Page 12 of Love, Always and Forever
He shot her a quick grin, his teeth a flash of white against his tanned skin. “We’re almost there.”
When there was a break in traffic, Mikhail revved the engine before shooting across the intersection. Halfway down the block, he pulled into a parking lot and stopped in front of a ramshackle building. The sign over the door readBIG TOM’S BARBECUE,and the surrounding air smelled of wood smoke and spicy barbecue.
Her stomach rumbled, a reminder that it had been a long time since lunch. It was too much to hope that Mikhail hadn’t heard. After they both climbed off the bike, he held out his hand to take her helmet and gave her abdomen a pointed glance. “Glad you brought your appetite.”
Pretending to be offended, she sniffed and gave him her most haughty look. “A gentleman would’ve pretended not to have noticed.”
His expression had been teasing, but now there was a hint of heat in those ice blue eyes. “Whoever said anything about me being a gentleman?”
Before she could think of a suitable response, he swooped in to kiss her. It didn’t last long, just a quick brush of his lips across hers, but she felt the impact all the way to her toes. Yeah, she was still vibrating a bit from sitting on the motorcycle, but this sensation was different. Better. Hotter. And, oh boy, was she in trouble. She didn’t know what expression she had on her face right now, but evidently it was sending mixed signals to the man standing in front of her.
“Look, I was kidding about the whole gentleman thing. If you want to slug me for taking liberties, go ahead.”
Deciding actions would speak louder than words, or at least more coherently, she grabbed a fistful of Mikhail’s leather jacket and dragged his worried face down and kissed him right back.
This time, the kiss was neither quick nor gentle. In her hurry to reassure him that she’d enjoyed his kiss, her mouth hit his hard enough to knock his lips back against his teeth. She started to apologize, but he stopped her by immediately taking control of the situation—and her. Their helmets hit the ground, freeing up his hands to capture the back of her neck and angle her head more to his liking.
At the same time, his tongue swept past her lips to give her a quick taste. The odd thought crossed her mind that she now knew how all those heroines in historical romances felt when they were about to swoon. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been kissed before, but she’d never been kissed like this, not with such fierce intent and purpose. She liked it. A lot.
And she wanted more of the same.
But a car full of teenage boys roared by, honking and hooting, “Get a room!”
Mikhail broke off kissing her long enough to glare at the car disappearing down the street. “They’re idiots.”
Then he stared down at her, his eyes still full of hot promise. “But they’re jealous idiots.”
She’d never been caught kissing in public before, another first she could add to her list. It left her a little unsure how to proceed. “Um, should we go inside?”
The corners of Mikhail’s mouth quirked up just a bit. “That’s probably a good idea unless you want to wait and give them a real show if they come back this way.”
Thinking about what that might entail had her cheeks heating up and her head slowly shaking from side to side.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Let’s go see what Big Tom has on the menu today.”
He picked up their helmets in one hand, slung his arm around her shoulders, and led her into the dimly lit interior of the restaurant.
