sighed, exasperation in her voice, but also, if he wasn’t very much mistaken, a tiny note of possibility. A whiff of temptation.
Jumping on the slight weakening he’d detected, Cole put forward a compromise. “Okay, how about this? A trial.”
He had no idea why he was trying so damn hard to convince this woman he could do this, but it was suddenly imperative he did. And not just for her. Maybe having to look after someone else’s needs all day would take his mind off his own sorry state.
“Give me a day to prove I can do it. See how I do tomorrow, and then we can reassess tomorrow night. Hell, we can have an ongoing review process, if you like. This time every night, out here on the stairs, over a beer.” He angled his beer bottle in her direction. “What do you say?”
She searched his face earnestly for long moments. “Are you sure?”
There was definite weakening now. “Positive.” He nudged his bottle closer. “What do you say? Cheers to a regular review process?”
Cole saw the exact moment she let all her objections slide away. Her shoulders relaxed, her face smoothed out, and a slight smile touched her mouth, making her lips even harder to ignore. She angled her beer towards him and clinked the neck of her bottle against the neck of his. “Cheers to a trial. And a regular review process.”
He laughed. Even in her capitulation, she wanted to wear the pants. Not an image he needed right now. “Yes, ma’am.”
It was fascinating to watch the way her eyes went all round as he ma’amed her, and he smiled a little as she looked away awkwardly, turning her gaze to the ever-darkening yard as she took a deep swallow of her beer. It took several beats before she glanced at him again, her expression perfectly neutral.
“Thank you. I really—”
Swooping in quickly, Cole kissed her, cutting off that A-word he knew was coming before it even got off the starting block. It hadn’t been his most well-thought-through plan, but he couldn’t bear hearing how much she appreciated him again.
Sure, he’d been thinking about kissing her a lot lately. But not like this. Not as a…deterrent. Although the slight, garbled “Oh” sound she’d made when their lips met stirred his blood.
Neither of them moved. Not their mouths or anything else, for that matter. They just stayed like that, two humans joined at the lips while insects trilled and Betty barked somewhere over the fence and night fell. Her lips were cool, and she tasted like beer, and, for someone who was so still he was barely breathing, Cole’s heart cartwheeled behind his ribcage.
Stop kissing her. Stop kissing her. Stop kissing her, dickhead.
Finally, the frantic signals from his brain made their way to his muscles, and Cole reluctantly dragged himself out of the kiss, pulling back to his side of the divide, wondering for a confused second why their lips were still joined, only to realize she was following his retreat with her own advance, clearly reluctant to let his mouth go.
And that stirred his dick.
She, too, broke away, however, and then they were staring at each other, close enough to go back for more but neither making a move as they breathed heavily into the night air. If anything, Cole’s pulse had become louder.
“What was that for?” she asked, straightening up, increasing the distance between them.
Cole almost laughed at the slight tone of accusation in her voice. She was the one who’d chased his mouth across the space between them, apparently reluctant to stop. “I couldn’t stand to hear you say the word appreciate one more time.”
“How did you know I was going to say that?”
Cole quirked his eyebrow. “I’m developing a bit of ESP where you’re concerned.”
He braced himself for her to deny it, but she didn’t. Maybe she knew the sudden bloom of color on her cheeks had given her away. “So you…kissed me?”
“Yeah…I’m sorry about that.” He looked away, staring blindly into the darkening recesses beneath the oak tree as he shoved a hand through his hair. “It was the fastest thing I could think of to stop you.”
Probably because kissing her had been on his mind waaaay too much.
She didn’t look like she believed him, but she obviously decided not to take a deep dive into his motivations. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“I know.” Not least because now he wanted to do it again. He’d gotten the tiniest taste, and already he wanted more. Who needed