Page 73 of The Marriage Deal
I frown down at her. She really is a cute little lunatic. “What does spook mean to you, Lilah?”
“Spook, like spooky. Like Halloween.” She rolls her finger in the air. “You know? Tell me you know?”
I shrug. “I know it as a term in spy movies and books.” I just can’t handle the look of utter disappointment on her face, so I add, “But your definition works, too.”
I’m immediately hit with that radiant smile again. The one that would have any man doing his darndest to make her do it again. And again. And again.
I take a step toward her. “Is that apple pie I smell?”
She nods, pulling that lip between her teeth again. The urge to kiss her hits me with a violence I don’t expect.
“And apple crisp. I peeled a few too many apples.”
“I love apple crisp.”
“Who doesn’t?”
I need to move away from her or I’m going to kiss her. I want to do more than kiss her. But the last time I let myself taste her; things went too far. I touched her. Made her come apart. And she fled me.
It’s been days where I’ve hardly seen her. Days where she’s slept in and worked late. Days where she’s avoided me.
I miss her.
This is getting messy. I didn’t anticipate this when I proposed she become my fake wife.
She spins away from me, moving back toward the kitchen on her bare feet. I watch the sway of her peach-colored dress around her hips and swallow hard to clear my throat.
“I’ve got pulled pork in the crock pot and coleslaw in the fridge.”
I lay my palms flat on the cool granite of the island. “You cooked?”
Her eyes swing to me at the deep pitch of my voice, no doubt. She blushes again, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Hardly.”
“You made dinner, Lilah. That’s cooking.” I don’tknow why she can’t take a compliment. Why she thinks that when she does something, she doesn’t do enough of it.
Her blush deepens and I watch, amused as she pulls in a nervous breath. “Well, you worked a long day today. You’ve been working long days every day.”
“So have you.”
She wets her lips. I wonder if she knows every time she does that, they are even more irresistible. That every time she licks her lips, I’m reminded of the taste of her.
She changes the subject as she turns to pull a golden pie from the oven, placing the unbaked crisp inside. “So, how’s the project coming along?”
“Good. We’ll be breaking ground soon. I noticed the petition to run me out of town has been taken down.”
She makes a noise between a laugh and a groan. “It never should have been up in the first place.”
“Did you remove it?”
She shakes her head but doesn’t give me her eyes. “Dad did. He says Dakota says you have nothing but good intentions for Sunset Falls.”
“He speaks the truth.”
“So, this is where you’re going to stay? This is where you want to plant your roots?”
She’s still not looking at me. I don’t know why I want her eyes for this, but I do. I round the counter, though I don’t exactly crowd her.
I shove my hands into the pockets of my jeans to ignore the need to touch her chin. To force those warm eyes to mine.
