Page 50 of Tempting as Sin
“Oh?” he asked. “What was your plan?”
She glared at him, or as much as Lily could glare, and he said, “What?”
She’d started to bung dishes into the dishwasher, but now, she turned to face him again. “How am I supposed to do this?” she asked. “How?”
“Uh…” He scratched his cheek. “Do what, exactly?”
“Right,” she said. “OK. I’ve got it. You’re a gentleman. We got a little carried away yesterday because of lingerie and me flirting too much, but you’re over it, and anyway, I asked you to stop, and you stopped, so that’s great. Now we’re practicing being in-laws. Sharing stories. Getting to know each other. Great. Fine.” She pulled her hair back with one hand again. Her robe had opened a bit, and he could see that bra. The purple, and the lace. He could see the swell of her breasts above it, too, and the creaminess of her skin. He could see too much.
“Pardon?” he asked, yanking his gaze back up to her face. “I’m over what?”
“Obviously,” she said, “my skin isn’t as good as it used to be. I knew that already. Are you going to take the dog, or what?”
“Wait.” He wanted to come around the counter. He didn’t. “You’re going to have to back up. I’m confused as hell. Yourskin?Your skin’s just bloody fine. Am I meant to look at it, or not look? Because I’m looking.”
“I was trying to…” She held her arms out from her sides, then let them fall. “I thought, last night—Oh, man, I can’t. This is stupid.”
“Lily.” He was starting to smile. “Are you trying to make a move on me?”
More glaring.“Yes.What do I have to do, write it in the sand in a big heart? Do you think I open the door in my robe for the UPS man? Flash him while I reveal my deepest secrets?”
He laughed, then said, “Sorry. Ahem. Sorry.” He scrubbed his hand over his face to try to hide the grin, but couldn’t. “You could look at me from under those lashes of yours and say, ‘You know, Rafe, I think I changed my mind, because I kept thinking about you last night, and maybe you thought about me, too. Maybe you lay awake and sweated with how much you wanted me. Maybe you could kiss me again, take off my clothes, and touch me nice and slow, so I’d know for sure.’ That would do it.”
“Before or after ‘Good morning’?”
“Oh, baby.” He stepped around the counter and took her in his arms at last. “Either way works.”
She put both hands on his chest. It felt good, but…“Wait,” she said. “I need to explain.” And he sighed.
“No,” he said, “you really don’t. I can take it from here.” She was warm, she was soft, and he had both hands on her lower back, pulling her into him. It felt just absolutely bloody fantastic.
“It’s a…” Her breath hitched, but that may have been because he’d pulled her hair away from her neck and was kissing her there. She smelled so good. She felt better.
“It’s a what?” he asked, then kissed her some more, because she was squirming a little now.
“It’s a…a short-term thing,” she said. “My, uh…” She sighed and squirmed again. “Transition person. Obviously.”
He didn’t want to lift his head. He did anyway. “Pardon?”
She said, “I felt ashamed out there, telling you all that. I still have baggage, obviously. You don’t want baggage.”
“I don’t?” Hehadthought something like that. It was hard to remember right now.
She still had her palms on his chest, but they were softer now. More like she wanted to feel him there. She said, “Of course you don’t,” and he struggled to remember what they’d been talking about. “I met Antonio when I was twenty-four, and ever since I left, for almost three years now, every time I’ve gone out with somebody—which hasn’t been that often, let me tell you—I’ve wished he’d go slower. And with you, I keep wishing you’d go faster. I keep having to holdmyselfback. It’s time to stop thinking so much and justdoit. Just for now. Just for fun. The way you do things.”
He took a step back.“Whatway I do things?”
Her hand was in her hair, pulling it back, and he could see straight down the parting of her robe. He remembered how silky her thigh had felt under his fingers. He remembered how she’d moaned, too. “Casual,” she said. “We could be casual. We’d have to be, because of Jace and Paige. It’s my next step. Clearly, because Paige felt it, too. Sexually. So—clearly. Here you are, and it can be…secret. It can be safe.”
His mouth may have been open. “Pardon?” he said when he could manage it. “What does Paige have to do with it?Sexually?And you think this would be safe? It doesn’t feel safe to me. Feels like jumping straight off the rocks.”
“All right, the sex, maybe,” she said. “That’s what Paige was feeling from me, was what I meant. When you’re a twin, you feel what the other one feels sometimes, when it’s strong. Never mind. I have to tell you, though—I’m not much of an adventurer. You could be disappointed. I meant it’s safe because I know who you are, and you wouldn’t have to hide it the way you’d have to with somebody else, assuming you’re still trying to be anonymous. You’re here for weeks, and you can’t show another woman your body, because she’s going to recognize it. Your face, too. The way you smile. Your eyes, whether they’re blue or not. You’re too memorable. Too…spectacular. Especially if she’s touching you, looking at all of you. But we can trust each other, right? So it’s perfect.”
“Trust each other to what? I find myself just fascinated to hear what comes next.” He was still aroused as hell, because that tended to happen when you looked at the woman you wanted most, dressed in some barely-there lingerie and asking you to take it off her. He might be disappointed? Not bloody likely.
He felt all that, and he was burning, too. Both at once. Why was she talking about another woman touching him?
“Not to talk about it later,” she said. “Not to lie to ourselves, or to each other. I’ve always been too emotional. Ask Paige. Ask Antonio. He’ll be happy to tell you. But I wouldn’t have to be, not with you. It could just be exciting. Fun. Like karaoke. It could even be therapy.”
