Just watching the way all those sweet, warm curves moved, the way her hair seemed to shift in counterpart—she was absolutely unaware of her beauty—made him want to haul her in close until she let out one of those sexy, helpless little murmurs and pressed herself up against him.
“I’ve never seen you look at anyone like that before,” Kenna said. “You look at her like she’s…”
He slid her a look. “What?”
“Like she’s a double-fudge brownie, warm from the oven.”
“You’re wrong.” He wasn’t looking at her like she was a double-fudge brownie. She was more important than dessert. She was a main course, the base of the food chain.
And hell.
He hadn’t seen her coming.
Kenna set a hand on his arm, bringing his gaze back to her. Her expression was much more serious now, her voice quiet. “You going to fall for her, Jacob?”
“Do I look insane?”
“Yes,” she said immediately. “Sometimes.”
He gave her hair a soft tug.
She let him lighten the mood, doing her part by sending him into the freezer doors with a well-placed shove. Apparently they’d made up and were back to normal.
Normal.
There was a word Jacob hadn’t thought about for a long time and hadn’t realized he even missed feeling.
Sophie was in the bread aisle, trying to find the duchess’s gluten-free, salt-free, taste-free brand, when Jacob caught up with her.
Sans Kenna, he leaned in and sniffed her. “God,” he said on a clearly heartfelt sigh. “You smell better than a double-fudge brownie.”
She’d started to melt until he said “brownie” and instead gave him an elbow to the gut.
His hands went to her hips while he laughed and smelled her again, his face plastered into the crook of her neck. “Seriously, yum. You smell amazing. I want to eat you up, Soph. Come on, let me eat you up.”
Well, hell if that didn’t have her good parts standing up and waving their hands in the air like they just didn’t care. “Stop it.” Don’t stop… “I’m working.”
“You smell amazing and you are amazing.” He was pressing hot, openmouthed kisses to her throat, accelerating her heart rate. “I couldn’t do what you do,” he said conversationally while his mouth wreaked havoc with her self-control. Her nipples were trying to break free of their confines.
And he just kept talking in that easy way of his while simultaneously arousing her with little to no effort at all.
“I’d have a hard time doing what you do,” he said, and kissed the spot where her shoulder and neck met. “You work too hard.”
It took her a moment to locate her tongue. And he’d noticed that she worked hard. That shouldn’t have made her feel good, but it did. “Stop that. I can’t think when you do that.”
He nipped her and then soothed it with a hot kiss, taking his time before finally letting her go.
She let out a shaky breath and tried to remember what she was saying, when what she really wanted was to yank him down and have her merry way with him. “And then I need to check and rearrange the royals’ schedules so that certain things don’t…overlap.”
“Overlap?” he asked.
“Well, for one, the duke’s girlfriend doesn’t like the duchess,” she said, “and the feeling’s mutual. Last time they managed to run into each other in that twelve-thousand-square-foot home, there was a huge catfight. The duke stepped in to break it up and lost his toupee.”
Jacob grinned. “I’d have to shoot myself if I had your job. No, scratch that. I’d shoot the royals.”
“The client’s always right,” she said, repeating her mantra, the one she’d sang to herself a thousand times today. But the truth was, she liked doing these temp jobs. She got to meet a lot of people, she never had to do the same thing twice, and she also got to see firsthand that it didn’t matter which side of the railroad tracks you parked your head at night; everyone had problems. “I like doing my job.”
“You have a more positive attitude than I do. I wouldn’t last a day,” he said. “Hell, I wouldn’t last five minutes. You’re a much better person than me.”
She froze, caught off guard, not to mention flat-out surprised. How long had it been since anyone had said anything like that to her? Uncomfortable with the praise, she blindly grabbed a loaf of bread and turned to go.
But Jacob wasn’t deterred. She had a feeling nothing could deter him when he’d set his mind on something.
“You know you’re something else, right?” he asked. “Something really wonderful. Handling all you’ve been through with grace and courage. I mean, you didn’t even try to kill your ex for what he did to you.”
That made her smile, albeit grimly. “How do you know I didn’t?”
“Because you’re smart, resourceful, and determined. If you’d wanted to kill him, he’d be dead. And there wouldn’t be a body.”
Surprised again, she laughed. He got her. “You should remember that,” she said, and started to walk off.
“You’re being cautious.”
“I’m trying,” she said. “Join me, won’t you?”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
She stared at him. “Is that what we’re doing? Having fun?”
His gaze met hers and held for a long moment. “Among other things.”
She gulped.
“What are you afraid of?” he asked quietly.
“The list is long.”