For Seven Nights Only - Sarah Ballance Page 0,11
was not looking at you with any sort of admiration whatsoever.”
“Not admiration. Passion.”
“Because,” she said through gritted teeth, “I passionately want to put my knee in your special place.”
“You can play with my special place later. For now, eye contact will have to be enough.”
She glowered.
“Did I forget to mention the part where you smile?”
She smiled so sweetly that he began to fear for his special place. “Like this?”
He swallowed. “Yeah, like that. If you touch him, you make it a trifecta.”
“So you do want my knee—”
“Not that kind of touch,” he said. He pushed back a windblown strand of her hair and found a great deal of satisfaction in the way her eyes drifted shut when his fingertips traced her skin. He took advantage of her momentary lowering of the guard to loosen the scarf, revealing a very sexy neck—one he really shouldn’t have noticed, all things considered. And because she hadn’t yet put him on the ground, he gave in to the urge to see beyond those damned glasses. Her eyes flew wide when he removed the frames, but softened in response to his smile. “Like that.”
“That’s actually pretty nice,” she said. “But now I’m blind. And if a random guy touched me with so much familiarity, I’d freak out.”
“Shocking,” he said dryly. “So don’t show your neck to random guys. Show the ones who interest you.”
She narrowed her eyes and snatched her glasses from him, but she didn’t put them back on. “Is this sarcasm?”
“If you think you need to stay hidden from the chin down, then no.” He bit back his bemusement when her glare deepened. Then, since he was already in the proverbial doghouse, he tugged at her scarf, removing it entirely, and blissful inches of creamy skin appeared. Appreciation sluiced through him. “This is sexy—or would be if you weren’t looking at me like you wanted me dead—and it’s not the least bit pornographic. Loosen up. Literally.”
“Ah. So I just…” She took a step closer, leaving approximately no distance between them, and looked up at him. Her fingertips brushed his arm, then tracked to his abdomen, and toyed dangerously low. She still held the glasses, and all of a sudden, his mind flashed librarian porn. His dick snapped to attention, totally on board with the vision of her putting down some big, thick book to work him free, then dropping to her knees and—
She pinned another one of those suspiciously saccharine smiles on him. “Like this?”
He swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. Was this the same woman who didn’t want to hold his hand because she’d look unavailable? One stiff breeze and they’d have a full-body-contact thing going on. “Yeah, like that.”
“And then if I’m really interested…” Her gaze dropped to his lips.
A whole new kind of awareness infiltrated the scant space between them, and he didn’t like it. He took a mental step back and tried to remember why he was there. Lessons. Yeah, that. He found his voice. “Eye contact. Remember that.” Something tugged at his pants, which were a touch misshapen in the groin. He looked down to see her dog at his feet. Sawyer wasn’t sure he’d ever moved. “Does this rodent not understand the concept of a dog park?”
“He’s small. He’s probably intimidated by the other dogs.”
“You don’t seem too concerned he’ll get eaten.”
“He won’t go far. And neither will I if I don’t get out there.” She took a step back, slid on her glasses, and wiped her free hand on her jeans before taking back her scarf. The other put a dent in her cardboard coffee cup.
He appreciated her nervousness. Not so much her determination to get out there.
Before he could respond, a shout sliced the air between them, immediately followed by a Frisbee, then a lab that had to weigh eighty pounds or better. Sawyer caught Kelsie’s arm as they both stumbled backwards out of the dog’s path. Seconds later, the man who had shouted jogged up to them.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, more to Kelsie than Sawyer. Taking the hint, Sawyer backed off, although he wasn’t happy about it.
“No problem,” Kelsie said. Her voice rattled with nerves, but she seemed to recover nicely when she added, “My brother could use a good knock to the head. Too bad you missed.”
The douche bag laughed.
Minidick, who had apparently survived the near miss with the lab by hiding in Sawyer’s shadow, didn’t growl at the bastard. Figured.
“You live around here?” the douche asked.
“Just a couple of blocks away.”
“I haven’t