in his mind’s eye. Yes, he definitely wanted her to wear his shirt.
“Oh. Um, okay.”
Erin grasped the fabric, and his stomach quivered when her skin slid along his. As he waited, she took the shirt in hand, then turned her back to him. He wasn’t certain what he’d expected, but it definitely wasn’t for her to drop his shirt on top of the board she’d caught her sweater on, grasp the edges of her top, and whip it off over her head, leaving him face to back with her naked skin and a strap of pretty red lace crossing just beneath her shoulder blades.
His breath caught in his throat. “Erin?”
ChapterFourteen
Asharp gasp behind her froze Erin in place. Chill air raced across her bare arms, bare stomach, nearly bare breasts.
Bare.
What the hell had she done?
She stood there, frozen, the reality that she’d whipped her sweater off in front of the man who’d kissed her like he was starving for her—and she’d kissed him back just as hungrily—actually coming alive in her mind. She didn’t even know why she’d done it. If it had been one of her girlfriends there, sure, she’d have tossed it off no problem, but Carter?
Oh God, she was naked in front of Carter.
“Erin?”
Her name was a wheeze on his lips, as if his lungs had frozen. In disgust? Shock? Horror that she was about to proposition him?
She wasn’t. Was she?
“Erin,” he said again, the word only slightly less strained, “is that red lace?”
This time it was Erin that gasped. Because that wasn’t disgust or horror in Carter’s voice. No, it was something far more dangerous.
She glanced over her shoulder, barely taking him in from the corner of her eye. “Yes,” she managed to squeeze out.
She might be most comfortable in chunky overalls and flannel shirts, but she had a secret, something very few people knew about her. A secret fascination with sexy lingerie. And what she had on right now, beneath her snug jeans and softest sweater, clothes she’d worn because they were going to the pub tonight—oh, who was she kidding? She’d worn them because she’d known she would see Carter tonight—was her sexiest lace bra and panty set. Red lace. Completely see-through.
A muttered curse came from behind her, and then she felt Carter’s heat close in on her back. Felt the heavy sigh that escaped him as he stared down at her bare skin.
“Let me see.”
If the words had been a demand, she could have easily said no. But there was no arrogance in Carter’s request. He was begging—
And she couldn’t deny him.
She turned around.
“Holy shit!”
Beneath her disbelieving eyes, Carter went to his knees in front of her. That alone was astonishing, but the fact that he reached for her, hands trembling, nearly undid her. The realization that this sophisticated man with his devilishly handsome face and stern outlook on life could be literally brought to his knees,trembling,at the sight of her bare body did things to her she wasn’t certain she wanted to acknowledge. She did know her throat got tight and her breasts swelled, seeming to reach for him as his fingers hovered over the lace-covered orbs.
