Summer Love_ A Steamy Small Town Romance Anthology - Piper Rayne Page 0,198

original offense.”

The breath of his chuckle raised the tiny hairs on her neck.

“I thought about you after that night. Thought about you a lot,” he said.

“Why would you do that?” On the other side of the window—inches away—was utter chaos. She couldn’t tell which way the wind was blowing. It blew in every direction, it seemed—taking the rain along with it. On this side of the window, though, there was a strange sense of calm. She was stuck inside for who knew how long with a man she barely knew. But she felt safe with him, the same way she had felt safe with him in London.

She wasn’t the sort of woman to accompany a stranger to his hotel room, whether the stranger was famous or not. He was right about that. But she’d done it with him. And it hadn’t been fear or a sense of danger that made her put a stop to the proceedings, get dressed, and call a cab to take her back to her own hotel. In fact, she hadn’t felt any fear at all with him. She’d felt safe, as though the two of them had known each other for years.

His thumbs were rubbing gentle circles at the base of her neck and just that tiny gesture had her toes curling against the bare wood floor.

“I liked you, Mai with an I. I wanted to spend the night with you. Wanted to have breakfast with you in the morning. Wanted to hear you sing again.”

“Well, you’ve heard me again now. And pound cake and iced coffee counts as breakfast in some quarters.”

He leaned his head down next to hers and stared out into the storm. “Looks like I’ll be spending the night here, too.”

“Your life is officially complete.”

“Your snarky sense of humor is coming back to me now.”

“Sorry.”

“No apology needed. I liked your snark. It made me think that perhaps you didn’t know who I was.”

“I knew. I just didn’t want to fan-girl all over you.”

“Somehow I doubt you’re really a Pulse fan.”

A tiny laugh escaped her lips. “Not really.”

“Now I like you even more.”

There was a snarky reply right on the tip of her tongue, but it was interrupted by the crash of a small tree branch against the window. Reflexively, she jumped back … into his hard chest.

Hard naked chest.

She held her breath and watched the window, waiting for a crack to appear. When none did after a minute, she exhaled.

“We shouldn’t be standing right next to the window.” He tugged on her shoulder to move her away.

For the second time that evening, she followed him to one of the leather sofas at the rear of the shop. She let him take a seat while she felt her way in the darkness to the merchandise shelf along the back wall.

“Where’d you go?”

The sofa’s leather creaked beneath his weight.

“I’m getting a candle. It’s coffee-scented, though.”

He laughed. “You’ll get no complaints from me there. I’ve yet to be on a tour that wasn’t fueled by alcohol and coffee.”

“Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll?” She felt her way to the drawer behind the counter where she kept a lighter. A minute later, the candle flared to life on the wooden table Ian had dragged over to the sofa earlier.

“There. This is either romantic or apocalyptic.”

He pulled her onto his lap. His thigh muscles were hard beneath her legs. His bare chest was so close she could smell his skin. And the way those perfectly shaped lips were parted … well, it was making her body remember London, remember how his lips felt on hers. She was still mesmerized by those lips when they spoke again.

“Well, if this storm is the end of the world, I’d like to go out with a little romance.”

Two years later and she was having the same effect on him. Every inch of his skin craved to be pressed against hers. He wanted to touch her and listen to her sing and have a conversation with her and make love to her all at the same time.

Anyone who knew the Ian Youngblood would have said he’d gone round the bend. In reality, he had always wanted this kind of woman, a woman who would make him feel as though he knew everything and nothing. He’d just never met one.

Until the karaoke woman in London.

Until Mai with an I.

Mai.

Who ran a coffee shop in a tiny town on the Chesapeake Bay. He could spend all summer here. His manager would flip, but