Just That Easy (9 page)

“What are you thinking about? You were far away.” He broke
her thoughts with his usual on-target perception.

“I was thinking what a contrast you are.”

He looked even more curious now. “How so?”

Running through whether to blurt out or down play what her
thoughts had been running over, she decided to hit him with a brand of his own
honesty. “Let’s see. First, I find you standing behind the counter of our
little tiny library of all places. Grinning at me like the Cheshire cat.
Fifteen minutes after we met one of the first things out of your mouth to me
was straight-up implying you wanted my mouth to have its way with you. You tell
me about all these crazy desolate places you’ve been to in the races, mountain
climbing, almost killing yourself for a thrill. Now you show up tonight all
George Clooney on me, looking like you’d be just as comfortable if you owned
half the planet and had every high-ranking government official on your private
cell phone list. You’re bold, you’re kind of obnoxious, but you’re tender and
sweet too. You’re intelligent, completely self-assured and incredibly sexy. And
I’m not sure what to do with all of that.”

A brief look of something, she couldn’t tell what, passed
over his face. He recovered before she could decide if it seemed like regret,
or a quick flash of concern. “What do you
want
to do with it?” he asked
over the rim of his beer.

She rolled her eyes and shrugged as a small laugh bubbled
up. His usual innocent-sounding command that said
hey, the world is your
oyster
.

“I can’t exactly answer that when we’ve only known each
other two days, and that two days has been filled with the other contradiction
of you. The one where you are channeling Casanova, the world’s greatest lover.”

A wicked little smile curled his lips at her words. “You
know he was a librarian, right?”

She laughed and shook her head. “Shit. I forgot that. Nice.”

“Well if you want a study in contradictions, I have one for
you. I laid eyes on you when you first wandered through that tiny library door
too, but you were absentmindedly lost in your little list, something I think
you have a lot of. The look on your face when you saw me standing
there…whoosh…like you sucked the air completely out of me with just that little
glance. Your eyes went wide and it felt like they crawled over my whole body
from bottom to top without even any hint they’d moved one tiny bit. The look
was raw. Now I know that look, but it doesn’t come from thinking about being in
a library, I can tell you that much. So anyway, you laid that look on me and
then you stuttered so hard over your books, so just genuinely embarrassed
almost, I was kind of shocked.”

“Shocked by me being embarrassed to ask you for my Dominatrix
handbook?”

“Well, yeah after that
I-want-to-lick-you-over-every-inch-of-your-body look. I had kind of expected to
have you trying to impress me since you had these sex books on hold, like you
could show me a thing or two that was in them. And don’t lie and say you
weren’t thinking it ‘cause you were. But outwardly you were almost running out
the door you were so flustered. In fact, I think you
were
going to run
out the door. Then later when I convinced you to come home with me, which you
also did a lot easier than I thought you would—and don’t you dare take offense
to it—I thought it was very strong and self-possessed of you. Well, anyway,
man, I thought you were going to burn me up alive. No holding back or being
nervous at all, anything I asked you just gave it. Then you just settled in all
comfy and soft next to me. You actually snuggled into me and fell asleep like
you didn’t have a care in the world. That’s probably the purest, most innocent
thing I’ve ever seen anybody do. Not a hint of, oh my god what did I just do
with this stranger, I have to get out of here, who is this guy… And here this
is right after I had the most sinfully hot sex I think I’ve ever had, right on
my kitchen table. With you. Well, the most sinfully hot until we woke up the
next morning, that is.”

Her face felt warm. She knew she had to be blushing. It
wasn’t just a blush, she felt as if he’d caressed her all over with his words.
Seduction was definitely his forte.

Blocking was hers.

“So, an obsessive, nervous, undersexed and can’t hold back,
naïve, trashy romance novelist?”

“That’s not what I said at all. I said, open, honest, very
down-to-earth beauty, who walks around acting like she thinks she’s some kind
of dime-a-dozen small town girl. But get through that boilerplate outer shell
and underneath she’s a tattooed, sailor-mouthed, seductive, no-holds-barred,
straight-up tequila drinking, she’ll rock you to your soul, hot little
sweetheart.”

Her stomach did a little flip. “Whoa. I need you to write my
bio on my next book cover.”

He winked at her. “Love to, baby, I’d love to.”

She felt another flip inside, this one a little higher up,
close to the place where she’d hidden her heart away. Down girl. He
’
s
good at this, just let him be and don
’
t take it personal.

The little blues band that had been playing in the back
corner of the place took a break, and the restaurant switched over to regular
music tracks.
Crash
by Dave Matthews floated into her consciousness.
Just then his hand slid across the table, grabbing hers.

“Come on.” Pulling her with him, he headed to the tiny dance
floor.

He slid his fingers between hers, and pulled her hand in
close to his chest, wrapping his other arm around her back. His warm fingers
pressed there gave her a warm flood of comfort, kind of like the warmth of
liquid courage after downing a shot of that really good tequila. Made her feel
kind of invincible.

“I’m not very good at dancing slow, I can’t follow all that
well. I’ll probably step on your toes.”

“Here, I’ll show you, it’s easy.” He pressed one thick thigh
between her knees, parting them slightly, and pulled her in close against him.
“Just relax into me. There you go. Now, stop trying to think ahead about what
I’m going to do next. Let my body just pull you along with me. Think of it like
you are just part of me.”

His body was fluid, graceful, but power radiated from him
even while he was stepping her slowly around, swaying her with him like they’d
done this a hundred times before. As if she really was part of him.
What will
it feel like when I’m not?

“You tensed up again. You want to stop?”

“No.” She looked up at him sheepishly. “I was thinking.
Again.”

“Well, then quit it.” He chuckled into her hair. She let the
feel of him moving slowly against her pull her along and realized he was right.
It really was just that easy. Even if that only applied to the dancing.
Allowing herself the luxury of just taking it in, the relaxed feel of the two
of them together with no raw passion exploding between them for once, the
comfort of his warm hard body, and his very soft embrace.

“This is nice.”

“Mmm. It is.”

She leaned her head into his chest, smelling that incredible
male scent. Her fingers traced a little circle around one of the buttons on the
front of his shirt. It would be nice to just enjoy this, forever. Too bad she
was not that person. Not like he, who seemed to effortlessly flow into it,
relaxed and not at all concerned about where it was going, or not going. Then
again that bothered her a bit too. It seemed insincere, lent itself to what she
knew. That at some point something ugly would have to come crashing into the
mix. And the truth was, yes, after only two days, here on their third night
together, she wanted to let herself fall in love with him.

Stupid girl.

“Are you happy? Right now, with me I mean.”

Her mouth almost fell open at his accuracy in pinpointing
her thoughts. Again. “Right now? Yes. I’m happy.”

His head leaned back knowingly as he nodded and she felt him
tense. “But you don’t think you will be later.”

“Later tonight?”

“No. Us later.”

“How the hell do you always know what I’m thinking?”

“Because you never hide it. That’s a pretty amazing thing,
to be so open.”

“I don’t think other people seem to notice like you. Not
sure I like you picking me apart that easily either.”

“They just aren’t looking hard enough, or they don’t want
to. I do. And I won’t hurt you with it. So what are you worried about?”

“I’m not worried, I mean, I couldn’t have asked for anything
more than this. It’s been perfect.”

“But…”

“But, this feels a little too perfect, I mean, from my view,
anyway. That’s the part that makes me think there’s no way this can stay this
good.”

“Nothing is ever perfect, baby, but the world hasn’t ended
either, has it?”

She looked up at him, a bit flustered he read her so well.
“It hasn’t even had time to get started yet, but it feels like you’ve already
gotten to the part where you decided this is it. Except if you want the truth,
you don’t seem like the type of man that one thing can ever really be enough.”

“Ouch.” He flinched visibly at her words. “Does that scare
you?”

“Yeah, it does.”

She felt his chest heave in a deep sigh and for a moment
wished she didn’t know that the impossibly delirious happy endings she wrote
were always fiction.

His lips on her earlobe broke through her regrets. “Time to
get you out of here and work some more on convincing you to have a little
faith.”

“Oh I have faith. Faith we are going to end up in bed
having, what? A lot more of that sinfully hot sex we like so much. Nothin’
wrong with that, anyway.”

* * * * *

He closed the car door once she was settled into the seat,
that little black dress riding high on those thighs he’d be getting up close
and personal with before too long. Damn, why did everything have to go straight
there with her? She was having enough trouble believing this wasn’t just an
extended one-night stand without him proving it by just jumping on her every
time he had a chance. Why couldn’t he have just kept her there dancing? Instead
he’d just fulfilled what she thought, run to the sex. It seemed as if it was
the only thing he did know how to use right now to show her how he felt, it was
too soon to know how else to show her.

Oh, but wait, hadn’t that been the idea from the beginning?
Unless
being a lying asshole is my idea of giving her my best, she sure as hell
deserves better. Falling for her in less than a week only makes me look like
more of a jackass for treating her like she is disposable.

He was fully aware it had only been three days but whether
it made sense or not, he knew that if you were looking you really could spot a
good thing in an instant, and only an idiot would second guess something this
good. It took a lifetime of having almost nothing good come to you on an
emotional level. Pretty much his life. Maybe that was the difference. He’d
spent so long devoid of anything that was honest, real, connected, he had no
trouble spotting it and going straight for it. Except he hadn’t planned on
going straight for it. His own words about just living life with no script were
biting him right straight in the ass.

Not that he’d planned on just having sex with her and moving
on. Even if that had been what he’d always done before, that had never been the
plan with her.

Hell, there was a
plan
? This thing was just different
on so many levels he felt as if he was treading water anyway. He’d never had to
really work to pursue anyone before Teryn. They were always there, willing,
needing little more than a pinkie push to fall onto him, into his bed.

He’d hated it. Always. It felt good having to take the
steps, make someone want him. It was exactly what he was out here for, wasn’t
it? Other than the fact he did feel a little lost. Swamped. Drowning, was more
like it. His intentions with Teryn weren’t to use her but he hadn’t expected to
feel this much this fast either. Now how the hell do you back out of a lie like
the one laying in his lap without completely fucking the entire thing up?

She’d made it pretty clear even though she wasn’t
antagonistic about it, and not even a little hesitant about furthering the hot
and steamy part of their relationship, that her view of anything else passing
between them was pretty doubtful. He’d promised her that first morning that
he’d work on it, and she hadn’t shied away. More like dared him to try. So far
his only response was to crave more and more of her body. And lie. But when he
was connected with her and she just bared herself to him without a moment’s
hesitation, that felt more real to him than anything he’d ever felt.
Ever.
It had come so easy between them, an instant, deep physical connection. Pure.

He sure as hell wasn’t going to be rectifying his lack of
honesty tonight or likely anytime soon. Not until he knew it wouldn’t send her
screaming away, at least. If that was even possible.

“My place or yours? Or, I guess I should ask first.”

“Ask what?”

Her eyes told him she knew exactly what he meant, but she
was going to make him say it.

“I meant I should actually ask, if you would stay with me,
again, or me with you.”

“Like that’s an option with us.”

He grinned, a bit painfully. “That’s my girl. Took the words
right out of my mouth. Except I was talking about curling up next to you,
cuddling even. Not sex.”

“Right.” She rolled her eyes.

He tried not to sigh, getting tense at the tone of her
words. “So, which is it? Mine or yours.”

“I guess it doesn’t make a difference. Wherever we’re
together. Can’t do what we do long distance.”

Her words slashed through his gut like a dull blade. It was
a good pain, the kind that makes you know you’re alive when it sears through
you.
Wherever we’re together.
At least it was something.