This was an opportunity she didn’t think she could refuse—and yet she hesitated, trying to summon the nerve. Was she really going to take the initiative and kiss a man—after twenty years? Especially a man as virile as Amarok?
This wasn’t just his neck. And she was sober.
“Evelyn?”
“Be prepared,” she said. “I’ll probably be really bad at this.”
“There’s nothing to fear. I won’t be grading you.”
Placing her hands on his chest, she rose up on tiptoe and touched her lips to his. She could feel the sudden intensity rise up inside them both. The power of it frightened her. But there was no refusing the compulsion that prompted her to continue.
Although his mouth opened slightly, as if he was suggesting a wetter kiss, he didn’t just stick his tongue down her throat like the last guy. He waited until she opened her mouth, too, and licked his bottom lip before he responded by taking a small taste of her. He did it cautiously, gently, as if he was only exploring a little—and he didn’t grab hold of her, as promised. That left her free to withdraw at any moment, and having that “out” made it so much easier to continue.
Pressing her lips more firmly to his, she deepened the kiss and felt him stiffen—but in a good way. That he liked what she was doing encouraged her. He tasted like the minty toothpaste he’d just used in her bathroom, and he smelled like her soap. “Nice,” she breathed and slid her hands up his arms and over his broad shoulders until she could grab fistfuls of his thick, silky hair.
She wasn’t sure exactly what happened next. Her body seemed to act of its own volition, to override her brain, because soon they were kissing so hungrily her whole body tingled with the desire to be touched. She was pretty sure she even groaned, and he did too. She was having thoughts of slipping her hands up under his shirt and kissing and licking his chest.
But then she smelled the oatmeal burning and pulled away to take the pan off the burner.
“It-it’s ruined,” she said while trying to come to grips with the influx of hormones that’d nearly swept her away.
He didn’t respond immediately. He seemed to be holding himself rigid, trying to rein in what he was feeling, too. When he did speak, he sounded shocked. “I thought you said you weren’t going to be any good at that.”
“So...I did okay?”
He caught her face and turned it toward him. “The fact that I can hardly breathe right now should answer that question.” He lowered his voice. “Did you like it?”
Heat rose to her cheeks. She found it frustrating that she could be in her thirties and still feel so young and shy. Even that was embarrassing, especially because she was the type of person who always liked to be in control of herself. But she nodded, because it was true, and he responded with a huge smile.
“Good. We’ll get where we want to go,” he said. “Just call me tonight for your first lesson. For someone so buttoned up and proper, I have a feeling that talking dirty might not come as naturally as kissing.”
When he stepped away and called Makita, she said, “You’re leaving?”
“I think that’s a good note to end on, don’t you?”
“What about breakfast?”
“I’ll grab something in town.” He leaned in to give her a quick peck as if he felt like he had to steal even that simple of a kiss. “Nice job on the zero to sixty in nanoseconds, full-on openmouthed blow-my-mind kiss, by the way. Your skills in that area won’t require any work at all.”
***
The next two weeks were probably the happiest of Evelyn’s life. Although she canceled her trip to Pennsylvania and stayed in Boston—Tim said he’d take care of that interview—she continued to work. She was too disciplined not to. But she had Amarok on her mind almost all the time, and she loved the long conversations they had on the phone at night. By the end of those two weeks they were talking even more than at night. He’d call her over lunch to say hello or to see how her day was going. Or she’d call him whenever she had a break in her schedule, just because she couldn’t wait to hear his voice.
She’d never thought she’d be looking forward to moving to Alaska for any reason other than to dig in to the studies she had planned. But it now held a different kind of attraction, one that had her humming to herself for no particular reason, or staring off into space, smiling vacantly while reliving that kiss in the kitchen of her bungalow. Although she was frightened that she was finally starting a relationship, Amarok made it all seem safe, doable.
But...maybe that was because he was so far away. Sometimes she wondered how they were going to fare, given her phobias and history, once she didn’t have a 3400-mile buffer.
“You’re learning,” he’d told her last night, in a husky voice, after she’d described, in great detail, everything she wanted to do to him.
“I’m growing bold since I don’t really have to act on my words,” she’d admitted with a laugh.
“The thought’s there,” he’d said. “That’s where it all starts.”