Page 24 of Her Three Rangers

“I think you might actually be telling the truth about that last part,” I said, grinning. “Or at least, I think your brain is probably telling you that you don’t like me.”

“Well, I don’t know what body part you listen to,” she paused to give me a pointed look, “but when my brain tells me I don’t like someone, I don’t usually question it.”

“Your loss,” I said, hoping I sounded nonchalant enough to get under her skin just a little more.

Before this night was over, she was either going to love me or hate me, but she wasn’t going to pretend not to care.

“You have some kind of ego, don’t you?” she asked, shaking her head. “I suppose you think you’re God’s gift to women. Is that it? We all want what you’ve got there?” She nodded toward my crotch, again letting her eyes linger just a moment too long to be completely innocent.

“I like it when you get worked up like this,” I said, giving in and telling on myself just a little. “And yeah, maybe I have an ego.” I leaned in a little as I looked her in the eye. “But at least I’m honest.”

“I’m honest. Are you really going to sit here in my house and say I’m not?”

“You’re right.” I held my hands up in a mock surrender. “That was rude of me. My apologies.”

She didn’t answer, but her eyes told me everything I needed to know. I was onto her. If this was the game, I knew how to play it.

When she still didn’t say anything, I continued, “But look me in the eye right now and tell me there isn’t even a tiny part of you that wonders what it would be like to kiss me.”

I leaned in again to hold her gaze, the heat in her eyes plain to see. “Tell me,” I repeated. “Just so you know, I wonder what it would be like to kiss you. I think about it a lot. I’m thinking about it right now… and so are you. Now tell me I’m wrong.”

She didn’t look away this time, but she didn’t deny what I said this time, either.

“You really think about that?” she asked, her voice just above a whisper. “About what it would be like… to kiss me?”

“All the time,” I answered, leaning in closer. “I wonder if those pouty pink lips are as soft as they look. I wonder if you liked to be kissed gently or hard and rough. I wonder what you taste like.”

Her lips parted and she drew a ragged breath. That’s when I knew she was done pretending. That was when I knew for sure that she wanted it, too.

But first I wanted to hear her say it.

“Do you want it?” I asked, slowly moving closer until our faces were just a couple of inches apart. I could feel her breath against my skin, and it took every ounce of willpower I had not to give up this little game and reach out to pull her close. “Do you want to kiss me right now?”

She gave an almost imperceptible nod. “Yes,” she whispered.

That was good enough for me.

I brushed my lips against hers, and yeah, they were every bit as soft as they looked. I reached out and lightly stroked my fingers across her cheek, my hand moving down and around the back of her neck, pulling her closer as she opened her mouth to me.

I kissed her deeply, loving the delicious little whimper that escaped from the back of her throat as she melted against me. She was fucking gorgeous, and the way she kissed me back, hungry and needy, had my cock struggling to get free of the towel that was just barely draped across my lap.

This kiss was even better than I had imagined, and I hadn’t been lying when I’d said she had been on my mind pretty much constantly since we’d arrived in Grey Ridge.

I let my hand move down from the back of her neck to her shoulder, intending to work my way lower still, when she forcefully pushed me back and practically leapt back onto her couch cushion and as far away from me as possible.

“The fuck—” I muttered, blinking as my body tried to figure out what the hell had just happened. One second we’d been kissing, the next… this.

She reached up to smooth back her hair, her wide-eyed expression and her kiss-swollen lips completely giving her away.

Before I could finish asking what the sudden change was all about, Ty walked in through the door. So that was it. She didn’t want him to know we’d been kissing.

Unfortunately for her, he shot me an inquisitive look the moment he walked in, his expression changing from curious to completely satisfied as I nodded once.

Ty and I had known each other for so long that we usually didn’t need to actually speak in order to communicate. He had been able to tell we’d been kissing—I was pretty sure it would have been obvious to anyone with eyes—but the fact that he hadn’t actually said anything spoke volumes.

“Back so soon?” I asked, struggling not to smile as he looked from me to her and back again. “Grace and I were just having the most interesting conversation.”

“Oh, really?” he asked, his eyebrow quirking up. “Anything you want to share?”

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