Here Comes Trouble Page 0,114

dying to show you, to tell you all about it.”

Could have fooled me, the pouty part of her still wanted to say. Fortunately the mature side of her brain prevailed. “Couldn’t we take my truck? Then we could talk on the way and you can tell me about it.” She cocked her head. “Are you…pouting? Did I just see you stick your bottom lip out?” Like he needed to be more adorable.

He lifted the helmet. “I don’t want to tell you. I want to show you. And besides, on my bike I can have you all wrapped around me.”

Her body leapt right on board with that suggestion. But her body was shallow. Her body wasn’t the part that was going to give her nightmares about suffering a road rash fatality. That was her head. The same rational part that was going to turn his suggestion down. Flat.

“You can duck your head behind mine. Close your eyes. But I honestly think once we turn up the mountain road you’re not going to want to hide. It’s nothing like riding through town or in traffic.” At her continued mutinous expression—okay, okay, maybe it was more dubious by then because her damn body wasn’t backing down—he added, “If you hate this ride, I won’t ask you to do it again. The truck will be the automatic default vehicle.” He held up his hand in some configuration, changed it a few times, and then grinned broadly and said, “Scouts honor. At least I’m sure they would honor my word. If I’d been a scout.”

She couldn’t help it; she laughed. “Okay. But this will be it for me, just saying that up front.”

“Wait until you see a mountain sunset from the back of a bike; you might change your mind. At least try and keep an open one.”

“Why don’t we start with open eyes and go from there?” she said, then added, “Will we be gone that long?”

“I know you have a million and one things to do, and we could postpone until after—”

“No, it’s not that. Actually, I’ve been ready for days now. I’m at the point where I’m rearranging every piece of furniture and second guessing dried flower arrangements—do purple heather or marigolds strike just the right accent with the wedding ring quilt—that kind of thing. Getting out of here for a day would probably be the best thing for me. You’d never know I handled fully booked international resorts in my day. It’s silly to be so nervous—”

“Not silly.” He set the helmets aside and took the laundry basket from her arms and set that next to them. Then he cupped her elbows, drawing her hands up to his shoulders before pulling her into his arms. “That was a corporate-owned entity, and even if you were part of that corporation, it’s not the same. Here you’re inviting people into the place you created, the place you call home. It’s personal. And I think it shows how great an innkeeper you are that you’re so concerned about the details.” He tugged her closer to him. “In fact, it’s your very attention to detail and your good eye that I’m hoping to exploit.”

“Really,” she said, her brows quirking. “That’s a new approach.”

He laughed. “That wasn’t sexual innuendo. In that case, I meant it straightforwardly.” He tipped her chin up to his. “However, I’m not above—or beneath—a little innuendo if it will get me in tight with the innkeeper.”

She smiled up into his dancing eyes. “Now there’s an innuendo.”

“Isn’t it, though?” he murmured, and captured her mouth.

It started as a simple, sweet kiss, with all that banked steamy stuff that was always below the surface with them, just simmering along. But then she might have sighed a little, possibly moaned when he pulled her tight against him so his hips could rock against her stomach. And the kiss dipped right past sweet and dove straight into that carnal place. She definitely moaned then.

Her nails dug into his shoulders and he held her face in his wide palms with more determination, his mouth slanting more heavily over hers as he sought out what he wanted…and got it.

She was considering the merits of distracting him from his proposed motorcycle ride with another, far more enjoyable ride, when he broke the kiss and laughed.

That caught her up short. When her eyes finally came back into focus, she said, “What was funny? Did I miss something?”

“No, it was…it was us, this. Not a ha ha laugh, more an amazed