Page 21 of Jerk Neighbor

“You tell me,” he said quickly. “What will it take? I’ll give you anything you desire. Anything.”

It struck her that his offer came low and husky and urgent-sounding, yet this time with no qualifier.

“Oh, you will, huh? I’m that ridiculously sexy?”

He sank down on the seat beside her and turned to her to drop a kiss on her mouth. “You know you’re stunning. God, I think you put a spell on those apples. You really need to cover up that mouth, too.”

The next moment, she found herself cradled in his lap and raising her face. Then they were kissing again, mouth to mouth. Unlike the tentativeness of before, these kisses were made of tongue and teeth and suction, spiced with open need, a bit like the way he’d consumed her breast.

His rumbling sounds of pleasure held a note of pain. The hard staff pressing against her thigh testified to the veracity of his claim to be asking for a real date.

Stop. Stop him now or round two might finish the match.

Because Bastian Spencer was proving to be anything but stuffy and she was kind of loving it. She’d once read a novel with a hero who was described as “ardent.” She’d dismissed him as sweet but boring. Now she got it. In real life, “ardent” was in actual fact very hot. The way he strained to meet her...gasped when she clasped his arm...groaned as her tongue met his...grunted whenshegroaned...he was fully attuned to her and openly needy.

She’d had good sex, technically, but Bastian’s kiss…it made her feel free.

It was dangerous. She didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him, so it should not feel this comfortable to be in his arms. She should not feel free to run her hands all over his steel-hard back, to pull up his shirt, hot and damp with sweat.

She should not feel this bad, bad ache that made her need to scramble closer, seek tighter contact. Or silently echo his chant, “So good, kissing you is so good.”

Itwasso good. Thrilling in fact when he moved her head to enable new angles of mutual ravaging.

Until she heard the muffled sounds of voices outside in the hallway.

A reminder of their situation.

A wake-up call.

Dingdong! What are you actually doing? This is Bastian Spencer, your neighbor, the jerk. Who’s kind of maybe possibly dating someone else, in case you’ve forgotten that minor detail.

She clung to the spark of sanity long enough to pull away. “That’s enough. Really this time.”

“Yes.” He leaned into her, following her, then caught himself. “Damn, you’re like a magical sultry imp. I meant to stop. How do you do it?”

“Don’t blame me for your own lack of impulse control.” Paula ruined her own watch-me-be-immune act by reaching out to brush the shadow on his jaw. Quickly withdrawing her hand did nothing. It was too late. He’d already turned his face and kissed her palm.

“Cut it out. I can only take so much.” He stood up and adjusted himself, pulling his shirt completely free to open his fly, adjust himself in his briefs, tuck his shirt in again and redo it, never looking away from her.

Enough! Stop staring at him like he’s gourmet pastry! Get a grip!

She slumped down on the sofa with her arms flaccid and her head flopped back. “So this whole thing is my fault according to you?”

“I did beg you to cover up.”

Grrr!She contorted her face in her best lopsided, bug-eyed look. “There. I’m ugly. You’re off the hook. You can go back to ignoring me the way you always do.”

“Sorry to inform you, you don’t stop being delectable just by—” he flicked his fingers at her—“rearranging all that. Besides...”

“Besides what?”

“You bother me no matter what you do.” He sounded resigned. “I may have blanked out on your name, but I knew you. I wanted to do this the first time I saw you. And every other time since.”

“Well, what a sweet-talker you are, huh.” She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Is that what shutting the door in my face was, then, the equivalent of pulling my braids? Somehow I’m not buying it. I’m thinking any woman would do it for you in your current state.” She gestured vaguely to his pants.

“You’re not a very trusting woman, are you?”

“Me?I’mnot trusting?”

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