“Sorry, I don’t mean to be so messy.” She licks her lips again. And again.
Aw, hell. I dive into my food like Ma’s life depends on it. “May I have some more?” she asks in her sexy voice.
“Baby, take every last swallow.” I cringe when I realize how that sounded, only to swear out loud again when she looks at me like I’m nuts.
“Thank you,” she says, quietly.
We don’t speak again until the end of the meal. With the exception of a few pieces of bread and some chips, Tess ate the whole thing, albeit in that careful way of hers.
I steal a chip from her plate and munch. She keeps quiet with her hands wrapped around her glass of iced tea. “Food okay?” I ask her.
She tries to smile. “It was delicious. Thank you.”
“Then what’s up?” I ask, aware that something is.
“Well, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the night we…you know.”
I roll my eyes. “Tell me about it. We fucked like gorillas.”
Her jaw pops open. “Curran. That’s so offensive!”
“Sorry,” I offer. “I didn’t mean to call you a gorilla.”
For a second there, I’m not sure if she’s going to throat-punch me. But I can’t hide my smirk, and she can’t hide her laugh. Okay. Good. We’re headed in the right direction. The proper direction. The one that doesn’t involve me hooking the crotch of her panties with my finger and ripping them off her.
I rub my face. Christ.
She shoves my shoulder playfully. Well, at least she tries to. It’s a cute move. Too cute. Damn, I want her.
She shakes her head. “Officer O’Brien, you have absolutely no class.”
“I’m the classiest guy you’ll ever meet, angel face.”
She takes a sip of her tea. “Somehow I doubt that.”
Her smile returns when she places her glass back on the checkered tablecloth, lighting her perfect features. It’s then I realize there’s no going back.
So I go for it.
“Why do you have a problem with what happened between us?”
Her stare falls to the table. “You know why. It’s not the sort of behavior I ever engaged in.” She lowers her voice. “And I deeply regret it.”
Her thick lashes brush against her lenses as she waits for me to speak. The color’s returned to her cheeks, and her hair falls around her shoulders in sensual waves. God damn she’s beautiful.
I pinch the bridge of my nose and tell myself, Self, you just need to calm your shit and move on. Tell her it’s all good and not to worry. That you’ve forgotten all about that night and haven’t given it another thought. Well, given I’m kind of an asshole, and I don’t listen to assholes, I ignore me.
I lean forward so my face is only a few inches from hers. “Did you like it?”
She lifts her chin. “What?”
“Did you like it? Did it feel good?”
She opens and closes her mouth several times, just like she does whenever I tell her something she might not want to hear. She then glances around to see who’s listening before hunkering in close. “What does that have to do with anything?” she whispers, tightly.
I give her a one-shoulder shrug. “Just answer the question.”
Tess presses her full lips together, and for a second, I’m sure she’s going to lie and say no. Then I see it, that spark in her eyes that tells me she’s remembering what I did, and maybe how I held her hair when she fell to her knees and pulled me into her mouth. “Yes,” she answers. “I did like it.”
I latch on to her gaze and hold it. It’s only for a moment, but it’s long enough to show her that I know she’s thinking about us, and what we did. I take a sip of my water. “Then what’s to regret?” I lean back, pretending not to care, and that the conversation is over. But I’m a man, after all, and now I can’t shake the image of her riding me hard.
Shit.
“Did you like it?” she asks, barely above a whisper.