Her stomach was already in a free fall, and her heart wasn’t too far behind, which was why her head was yelling to pull the ripcord before she got hurt.
Harper straightened, enough so she didn’t feel as if he were surrounding her. “And when a lady pays you a compliment you’re supposed to say thank you, then walk away to keep her guessing.” Still being sucked into his vortex of charm, she stood. “As for your day versus mine, you win, but you have to admit that my introducing Liza to the alluring powers of Honeysuckle for her date with Clay is a close second.”
“Clay doesn’t deserve to see your allure,” he said, his gaze lowering over her body until her nipples went hard. “But I do. A deal is a deal.”
Harper looked down at herself and saw casual—uninspired in her flip-flops, jean cutoffs, and a strategically picked tribal shirt. Sure she’d added some lip gloss and a few swipes of mascara before she’d texted him back, but that didn’t warrant the hunger she saw on his face.
“I’m not wearing anything sexy under here,” she lied. Beneath the crazy artist look, she was wearing nothing but lace and silk—enough to do her own lingerie shoot.
“Did you know that when you lie your eyes go all misty as if you think you’re killing unicorns?” He tsked softly, standing to face her. “And there you go, misreading signals again. It wasn’t the bra and panties that got me the first night.” He was looking at her mouth again. “It was you. And you deserve a man who can see that.”
He took the tumbler, then backed her into a side table, setting the glass down. Without a word he framed her face between his big, rough hands and pressed their bodies close. So close she had to place her hands on his chest for balance.
Which only made things worse, because his body was solid and unforgiving, nothing soft or vulnerable to grab on to. Yet, he was holding her with a gentleness that stole her breath.
“What are you doing?”
“Something I sure as hell don’t deserve, but can’t seem to stop.”
That gravelly midnight DJ voice he had going on went a long way toward making those pesky concerns vanish. And whatever little worry she was clinging to disappeared the second his mouth came down on hers.
Not hard like before, but soft feathering kisses that skated across her top lip, then the bottom one, before capturing them both in a way that had her knees melting. That was to say nothing for what was going on in her panties.
Adam coaxed and teased, sliding his fingers into her hair and pressing in as close as he could, until all of their good parts were lined up. And the man had a surplus in the good part department. Hard muscles contrasted with the gentle way he held her, and suddenly she forgot how to breathe. She simply didn’t have enough brain cells left to figure out how to get enough oxygen to her lungs.
Then he whispered her name and breathing was the least of her problems. Her bones liquefied, her knees buckled, and her heart turned over. And over again. Before she knew what was happening she was wrapped up in a warm man cocoon, sitting on Adam’s lap, her arms locked around his neck.
She dug her knees into the leather of the chair as her thighs settled around his. Adam seemed to like the direction she was taking because he moaned and took the kiss deeper, took everything deeper, until she didn’t know what was up and what was down, even though it felt as if the ground were rushing up to meet them. And Harper let go.
Let go of the fear and the worry. Let go of that damn parachute string, since it was impossible to hang on so tight and live up to her end of the bet. Because fair was fair, and Harper wanted to fall.
“What are you doing?” This time it was Adam who asked, his voice so thick she could barely make out what he said.
Tugging the bottom of her shirt up to show her belly, she said, “Life is too short to be ordinary. And I want extraordinary.”
Harper pulled her shirt off and, no, she didn’t have on Honeysuckle. But she did have on a see-through demi that was guaranteed to heat things up. Although when she tossed her top to the ground, Adam gave her a look she couldn’t quite decipher. A look that had her wanting to cover herself. “What do you see?”
It took him a long moment to speak, but when he did, his voice was gentle. Almost as gentle as the finger tracing her cheek. “I see a woman who is so extraordinary that she makes everything else here seem ordinary.”
Which was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her. Only instead of kissing her, showing her how incredibly intoxicating she was, he tucked her hair behind her ear and said, “Which is why I have to go.”
Adam was buttoning his pants and nearly to the shop’s door when Harper came around the corner. Still in nothing but teal lace and cutoffs, she paused by the counter and crossed her arms.
Her hair was a mess of curls from his fingers, her lips bruised from his kisses, and her nipples were hard because he was that good.