Here Comes Trouble Page 0,39

pace.

Great. “One of us has to start the transition from talk to action.”

“One of us should, yes,” he agreed, that twinkle sparking in his eyes. “Any ideas?”

“Well, you’re the one with the bold moves.”

He smiled. It was sexy and sweet at the same time. She looked at him and still saw the unbelievably hot Brett Hennessey, but there was more there now. He was also the somewhat vulnerable Brett Hennessey. Possibly a guy who also had his professional game a lot more together than his personal one. At least that’s how she’d taken his comments about how others saw him versus what he knew to be the real him. Although how a guy with his genetic gifts could be anything less than cocksure of himself mystified her.

“Climbing up that tree was a pretty bold move,” he countered.

“One that almost got me killed.”

“Good point.”

“Perhaps I shouldn’t be the one setting the bold move standard.”

“Well, I could make the obvious guy statement here that if your bold moves in bed led to my imminent demise, then…what a way to go! But that would be cliché.”

“True. And you’re not a cliché.”

“I try not to be.”

“You’ve definitely busted a fair share of them so far.”

His broadening smile sparked that twinkle to an even brighter level. “Then my work here is almost done.”

“Almost?”

“Almost.” He framed her face with his hands, tilted it up so he could look directly into her eyes…and she directly into his. There was amusement, desire, want…and a very definite sense of purpose.

And, just like that, she was right back on that edge of the unknown that had made her leap into the safety net of prolonged conversation in the first place. Only this time, whatever potential danger there might be in spending her immediate future with him seemed far more titillating than scary. “Maybe the extended verbal foreplay part helped after all,” she murmured as she stared into his eyes.

“Kirby.”

“Yes?”

“No more talking.” He lowered his mouth.

“No more talking,” she agreed.

He finally, blessedly, kissed her. It hadn’t been a fluke, or her imagination. He kissed her perfectly. His mouth was a perfect fit for hers…and he knew what to do with it. If anything, it was even more perfect than their first try. Whether it was because of their little getting-to-know-you byplay, or because, well…he was perfect, she wasn’t sure. Didn’t much care. As long as he didn’t stop doing what he was doing. Ever, actually, would be nice.

He pushed his fingers into her hair, slanting her mouth beneath his, kissing her so slowly, so thoroughly, and with such deliberation, her knees, quite literally, went weak.

He crowded her against the cupboards, sliding his hands down to her shoulders, then over her arms, to her torso, trailing his thumbs so they brushed along the outer swell of her breasts, pausing a little when she moaned, then shifting them so his thumbs could lightly brush over her nipples. She jerked a little against such direct stimulation, and he stilled his hands. So she moved, pushing against him, just slightly, but enough that he knew her reaction had been one of pleasure.

She supposed, or would later when she thought back over things, that it was his very directness, coupled with his sensitivity to her every little reaction to what he was doing, that ultimately made her comfortable enough to…well, to let someone she hardly knew have such intimate access to her body.

She hadn’t really thought about that part when deciding that casual lovers were going to be it for her from now on. That by its very nature, casual would also imply someone she didn’t know well. Because, if she knew him well, it could hardly be all that casual, now could it? Had she really thought that this casual person was going to sweep her up in his arms, where the two of them would become suddenly naked and assuage their needs, then over and done, sorry gotta run now? She hadn’t calculated in that part where there would be all this touching, and acquainting of selves, and exploration of, well, everything. And, eventually, everywhere. It was how sex actually worked. It was necessarily and quite specifically intimate. Which was the exact of opposite of casual.

How had she managed to overlook that crucial part?

How did anybody actually manage to have casual sex? She wasn’t feeling remotely casual now that he was playing with her nipples. And…and stuff.

Then he was moving his mouth off hers and along her jaw. And using more than just his