Page 43 of Love Out Loud

He stepped into the little alcove outside the front door, and she followed him. “Yes,” he said. “Something’s wrong.”

The dogs sat side by side at their feet and looked up at them.

“What is it?” she asked, brow furrowed.

“She really doesn’t know,” he said to the dogs, who wagged their tails and stared adoringly up at him.

“What don’t I know?” she asked the dogs as if they would answer.

“Shall I tell her?” The dogs’ tails wagged faster.

He looped Otto’s leash over his wrist and wrapped his arms around her waist, then slid one hand up to the middle of her back, pulling her against his body.

“Oh,” Fiona said in surprise, smiling. “You two dogs have been keeping secrets from me.”

“I swore them to secrecy. But they don’t know the whole story.”

“Want to share it with me?”

“Yes, I do,” he said, lowering his head and taking her mouth. This kiss was even better. The one at the restaurant had been hot, but this time, it wasn’t just their mouths; their entire bodies were pressed together, and it was incendiary. He ran his hand up and down her spine, and she melted into his touch.

Never had he experienced a kiss like this one. Something about her was like kerosene that lit him on fire.

She fisted her hand in his shirt as if she needed to hang on to something in order to stay upright. Gently, he turned her to where her back was to the door of her business, and she leaned against it, pulling him with her so that most of his weight was against her. She scraped her fingers through his hair, and he became light-headed for a moment. God. If he ever got this woman naked, it might kill him outright. The kiss grew deeper, and he moaned her name.

“Wait,” she said.

It took his mind a minute to register her word.

She pushed gently against his chest, and he reluctantly gave her some space.

“Jacob, wait.”

She wasn’t saying no or stop, he realized with relief. She’d asked him to wait. Wait for what? For his heart to jackhammer straight out of his chest? For his knees to give out?

“I have something to say.”

Holy hell. She wanted to talk?Now?

He wasn’t even sure he could string together a coherent sentence, so he met her eyes and waited, both of them breathing hard. She didn’t say anything for what felt like forever. She took a deep breath a couple of times as if she were going to speak but evidently thought better of it.

She looked down at the little dogs sitting expectantly at their feet, and he was worried for a moment she was going to speak to him through them.

But then she raised her eyes to his, took a breath, and said, “Jacob Ward, you’re fired.”

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