Hungry Heart: Konigsburg, Texas, Book 8
Page 30
“My battery died.”
“Why are you naked?”
“I took a shower.”
“You’re not in the shower now. Do I need to buy you a robe?”
“I don’t need a robe when I’m in my house, presumably alone.”
“You always walk around the house naked when you’re alone?”
“Yes.”
He had nothing after that. He pressed his lips together and resolutely continued to focus on things above her shoulders. Like the two empty towel racks. “Where are your other towels?”
“In the dryer.”
He pulled the towel from her head, handing it to her. “God. Cover up.”
She wrapped the towel around her body, her wet hair falling past her shoulders, big blue eyes staring at him. “You okay?”
“Yeah, why?”
“You look…weird.”
“This is, apparently, how I look when I’m trying with every fiber of my being not to kiss you.”
She made a soft choking noise and her hand grasped the towel tighter against her breasts.
“I’ve never seen that look before.”
“Yeah, I saw a few things for the first time today too.”
And she grinned.
That was one of the things he loved most about his “friend” Olivia. She had a fantastic sense of humor.
“What I mean is,” she said, “I thought there have been times in the past when you’ve had to try not to kiss me. And I’ve never seen that face before.”
There sure as hell had been times he’d had to resist grabbing her and pushing her up against the nearest wall. Or the nearest desk. Or the nearest copy machine, car door, refrigerator…
He cleared his throat. “Those times I was trying to resist kissing your lips.”
“But wh—”
She broke off as understanding dawned. And her cheeks got pink.
“God,” she finally breathed. “The not-talking-about-sex rule we have is a good one too.”
So were the other three rules they’d established nineteen months, two weeks and three days ago.
First and foremost was no kissing.
Second was conservative clothing only when they were together. He didn’t go shirtless, even when he was cleaning out her rain gutters in ninety-eight-degree weather. She didn’t wear fitted tank tops or short skirts. He didn’t wear fitted tank tops either—she’d added that to the list after the last time they’d gone to a baseball game together. If swimsuits were required, he wore baggy trunks that reached almost to his knees, and she had a two-piece with bottoms that looked like shorts and a top that covered her stomach and chest completely.
Third was no talking about sex—with anyone specifically or the overall topic in general. No innuendos either.
Fourth was no getting drunk together—they’d made that mistake once and would have made all kinds of horrible choices if Olivia’s sisters hadn’t come home early.
Fifth was no avoiding each other. That wasn’t acceptable. They were friends. They enjoyed being together. They had an entire group of friends in common.
It didn’t matter that they were more attracted to each other than they ever had been to anyone else. They weren’t going to let it keep them from being friends, and they weren’t going to let it make things awkward between them.
In fact, their friendship was one of the barriers they’d put up in hopes of fighting their attraction. They’d become even better friends, entirely on purpose, after the one and only time they’d kissed.
Nineteen months, two weeks and three days ago.
The thing was, the friends-only deal worked. It had started off as “let’s go to a movie” or “want to grab a burger” here and there, but once they’d started talking and laughing together, it had grown. When they’d discovered a mutual love for baking and had started baking together—even when he sometimes wished baking together was a euphemism for other things—their friendship had evolved into something real. There was something very innocent and fun and, of course, sweet about baking together. And in the process of mixing up cookies, muffins, brownies and new inventions here and there, they’d talked and shared and bonded.
Now they both protected the friendship staunchly. He’d never survive if he lost having Olivia in his life, and if that meant never kissing her again, so be it.
Or so he typically thought.
When she wasn’t naked in front of him.
“You’re still making that face,” Olivia said, her voice soft and a little breathless.
He was sure that he was. “You’re still standing here in a towel.”
“I can’t fix that until you move out of the way of the door,” she said with a smile.
He nodded. “It would make sense for me to move then.”
She swallowed. “If you want me to get dressed, anyway.”
“Right.”
He didn’t move out of the way.
Hungry Heart
Meg Benjamin
Peace, love, and barbecue—with a big order of sexy on the side.
Konigsburg, Texas, Book 8
Sous chef Darcy Cunningham is less than entranced with small-town Konigsburg’s obsession with barbecue. But her future career as a chef de cuisine requires expanding her culinary horizons, so she talks the Barbecue King, a.k.a. Harris Temple, into taking her on as his apprentice.
However, learning Harris’s professional secrets wasn’t supposed to include falling for his spicy blend of smoky sexiness and laid-back charm.
Chico Burnside specializes in flying under Konigsburg’s small-town radar, but lately life has been going a little too smoothly, even for him. Hoping to shake things up a bit, he talks Harris into teaming up for Konigsburg’s first barbecue cook-off. But once shy scientist Andy Wells catches his eye, Chico’s got more on his mind than brisket. Like enticing her out of her shell to show her just how tenderly a big guy can love.
As the competition ignites, so does the romance. Until a natural disaster threatens to derail Konigsburg’s dream team before the grills even get good and warmed up.
Warning: Contains hot sauce, hot sex, and a whole lot of smokin’ action.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
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Hungry Heart
Copyright © 2014 by Meg Benjamin
ISBN: 978-1-61922-227-4
Edited by Lindsey Faber
Cover by Angela Waters
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First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: March 2014
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