I won't pass the class. I won't get into a good college. I'll be forced into selling makeup at the MAC counter until I'm sixty-two when they'll turn me out to the Estee Lauder pasture." It had gone something like that.
"Plus," he said darkly, "I'm never going to look at a Cheeto the same way again."
"You're just jealous of Duncan and Oliver's new talent." She dared to move closer and poked him in the ribs covered by the ragged T-shirt he wore with jeans. "Admit they're adorable."
He narrowed his eyes until they were mere slices of summer sky. "I know what you're doing, Jane."
"Then why did you bother asking me what it was?" Even though the fire was nearly out, her body seemed to heat up under the weight of his gaze. Her skin prickled against her clothes, and her scalp felt flushed. She took a few steps back. "There's nothing wrong with some relaxation with family at the end of a long workday."
He followed her. "Relaxation? Is that what you think I need?"
"Sure." She gave a casual shrug, though there were flutters in her belly now, teasing and twirling. The way he was looking at her, the way he was stalking her, caused a fraying of her nerves. "Everyone does." Though he'd not had another outburst after that night she'd found him on the floor in the dark, she was aware working on the memoir was wearing on him. By evening he was as tense as barbed wire strung between two posts.
"You too?"
She shrugged again. This wasn't about her.
"Because you're right, being cooped up all day with you is...hard on me, Jane."
Her mouth went dry. He gave that word hard a distinct sexual edge. Clearing her throat, she looked away. "I'm sorry, but you'll remember it was you who insisted we collaborate. And I try to give you space. I don't mean to be intrusive."
"I know you don't. But there you are, with your shoes. Every day, the shoes."
Puzzled, she glanced down. They were flat thong sandals she'd bought at a flea market. On top, striped ribbon was folded into a flower, its center made up of multicolor, shiny beads. They were feminine and mostly sweet, nothing that should put that burning intensity in his eyes. As she looked up, that gaze seemed to trap her.
His voice softened. "And the mouth, Jane, the mouth is making me feel..."
"I thought you didn't feel anything," she whispered. It was what had appalled her that night in the office. It was what had motivated her to get the kids over this evening. Because of course he felt things. She didn't know precisely how the self-delusion was serving him, but she did think he needed to find a way to connect with the emotions he'd walled off.
"Ninety-nine percent of the time," he reminded her. "But that remaining one percent is all about you."
Her shoulder blades clipped the edge of the aperture leading to the hallway. She'd been in retreat, she realized, but Griffin had kept pace. He was still as close as before, his breath hot on her temple, stirring her hair.
"I think we should relax my way, Jane."
Now the flush spread across her body in one hot rush. His delicious smell surrounded her, his hard rangy body was tempting her from just inches away. She could rub herself against it again. Kiss him. Touch him. Mold herself to his long muscles and hair-roughened skin.
"Oh, I don't think that's a good idea," she told both of them.
"But we have so few days left to...relax together, Jane. How could this single time hurt?"
True, she thought hazily, though the logic felt a little wobbly. Then his big hand cupped her cheek and his thumb brushed across her mouth. She went wobbly and, just like that, knew it was the first caress of the night.
Because she was going to give in, of course. Maybe another woman would resist a man who said I don't do serious with women, never have, but after her last romantic disaster she wasn't in danger of going silly and emotional with another unavailable male. Been there, done that, got the trampled heart.
But that didn't mean she would walk away now.
He was studying her face, his thumb dragging slowly and deliberately across her bottom lip. It had been leading to this since that night in L.A. Since before then...since that first afternoon when she'd walked into Party Central and found a dangerous pirate alone in the crowd.