She grabbed for her apron, rather than her clothes, and slipped it over her head, tying it at her back.
Grant turned from the sink and stooped to grab his boxers, but he froze as his gaze landed on her.
His mouth turned up in a slow, sexy smile. “Fuck, that’s hot.”
She loved his smile. She also really loved his gruff voice and the way he was looking at her.
“I’m thinking that if we did something like this at Buttered Up, we could increase sales,” she said, doing a little turn.
“Don’t even think about it.”
His voice was firm, and he was frowning when she faced him again.
Her brows went up. “No?”
“No.” Again firm. And serious. He jerked his boxers up.
He didn’t seem to be kidding around. “I was just joking,” she said. She thought that was really an unnecessary clarification to make.
“I know.” He was still scowling.
“Are you okay?”
“The idea of you… showing anyone any of… you,” he said, seemingly at a loss for words as he tried to explain. “Makes me… irritable.”
That wasn’t funny, exactly. Still, she laughed. He frowned harder.
“Grant, there’s no way I’d go to the bakery like this.”
He grabbed his pants and yanked them on. He drove a hand through his hair, let out a breath, then focused on her again. Shirtless, his hair disheveled, his pants unzipped and loose, he looked so sexy she sighed.
“No,” he agreed about the apron-only idea at Buttered Up. “But you might wear that here for someone.”
She studied his face. What was going on? “I guess. Maybe.”
“And that makes me… irritable.” He paused before that last word again. As if that wasn’t quite the word he was looking for. Or as if he was avoiding that word, possibly.
Josie didn’t know what word he was thinking, but she liked that he didn’t like the idea of her here with someone else. She stepped close and put a hand on his chest, rubbing in a little circle. “Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?”
“Never have sex with anyone else.”
That wasn’t what she’d been expecting. “Um. Ever?”
“Ever.”
“I thought you didn’t want to stay in Appleby.”
“I don’t.”
“So that would mean no more sex at all for me?”
He nodded. “Except for the times when I visited.”
She gave him a little smile. “You’re good, Grant. You’re very good. But unless you’re visiting here several times a week, I don’t think you’re good enough to keep me satisfied indefinitely.”
He gave a little growl at that, and her inner muscles tightened in response. Yeah, she was going to need a lot more of everything he had to offer. And not long distance or over the phone.
“But I’m very happy to give you full access to my… kitchen… for as long as you’re here,” she said with a grin and what she thought sounded like a pretty saucy tone.
He nodded. “And no one else.”
She widened her eyes. “Of course not.” Okay, she’d been pretty bold tonight, at times, but she was a one-man-at-a-time kind of girl. In fact, a one-man-at-a-time-with-lots-of-time-in-between-men kind of girl, actually.
“Good.”
Wow. That sounded… possessive.
She liked it.
Also wow.
“I think I need to go,” he said after studying her for a long moment.
“Enough kitchen time for one night?” She sensed there was something else going on. He wasn’t leaving because he was done with her. He was leaving, maybe, because he wasn’t.
“I basically want to throw you over my shoulder, take you to bed, and stay there for a month or two,” he said.
“So you’re leaving instead,” she clarified.
“Right.”
“This is like the reason you didn’t ask me out.”
“Right.”
She got to him. Somehow, for some reason, she—little Josie Asher of Appleby, Iowa—got to this guy. She was making him act out of character. Apparently. And feel things he wasn’t used to feeling.
Her mouth curved into a wide smile.
He lifted a brow.
“Okay,” she said. “You can go.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You look very smug suddenly.”
She nodded. “I’m feeling smug.”
“About?”
“Scaring you.”
He frowned. “You don’t…” But he didn’t finish the sentence. He took a deep breath. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Will you?” She wasn’t sure how far and for how long a guy like Grant might run from something he was afraid of.
She felt herself smiling again. Yeah, she liked that she shook him up. It was all just a feeling she had about a feeling she thought he maybe had—so, obviously, nothing tangible or even confessed-out-loud—but the fact that Grant was acting possessive while also claiming that he hadn’t wanted to ask her out because it would have made