He pressed an unexpected, and deliciously warm, kiss to her cheek and reached into her purse, withdrawing a bag of jelly beans. “Hoarding? Or were we going to hide these later in your body and let me find them?” He moved his mouth beside her ear and whispered, “Blindfolded. With my hands tied behind my back.”
He nudged her deeper into the store. Holy crap. She’d stopped walking. Was she breathing? And was that a thing? Blindfolded? Hands tied behind his back? Oh, the control that would give her. She’d be at no risk of being overpowered. But would she want that much control? She imagined herself lying naked on her bed, watching as his greedy mouth moved over her breasts, down her belly, and she felt herself go damp.
No, no, no.
Ice cream. Ice baths. Cow poop!
Her body continued vibrating from the inside out. This was bad. Really, really bad. Like a virus she couldn’t shake. She needed an anti-Bear pill. Stat!
She focused on finding the items on her list and assessed the bolts of fabric against the wall. Bear held up a green jelly bean. When she reached for it, he pulled it away and shook his head, then held it up to her mouth. The man could make anything sexual. The look in his eyes when he placed that little green candy on her tongue was liquid fire, and it made her feel naughty and sexy.
Her expression must have given her away because a crooked smile dripping with wicked intent crept across his lips.
“Fabric.” The word fell from her mouth like a rock. “I need fabric.”
“Me too.” He reached over her shoulder and fingered a bolt of red satin. “Something like this, maybe?”
Red satin sheets, his hands tied, eyes blindfolded, strategically placed green jelly beans. Her hands began to sweat. She wiggled out from beneath his arm.
“Burlap. Thick, ugly burlap.” She walked away as quickly as she could, hoping the other side of the store had more oxygen.
Almost two hours, a long discussion about the costumes she was making, and several green jelly beans later, Crystal began unloading the cart at the cash register. She picked up several yards of red satin and black lace that were shoved between the bolts she’d chosen. He must have had them cut when she was busy talking with the saleswoman. You sneaky thing. Sneaky sexy thing. Sneaky sexy thing in a fabric store.
I’m in so much trouble.
“Ahem…?” She held up the sinfully soft fabric.
Bear smirked. “What?”
“I am not buying these.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder in a show of finality. “That material has no place in the costumes I’m making.”
He took the fabric from her hands, and boy did it look good in his.
What is wrong with me? She’d turned into some sort of sex-starved vixen.
The jelly beans!
Wasn’t that the joke in high school? Or was it green M&M’s that were supposed to make a person horny? She looked at her burly biker boy’s sinful smile and knew it had absolutely nothing to do with green anything.
“You’re obviously making the wrong type of costumes.” He ran the satin over his muscular, inked forearm.
She needed that fabric.
She snagged it from his hands and tossed it on the counter.
“That’s my girl.” His arm wound around her again.
She was pretty sure it had taken up residence there. “I’m not your girl.”
She was so full of bullshit her blue eyes were probably brown. She might not be his in the sense he wished, but she was a fish on the line, and she was going nowhere without losing a piece of herself. Why was she fighting him so hard when she didn’t really want to resist him? She’d kissed men since the attack, but she’d felt nothing for them. She felt so much for Bear she was freaking herself out about it. She needed to stop worrying and take that first step.
She toyed with the idea of taking a leap of faith and giving in to her feelings.
Bear put on a country music station on the way to her apartment, and when her favorite song came on, “Setting the World on Fire” by Kenny Chesney, Bear sang it word for word, chipping away her walls a little more. Every note brought a pulse of anticipation. She’d watched that video more times than she cared to admit. In fact, Bear resembled the hottie in the video—only Bear was hotter, bigger, and currently looking at her like she was the shake to his fry. Steak fry. The really big ones. She’d felt the heat he was packing, and that baby was not a puny McDonald’s French fry.
She pulled into her apartment complex feeling happier, and more nervous, than she had in years. But it was a good type of nervous. They’d had so much fun, and he’d kept her body on edge all night. Almost all year.
He came around the car while she grabbed her purse, and he opened her door, helping her to her feet. He didn’t step into her personal space as he had in the boutique, and she was even more drawn to him because of it. She didn’t want to keep fighting the gravity between them, and there was no reason to. They were both single, they were good friends, and—
She was done overthinking. She stepped into the safety of his arms, drawn in deeper by his warm honey-colored eyes. His hands moved up her back, coming to rest on each shoulder, like the shoulder belts on roller coasters, binding them together.
“Sweetheart, you are incredibly beautiful.”
Ohgod. I can’t stop looking at your lips.
“You’re funny and smart…”
His words floated into her ears, but she was mesmerized by his mouth, moving just out of reach. She’d watched it for so many months, dreamed about it night after night. His tongue swept across his lower lip, leaving it slick and enticing. She wanted to taste that tongue, to feel it move over hers. She hadn’t even kissed a man in so long, she wasn’t sure she remembered how. But right here, beneath the starless sky, within the arms of the man who had relentlessly pursued her, she didn’t care if she did it wrong. She just needed to do it. She needed to kiss him.
“Please tell me, sugar. When are you going to let me kiss—”
She fisted her hands in his shirt and went up on her toes, pulling him down, and smothered his words with the hard press of her lips. The pit of her stomach whirred a flurry of heat and excitement. His hands moved over her back, pressing their bodies even closer together. His kiss was surprisingly gentle, exploratory, delicious. They kissed for a long time, there beside her car, in the middle of the parking lot. When they finally came up for air, Bear kept her close, which was a good thing, because she was pretty sure her legs had turned to noodles, and if he let her go, she’d slither to the pavement. He brushed his whiskers along her jaw, sending shivers down her spine.
“Jesus,” was all he said.