Page 9 of Tempting as Sin
“Mm.” She smiled. “It could. Maybe you could give me your phone number, and I could call you in the morning. I’m only here one more night myself. We could make a plan.Notfor flying lessons. I’d have to work my way up to that. But we could…see.”
“We could.” She took a step, and then she took another one, and he stood absolutely still, there under the fluorescent lights, and waited for that bird to flutter down.
She was so close now, he could smell her perfume. Still floral, still subtle, just like her. She put a slow hand up, touched his cheek, rough with days’ worth of black stubble, and drew her fingertips down his jaw. The lightest touch, but he felt it all the way along his face. All the way down his body.
It wasn’t the bird that needed to be set free after all. It was him. Because the moment she touched him, his hand went to her waist like there was no choice at all.
When his other hand touched her own cheek, she sighed. And when his thumb brushed along it…her lips parted.
The balance had shifted, and it was his move. He tipped her chin up with a gentle hand, felt her rising onto her toes, bent his head, and kissed her.
It was soft, nothing but a brush of lips. Silken hair between his fingers, the taste of champagne and the smell of flowers in his head. He lifted his mouth from hers, smiled into her eyes, and bent to kiss her again. Still soft, still sweet. And so good.
Wait a minute. This wasn’t…he was…Her mouth was opening under his, she was making a little noise in her throat, and he went from “simmer” to “burn” like she’d turned the knob. Somehow, he’d backed up a few steps, or she had. Whoever had done it, she was against the wall, was pulling his head down, or maybe he was pulling her up, since he had a hand under her. Trench coat, velvet jacket, confusing shirt, jeans…and still, he felt the shape of her under his palm. She squirmed some, and oh, yeah, the hot rush of blood was right there. His tongue was in her mouth, mimicking that other dance, the one he needed to donow.
He needed…He needed…
He didn’t hear it at first, not over the rush of blood pounding in his head. But it happened again. Three short blasts of a car horn. And then three more.
When he tried to lift his head, she made a protesting sound and pulled him back down. He kissed her once more, then—all right, once more than that, before he managed to say, between kisses at the corner of that luscious mouth, then trailing along her cheek, “Taxi. Do you still want it, or do I tell him to…” He was pressed up so close. He was aching. “To, uh…” it was a groan. “... go away? I’ve got a car here, too. I’ve got a hotel room. I want you in it so bad.”
For a moment, she was still, and he didn’t want to admit how he was holding his breath. He could swear, too, that his body was thrumming to the rhythm of her heartbeat. Then she sighed, and he didn’t need to hear her say, “No. I need to go. My sister…No. It’s not my sister. It’s me. I need to go.”
“Right.” He stepped back, pushed the button for the elevator, reminded himself,You are Clay. If she only wants the star, it’s not worth it,and said, “Going to give me your number?”
“No,” she said, and he rocked back. She smiled a little ruefully. Maybe a little shakily, too. “But I’m going to ask you for yours.”
Lily rode home in the back of the cab, looked out between the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge at a black ocean that stretched all the way to Japan, and wondered whether she’d actually gotten smarter, or just more scared. Whether this was the wrong kind of caution, the kind that held you back from trying new things. Like karaoke, or maybe like Clay backing you through the door into an anonymous hotel room, his lips already on yours, and starting to undress you before the door had even closed, because he couldn’t wait another second and neither could you. And finding out what a man that unselfish would do next. How thoroughly he’d kiss you, how well he’d touch you, and how achingly long he could make it last. Whether he could possibly be as much of a toe-curling, sheet-twisting, dirty-sweet ride as he’d felt like when he’d had her pressed up against the wall of a parking garage.
A very manly deer. With enormous antlers. One who won all the deer fights.
He hadn’t tried to stalk her and bring her down. He’d wanted to make love to her. Surely she couldn’t be wrong about that. Should she have gone for it after all?
She picked up her phone, nearly pressed the button, and set it down again. And then she picked it up twice more, and set it down twice more, too. Tomorrow was soon enough. She’d justlefthim. Plus, there was her lousy track record to consider.
But when she’d shut the door of the taxi behind her, retrieved Paige’s car key, let herself through the security gate and then into the houseboat, when she moved quietly through the darkened space and felt her twin’s happiness in the very air she breathed…Well, yeah.
She’d told herself that there was no loneliness like being married to the wrong person, and it was true. She’d also told herself that she was better off alone, and maybe that wasn’t. What would it be like, she wondered for the first time since her marriage, to be with therightperson? Would you feel swallowed up, or might you feel…understood? Even just for a little while?
Even just for a night?
She wouldn’t go all the way to “settled down with.” She had the settling down part handled. She owned her own house for the first time in her life, and she owned her shop, too. At least, she had a mortgage and a lease. Close enough. She also had goats, chickens, and friends who loved her for herself, and she was working on the best garden she could possibly devise. Her own place in the world, her own piece of land, and her own roots, growing deeper with every passing month.
And all the same, once she’d taken her shower and climbed into bed, she was holding her phone again.
One-thirty A.M. He wouldn’t still be awake. It was a bad idea all the way around.
She settled on a text. He could read it in the morning.
Got home fine. Thanks for that. Still can’t believe you did it.
And got a chime right back.
Good. And of course I did it. I was doing whatever I could. Couldn’t you tell?
Bad idea to call. She hit the button anyway.
“Hey,” he said, and that was all.
