His eyes were dark with lust, his sensuous lips enticing her to kiss them again, and she did, ignoring whatever he was going to say. Why? Because they were working together? She wasn’t buying it.
Another police dive-team couple had ended up getting married, so getting involved wasn’t off-limits. Maybe Allan thought it was wrong somehow, but she didn’t have a problem with it.
They took the kiss slower this time, and she relished the way his tongue felt sliding against hers, so eager, the way he brushed his mouth against hers in a hot and sexy manner. Then he pressed his mouth tighter against hers again, conquering, demanding, passionate.
He groaned a little and pulled his mouth free, pressing it against her forehead, then her cheeks.
“I was going to start a fire—”
He smiled down at her. “You did.”
She chuckled. “In the fireplace. Just to put a nice ending on this snowy, wintry night. Sharing a mug of piping hot cocoa and chocolate chip cookies. Playing something we both might like on the CD player. Or maybe putting a movie on.”
He didn’t let go of her, and she wanted to say, “Or we could just continue this.” But she couldn’t quite read him. He seemed reluctant to let go of her, like he really wanted to keep kissing her. But he didn’t, and she was afraid he was thinking about why he shouldn’t be staying.
He combed his fingers through the strands of her hair, surprising her. His touch felt so sensuously divine.
“You don’t have your car,” he said quite practically.
“I don’t,” she agreed.
“I’d have to drive all the way home in the snow in the dead of night and then come all the way back here in the morning to pick you up so we can interview Zeta in Helena.”
“You would,” she said, trying not to smile.
“So unless you object to my staying overnight again…”
“I’d be the worst kind of partner if I sent you home tonight, considering how bad the weather is.”
He smiled. “Okay, so where are those chocolate chip cookies? Homemade?”
“You bet.” She snagged his hand and led him into the kitchen. “They were freshly baked this morning. I couldn’t sleep and baking helps me in that regard. And they’re double chocolate chip. It’s not a chocolate chip cookie if it doesn’t have a chocolate chip in every bite.”
He laughed. “I could smell them.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and walked with her into the kitchen, smiling when he saw the tray piled high with chocolate chip cookies.
“All for you?” he asked, his brows raised a little.
“I was going to drop some by the police station, but they never made it because I had car trouble.”
“We can do that tomorrow, if there are any left over by then.”
She grinned. She couldn’t help it. She was always pleased when someone loved her cookies. Of course, she’d better reserve judgment. After he took a bite, he might not care for them at all.
She realized then that he didn’t have an overnight bag. Although he always carried a change of clothes or two for emergencies. Maybe he had a shaving kit in his bag. She had some spare toothbrushes and toothpaste. If he didn’t have a razor, she might have some spare throwaways. They would be pink though.
“Music or a movie?” she asked as she made the hot cocoa and he carried the tray of cookies into the living room.
“Movie. We can get our mind off work that way.”
“Okay. Just pick out whatever you’d like.”
Allan had rationalized that driving back and forth from his home to hers on the snowy and icy road would be unsafe when they were going to do the interview together tomorrow anyway. And further, with her car in the garage, they didn’t have any other choice but for him to pick her up. The kiss? That was harder to rationalize. He told himself that the situation between them wasn’t going anywhere. But as soon as he kissed her and she kissed him back—just like a hot alpha she-wolf would—he knew he was going to have trouble stepping away from any further relationship with her.
Wolves could have flings with humans, no mating for life allowed. So a brief relationship—a couple of dates and maybe a little sex—could work. As long as they both knew this wasn’t going anywhere. But if Debbie wanted this to go somewhere further with him, she wouldn’t understand why he couldn’t. That was the trouble. She would be hurt in the end, and he didn’t want that.
He sifted through her movies and found the Underworld series, all about werewolves and vampires, and tons of other paranormal movies. Maybe she was more into the paranormal than he’d suspected.
“Anything you would prefer to watch?” Allan asked.
“Jingle all the Way.”
“In January?”
“Yeah, I want to watch something funny and lighthearted. Or whatever else you’d like.”