“I am not embarrassed by my feet!”
“Are you sure because it seems that way to me. I mean look how you’re sitting right now, and your refusal to show them to me says something entirely different.” By the time he finished speaking, MacKenzie’s upper body was turned towards him, and she was busy raking him with an exasperated look. There it was again, his feeling of enjoyment at teasing her, so Jake decided to push even further.
Putting his cup down, Jake grinned at her. “Come on MacKenzie, you know what they say about women with big feet.”
Placing her own cup on an end table Jake braced himself; recognizing when someone was preparing themselves for an attack.
MacKenzie folded her arms and narrowed her eyes before speaking. “No, Jacob, I have no idea what is said about women with big feet.”
Maintaining a straight face, he began a finger count of supposed traits that were sure to get a rise out of her. “Women with big feet are... good swimmers,” nothing. In fact if anything she relaxed back into her seat and gave him a bored look. Therefore, he had to up the ante. “Don’t need skis..., need a bigger shoe closet..., have long ass toes,” still nothing. Unable to keep from laughing, Jake had one more quip at the ready, and he was sure this one would get the desired reaction. “Look like the letter L from a sideway view.”
The cushion that smashed him in the face was what he had been waiting for. Although he had seen it coming, he made no attempt to stop the contact. Nor did he try to wrestle it away from her, because as she pummeled him, she moved ever closer.
“So, you think you’ve got jokes do you, Jacob. Well let me tell you those were some of the lamest jokes I’ve ever heard! The letter L my ass!”
By now, MacKenzie was almost in his lap, and without warning, Jake flipped her over. One minute she was upright and the next she was pinned beneath him, and that was exactly where he wanted her.
“That last one got to you, huh?”
“Get your oversized ass off me!”
“I’ll make a deal with you. If you tell me three things you like about me, I’ll move.”
“Three, are you kidding me! One; and you have yourself a deal.”
“Three.”
“Two,” she bargained.
“Three, MacKenzie,” somewhere during their Ping-Pong banter Jake could see she had finally become aware of his body’s reaction to her closeness.
“Jake, I don’t think this is a good idea.”
With all traces of amusement wiped from his face, Jake looked deeply into her beautiful eyes as he spoke. “As far as I’m concerned that’s part of your problem, you think too damned much.”
“Jake, I’m not playing, you need to move!”
“Good, because I’m not playing either.” In his mind, he had never seen a woman who needed to be kissed more than she. She hadn’t realized it, but he had already eased his body away from hers moments before. She was now the one who was pressed up against him.
Shifting slowly towards her, Jake moved his head until his lips hovered a hairsbreadth from hers, and broke eye contact. He was so close to her, he could see every detail of the freckle he had decided was his favorite, and he had many to choose from. The one he had singled out was shaped almost like a heart, and it hovered right at the corner of her mouth.
As his lips moved towards the object of his fascination, she followed, turning her head as though tracking his every move. Unwilling to give up his goal, Jake’s lips touched her exactly where he intended, and in the process, brushed his tongue against the corner of her mouth.
MacKenzie’s sudden intake of breath sent a rush of awareness throughout his body and settled in his groin. He knew he wanted her, but what was more important to him was that she accepted that she felt the same way about him.
“Three things, MacKenzie,” Jake insisted as he again held her gaze.
The depth of the sigh that left her body had Jake smiling as its warmth brushed across his lips.
“I like the way you drive.”
“Doesn’t count, sorry.”
“Whatever, number two; I like your chin.”
“That’s better. What do you like about it?”
“That it’s at the bottom of your face,” Mackenzie said giving him a look that alluded to her questioning his intelligence. “I mean it could have been placed someplace else and that would have just made you even odder looking.”
Even if he had wanted to, Jake couldn’t help laughing. MacKenzie was completely outrageous. “Okay, one more.”
MacKenzie remained perfectly still with all signs of laughter gone. The sudden shift of her expression caused Jake to pay close attention.
“I loved the way you took care of Noelle and me after she was born.”