Leos do fall hard apparently.
He leads me down the hall and towards my front door. After he opens the door and steps outside, he pulls me with him and closes it behind us. Pushing me up against the door, he presses his body to mine and threads his fingers through my hair. His eyes search mine for a moment before he bends and kisses me.
I could get lost in his kisses. I love everything about them. His confidence, his demanding lips, his scent that scrambles my thoughts, his taste, his hands that hold me while he kisses me… everything.
When he ends the kiss, he rests his forehead against mine. His breathing is heavy and I love how I affect him. "I've been wanting to do that for the last half hour." I also love his honesty.
My hands are on his chest and I grip his shirt. "Thank you for bringing me coffee."
"I'll bring you more tomorrow."
"Don't you have to work tomorrow?"
"Nope."
He shifts his face away from mine and our eyes lock for what feels like minutes rather than moments. His patience isn't lost on me. I'm a mess of contradicting thoughts and behaviours, and yet here he is, waiting.
My heart beats faster as I make a snap decision. "I know you said we should just have fun, but what does that actually mean to you?" I'm going to go completely crazy if I don't know where I stand.
He frowns. "You make that sound like all I want is a bit of fun with you and nothing else."
"I thought that was what you wanted. You said last night that you weren't asking for a commitment, just some fun."
"Fuck, that's why you pulled away," he says as he rubs the back of his neck. "I only said that because you were so serious about figuring this all out in your mind straight away. What I meant was let's hang out and see where it leads, and have some fun together along the way."
I let go of his T-shirt and press my hands against his chest, trying to get him to take a step back, but he doesn't. "Tanner, I'm the kind of girl who needs to figure stuff out before moving forward."
He leans one of his hands on the door above me. "Sweetheart, sometimes in life you just have to run with it. Some things can't be figured out. They need to be felt and experienced. Sometimes you need to just live your life without second-guessing the outcome."
His face is so close and his body is pressing against mine, and I want to do what he says. Desperately. But it's a fight I'm not sure I'll ever win.
A fight with myself.
How do you step out of the skin you've lived in for so long?
"I know," I whisper, my entire body alive with both anticipation and apprehension.
And then he smiles and sweeps some of my doubts away. "Let me show you how."
It's like he reads my mind. "Bring me coffee tomorrow."
He grins, but this is a different grin to his usual one. This is a sexy-ass grin that does more than cause butterflies in my tummy. It causes a freaking avalanche of desire to hit me all at once. Dipping his face to mine, he catches my lips in a long, deep kiss. "Tomorrow, I get longer than half an hour."
I raise my brows. "Oh, really? Tell me, Mr Ink, how long do you get tomorrow?"
His eyes twinkle. "I get as long as I want, sweetheart."
And then he's gone, and I'm left standing on my front porch more breathless than I've ever been over a man.
Tanner Brady might just ruin me for all other men.
★★★
"Stop it."
Tanner laughs as I smack him away the next day. He arrived at my front door two hours ago with coffee and doughnuts. Krispy Kreme doughnuts. He now knows the way to my heart.
"Juliette, no way can I sit next to you on this couch and not touch you," he says as he slides his hand up under my T-shirt. We've spent most of the last two hours making out on my couch, and while I feel the same way he does, I received a message from a client ten minutes ago and I'm trying to stop him distracting me for long enough to answer her.
I fix what I hope is a bossy glare on him. "So that means you have to move to the other couch while I deal with my client."
He stops what he's doing. "Fuck, I love it when you unleash beast mode on me."
"What is beast mode? That sounds awful." I'm not sure if I should be insulted or not.
Brushing his lips across mine, he murmurs, "It's a compliment as far as I'm concerned. I love a woman who stands up for herself. Beast mode is when you get all bossy on me." He stands and moves to the other couch while adding, "You've got half an hour max to get your client sorted, and then you're all mine again."
Oh, my. I think I probably love his beast mode more than he loves mine. Bossy looks good on Tanner.
I spend the next twenty minutes dealing with my client's crisis—she needs a dress for a charity gala tonight—and then I ask Tanner if he wants some lunch.
"I'd love to have lunch with you." He moves off the couch and follows me into the kitchen. Less than a minute later, his arms are around me from behind while I search in the fridge for salad ingredients.