Aware of her stare, he glanced back. “Something the matter?”
“You have a cat?”
“A neighbor of mine has a cat. I have an occasional moocher.”
She watched in apparent fascination as he opened one of the doors that led to the pool and yard and poured a small amount of dried food into a saucer, all while the feline played wind-the-ankles with his legs.
“Looks as if it likes you,” Rose said.
Her surprise kind of irked him. “I only torture goldfish,” he replied, bending down to caress the animal as it picked at the kibble. “Pretty kitty cats now…they get my best strokes.”
His double entendre was intentional, and he’d thought Rose might laugh or make a face. Instead, sudden color washed up her face and her gaze remained glued to his hand, moving lazily over the animal’s fur. Interesting. The woman’s cool façade was slipping. “Everything all right?”
She started, then returned her attention to her chopping. “Everything’s, uh, fabulous. I was just admiring your…um, way with the cat. Did you have pets growing up?”
Did the Penthouse magazine cover models-of-the-month count? Bringing up those types of pets was probably a lousy idea, though, so he stowed the bag of food in the pantry and returned to his seat.
She went back to silent mode as she finished the dinner prep. He put his laptop and papers away and set the table himself—two places.
Her frown communicated she wasn’t quite sure about that. Usually she left dinner for him in the refrigerator before heading back to Lily’s house, but today the schedule had changed. “Do you have other plans?” he asked Rose.
She seemed to think. “No. Self-defense class is Thursday nights.”
“There’s plenty of food and it smells great.” She’d stir-fried vegetables and chicken and there was rice in the cooker. “Join me.” Maybe if they shared a meal she’d relax.
Unfortunately, it only made things more awkward. Everything tasted as good as he’d expected, but she picked at her food, darting nervous glances at him. Their legs tangled once under the table and she pulled hers back as if burned. He asked her to pass the soy sauce and in doing so she knocked the small carafe over.
On a gasp, she jumped up and ran for a sponge.
After the clean-up, she hovered by the sink.
“Aren’t you going to sit back down?” he asked.
She ran her hands through her hair. “I should go.”
“Rose—”
“I can’t make up my mind,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at her boots.
“About eating?”
When she shook her head, he thought he might know her dilemma…or was that just his ego talking? Did she want to ask him to be her hot fling?
She darted a glance at him. “We don’t really know each other, do we?”
“We could play Questions again,” he suggested.
“What do you want to ask?”
The third category, when he’d designed the game, had been Favorite Sex Acts, he recalled. But nothing raunchy came to mind. Instead, his query spilled from his mouth now, pulled from someplace deep in his chest. “Who was your first lover, and when?”
Though she didn’t look up, he saw her funny little smile curve her lips. “You know I’ll turn around and ask you who was yours. And when.”
Christ, wouldn’t that truth scare her away. “Okay, drop that idea.” He rose to his feet and approached her slowly.
Another wary flick from her eyes, but her mouth didn’t lose its half-smirk, half-smile.
Brat. She’d thought she’d bested him and it made his palm itch to swat her bottom.
When the toes of his shoes were within half an inch of hers, he drew a fingertip along the bare skin of her forearm, gratified by the goose bumps left in the wake of his touch. When he reached her fingers, he tugged them free from the crook of her other elbow.
Her lips lost their quirk and then parted as she watched him run his thumb over the top of her knuckles, a slow, back-and-forth rasp.
Payne lowered his voice. “Maybe we shouldn’t talk at all.”
Her luxuriant lashes lifted. Their gazes met and the sexual whammy from the collision nearly knocked him back. He tightened his hold on her hand, clasping it like a lifeline as he found himself disoriented by the heat in her cool gray eyes. Caution, a voice whispered in his head, like a sign on the cliffs near the beach. Unstable ground. Danger ahead. In the fog, a man was sure to fall.
His eyes dropped to her mouth. No safety there. Because when the tip of her small pink tongue ventured out, he was desperate to lean forward and meet her lips with his. They’d French kiss for hours, lush exchanges of breath and heat and saliva, as intimate as any sex act. She’d grind her little pussy against his hard cock, both of them still fully dressed, but he’d be fucking her anyway, his tongue delving deep, doing all the work.
Shit.
Closing his eyes to banish the fantasy, he brought her hand up, and pressed his lips to the center of her palm. She whimpered, a tiny sound of surrender, definitely sexual, and he felt it in his cock. The hard shaft of muscle twitched.
His mouth moved lower, to her wrist, and he circled the delicate bones, creating a shackle with tiny nips of his teeth. She swayed, and her free hand clutched his shirt at the waist. Her nails, dulled by the cotton, dug into his skin, and he grunted at the small pinch, his balls going heavy, the chug of desire in his blood insistent.
He wrapped the hand he’d captured with his fingers and pushed it behind her, pressing it into the small of her back to arch her breasts to his chest. “Rose,” he murmured. What the hell? Why wait for her to ask? He’d insist on being her fling. “How about—”
The rude jangle of his landline made them both jump.
“Fuck.” His head whipped toward it as if he could make the damn thing stop pealing by a glare alone, but it let out another raucous cry.
“What is it?” Rose asked. His expression must have given away this wasn’t some simple, annoying interruption.
“Trouble,” he said, letting her go and moving toward the nearby receiver. As he reached for it, he glanced back.
Rose had turned away. The water was running in the sink, the clear liquid pouring over the wrist he’d explored with his mouth and teeth. Washing away his touch.
Chapter Six
“It was a false alarm, it seems,” Rose told Lily as they strolled the stalls of the weekly neighborhood Farmer’s Market. “The alarm company called him when there was a supposed breach of his security system.”
“So you drove him there…?”
“And neither the guard they’d sent nor Payne could find anything amiss.”
“That’s good, I guess.” Lily cupped Marcus’s head. He was strapped in a pack to her chest and as she leaned over to sniff a basil plant, she held him close to her heart.
The tender, protective action twisted something inside Rose. It was a sweet pain, but it made the back of her eyes burn hot. She wondered if she’d ever find what Lily had.
“Then you dropped Payne back home?” Lily asked.
“Yeah.” He’d been mostly silent on the trip both to the salvage yard and back again, pre-occupied, she’d presumed, by the news that a silent alarm had gone off at his newest acquisition.
When she’d asked, he’d said it wasn’t so uncommon to get those kinds of calls. Thieves wanted to thieve and that objective was what the security system was supposed to obstruct. But it could be a stray cat or hungry raccoon had tripped the alarm.
That’s all he’d said. So Rose had kept her mouth shut too as she navigated the darkness, all the while hyper-aware of his body beside hers. His body heat.
The way her wrist throbbed. Running cold water over it that night hadn’t calmed the churning need for him inside her. If he hadn’t turned cool and businesslike after that phone call, she’d have fallen at his feet and begged for anything he might give her.
She rubbed her wrist now. Though marks were no l
onger visible—and she was strangely disappointed by that—the delicate, delicious chain of stings he’d placed there remained beneath her skin. If she thought too much about it, her blood flamed like gasoline introduced to match.
Thank God it was the weekend and she had two days to get herself cooled down and to come up with some solid plan as to what to do about Payne.
Lily shot her a puzzled look.
“What?” Rose asked.
“You were muttering.”
Her face felt hot. “Talking to myself. Bad habit.”
“Yeah? Well how come you won’t talk to me about your progress on getting into Payne’s bed?”
“Lily!” Rose glanced around. It was another sunny morning and the municipal parking lot where the market was held teemed with people looking for organic produce, goods from local bakeries, artisanal items of all kinds—cheeses and yogurts, salsa and hummus and honey. You could buy hand-thrown pots, jewelry crafted from beach shells, and weird-shaped cacti so tiny they looked like flora from some miniature mouse world. “We’re in public.”
“Walking gets the creativity flowing. I think you need to goose out some good ideas.”
That was true, it was what she’d been thinking herself. Rose sighed. “I may not be cut out for seduction,” she replied, her voice low. “I’ve spent the last week arguing with myself about whether I should do it, how I should do it, what I’ll do if he turns me down.”
“This is Payne Colson. Is that likely?”
Why did the idea that he’d easily comply with her request for no-strings sex rankle?
Because it meant she wouldn’t be special to him. Because it meant he’d probably been with dozens and dozens of women. Three at a time, when it came to those triplets.
Gah! Rose pounded the heel of her hand against her forehead. She didn’t want to be special to him, right? She just wanted to squash this childish infatuation. It was holding her back, she’d decided, from moving on with her life.
“I think he’s too good-looking,” she groused now. “I’ll be too intimidated to slide between his sheets.”
“Then do it against a wall,” Lily suggested cheerfully. “Counter sex can be very good too.”
Rose frowned. “I feel terrible. Clearly my presence at your house is messing up with your and Gavin’s sex life.”
“Little sister.” Lily smiled at her. “Our master suite has walls. The bath has countertops.”
Rose winced. “I’ll never be able to meet Gavin’s eyes again as he steers you down the hall at bedtime.”
“Don’t you be worrying about me and Gavin. Think about yourself. About your strange and sad ability to know your sixteen times tables.”
“That’s all I’m thinking of,” Rose countered, and ventured into a covered stall where an array of brightly colored vegetables were displayed on a table covered with butcher paper. In the confines of the fabric roof and walls, she smelled the mingled scents of peppers and lemons and tomatoes. She grabbed one up, balanced it on her palm to hold it under her sister’s nose.
“Payne’s like this heirloom tomato. Exotic, special, highly valued. I, on the other hand, am like…like…” Glancing around, she snatched up a carrot. “This is me,” Rose said.
“Hairy?” Lily asked. “I can take you to my waxing salon for that.”
Refusing to laugh, Rose returned the items to the table, practically throwing them down. “You know what I mean. I have no idea how to…handle someone with his experience.”
Lily cocked her head. “Okay. I get your concern. Are you ready to give up on the idea?”
Never have Payne? Rose hesitated. “What if I…warmed up with someone else first? You know, had a practice run to get the kinks out.”
“You’re kinky?” Lily teased.
Rose gave her sister a ferocious frown, but couldn’t help but think of the line of heat around her wrist and the way Payne had held her arm at her back. Controlling her. Exciting her. She cleared her throat. “Don’t you know someone you could fix me up with?”
While Lily seemed to contemplate the question, another voice entered the conversation. “If she doesn’t maybe I can help.”
Whirling, all Rose could think was why didn’t the asphalt part and take her down? She stared at the woman who had addressed her, almost the last possible person she wanted to see at this moment. Cami Colson, Payne and Ren’s little sister.
She smiled at Rose, her fingers tucked into the pockets of battered jeans. She wore a pale green tank top, the color matching her eyes. It revealed the vine tattoo that crawled up her slim arm. Her hair was a mix of auburn and gold and light blonde. Like all the Rock Royalty, she was striking and exotic, with an edge of glamour that didn’t rely on silk or jewels.
Cami switched her attention to Lily. “I remember you.”
“My sister,” Rose said. “Lily and her son, Marcus. Lily, you remember Cami Colson.”
“I do.” They exchanged handshakes and smiles and Cami spent a moment admiring Marcus.
Hoping all would forget about her now-humiliating request for a fix-up, Rose directed the conversation to Cami’s job at one of Payne’s other yards. “And,” she said, “Cami plays at music clubs in the area too. She’s awesome.”
“Thanks,” Cami answered. “Next time our tribe comes out to listen, you should join them again.”
“Will do!” Rose said brightly. “Now Lily and I should be on your way. I’m sure you’re busy too—”
“Not so much.” Payne’s sister grinned. “Cilla’s making dinner for me tonight and all I have to do before then is locate this homemade salsa here that she adores.”
“Oh.” Rose pivoted, then pointed out a few of the booths they’d already passed. “I saw some over there and over there and over there.” Taking Lily’s arm, she tried to head off in the opposite direction. “It’s been nice to see you.”
“Just a sec, Rose,” Cami said.
She wanted to groan, but politeness made her paste a smile on her face and turn back. “Yes?”
“You’re doing great with my brother. We sure appreciate it.”
“I’m glad to hear it. Now we’ll—”
“So I’d be happy to do you a favor and fix you up with someone. Were you serious?”
“No, no.” She waved her hand. “That’s just talk.”
“She’s serious,” Lily said, stomping all over Rose’s sentences. Wide eyes directed at the woman didn’t stop her sister from continuing. “Rose needs to…get out a little, but she’s on the hesitant side.”
“Right,” Rose said. “And I don’t like fix-ups, not really. So awkward.”
“I have the perfect solution then,” Cami said. “I have this guy in mind. The two of us could drop by Payne’s Monday afternoon. If the pair of you hit it off, great, he’ll take you to dinner and you can go from there.”
Lily’s expression turned delighted. “That sounds fabulous.”
Honest to God, her sister was going to pay. “I couldn’t put you to any trouble,” Rose said to Cami.
“It’s no trouble at all!” She headed out of the booth with a wave. “See you Monday.”
Rose narrowed her eyes at her sister. “I’m going to raid your closet for something to wear and won’t give a hoot if I get a stain on it.”
“You were the one who asked for a set-up,” Lily pointed out.
“Not one that involved Cami Colson! What were you thinking?”
Lily’s smile turned wicked. “That you’re going to get you some?”
Rolling her eyes, Rose rubbed at her suddenly throbbing wrist. “I can’t believe you’re encouraging me to leap into some stranger’s bed.”
Lily didn’t respond.
With a second eye roll, Rose shook her head. She’d wanted a plan, but this didn’t feel like a good one. “I am so screwed.”
Lily sailed forward. “I can only hope so.”
Rose arrived at Payne’s Monday morning after having worked herself into one tangled knot of nerves over the weekend.
There was the man Cami would bring over that afternoon…
And then there was Cami’s big blond brother. Would Payne take the opportunity today to mention that heated moment on Friday night? The phone call had interrupted…she wasn’t exactly sure what, but you’d think he might want to say something about what had happened between them.
Did you like my mouth on your skin?
Do you want it there again?
She’d chalked up his silence at the time to his preoccupation over the security situation, but after two days of stewing, replaying and analyzing his words and his actions, she was as confused as ever. Surely the attraction she felt ran both ways—why else would he have put his lips on her like that?—but he wasn’t rushing her into anything, that was sure
So she’d put herself into the pickle of bringing a stranger into the mix.
Which might not be so bad if the thought of her with someone else propelled Payne into making a move.
Her heartbeat skipped at the idea and she had to haul in a calming breath. Lily would tell Rose she should be making her own move, but her insecurities hadn’t gone away by the mere airing of them to her sister. So here she was, trapped in amber.
At the front door, she took in another breath and then let herself inside. “Good morning!” she called out, sounding cheerful.
“Why the hell are you dressed like that?” Payne’s voice sliced through the air.
She found him standing in the hall doorway, wearing nothing but a pair of nylon shorts and running shoes. Her mouth dried and muscles clenched between her thighs. The scar bisecting Payne’s torso must have taken up so much of her attention that time he’d pulled off his shirt that she hadn’t seen the tattoo on his side, over his ribs. Several inches below his armpit was the head of a dragon, colored in red and gold, breathing out fire. Below its scaly neck, instead of a traditional body was a multi-colored double helix that swirled down his skin to disappear beneath his waistband.
Rose stared, overcome by the urge to trace the lines with her fingertips. With her tongue. She wanted to get down on her knees and discover what was beneath that band of elastic.
Touch Me Page 8
