I’d try it out later. “Whatever you’re cooking smells amazing. Can I help with anything?”
“Yes, you can slice the zucchini. I hate slicing vegetables,” she said. “Put your duffle over by the sofa and come tell me about all the current happenings in Sea Breeze. I monopolized the conversation last night. I never heard what happened with Jude and Micah getting arrested.”
I walked over to drop my bag by the couch as she walked back toward the kitchen.
“Damon, Micah’s best friend, went and got them out before they called their dad. Micah may be twenty-five, but Jude is barely twenty. His dad would have been furious. They’re both dumbasses for doing anything with Saffron. She’s always looking for trouble.”
“Saffron had invited them to go swimming at a friend’s house she was supposedly house sitting for. There were topless girls there. They were a few of Saffron’s stripper friends, although Saffron herself wasn’t a stripper. Micah and Jude showed up, and the party had underage drinking. It got loud. The cops came. Micah told Saffron to hide because her father was a crazy ass son of a bitch who would lose his shit.”
Eli continued. “Saffron hadn’t been house sitting. They’d all been there without the owner’s knowledge. It had been one of the stripper’s ex-boyfriend’s house. The ex-boyfriend and his wife were on vacation.”
“Is the owner of the house going to press charges?” Lila asked as she handed me the zucchini.
“No. The stripper he had an affair with threatened to out him to his wife.”
Lila laughed then. “Wow. Okay, that sounds like a movie. Sea Breeze is more lively than Rosemary Beach. We rarely have drama. Nothing that interesting.”
“That’s because you don’t have a Saffron Corbin.”
Lila brushed by me twice to get something from the spice rack. I was trying not to assume she was doing it on purpose, but when she moved in close the third time I decided that was an invitation. I sat the knife down and grabbed her waist to pull her against me.
“I hope this is okay,” I said in a whisper before claiming her mouth with my own. She was frozen at first, and then slowly melted against me, her arms going up around my neck. This was better than I remembered.
I heard the olive oil in the pan behind us sizzling. I knew I had to let her go, but the feel of her in my arms was so damn right it was hard. When she pulled back, she gave me a shy smile. “The onions will burn.”
I let her go reluctantly, and she hurried over to move them around with a spatula. “You ready for the zucchini?” I asked still a little high from that kiss.
She glanced back at me over her shoulder and nodded.
I used that as an excuse to get near her. I took the vegetables then stood so close to her back that our bodies were touching. I bent my head and whispered in her ear. “I’ll put them in there. You stir.”
Lila shivered and then nodded. Pleased that I was affecting her this way, I began slowly pouring the sliced zucchini into the skillet. She was breathing rapidly, and I could see her pulse jumping in the curve of her neck. I pressed a kiss there unable to help myself.
A sharp intake of breath then she shivered again.
I reached over and turned the burner off then grabbed her and picked her up to set her on the bar. Spreading her knees open, I stepped between them and pulled her flush up against me before taking her mouth again. I could stay like this all night.
Her legs wrapped around my waist and she grabbed my face and kissed me back with just as much passion as I felt. It was intoxicating. Every touch, scent, sound she made drove me crazy. My biggest regret was having slept with her drunk like a one-night stand. She was special. I wanted to remember how it felt to be inside her. To know what her face looked like when she cried out with an orgasm.