She seemed to ponder that—and him—as she swallowed the last bite of her cookie. Then, placing her hands to each side of her on the counter, she shifted her weight, leaning toward him slightly. Her pink tongue darted out to swipe the last crumbs from her lips, leaving behind a glistening trail of moisture that Rick had a hard time tearing his eyes away from. The air around them pulsed with an electrical charge, and his heartbeat took up the rhythm.
“It must be hard, living with all that pressure to be perfect,” she said quietly. He watched her eyes deepen again, and it wasn’t embarrassment that darkened their hue this time. “Don’t you ever just let go and do whatever you...um, whatever you want to do?”
Her eyes. Her lips. The way she leaned forward. Everything screamed of invitation. But in his thirty-four years, Rick had never kissed a woman the first time without asking. It was something a gentleman didn’t do. He leaned forward, his eyes locking with hers. “Summer, I’d like very much to—”
A whistled tune. Close by. Someone in the dining hall was headed their way.
Rick straightened and cleared his throat. “I’d like to help you get the girls under control.”
She drew back, looking like he’d slapped her. “Thanks,” she said curtly, and the irritation he’d grown familiar with returned. “But I think Tara and I will be able to handle it by ourselves.” She rubbed her hands together briskly as if demonstrating how finished she was with the conversation—and him—just as Kenny strolled into the kitchen.
“Caught ya,” the guard announced with a broad grin. “I saw the light and knew somebody was after cookies.”
Rick consciously unclenched his fists, which had tightened at the interruption. Sure as hell, what he’d almost gotten a taste of would’ve been sweeter than any cookie.
* * *
SUMMER’S HEART POUNDED a strange nonrhythm. Rick had been about to kiss her, she was sure. What she wasn’t sure of was if she wanted to thank Kenny or throttle him. Feuding parts of her cheered for both.
The grown-up part she’d been trying so hard to cultivate these past couple of years told her that kissing a guy she’d considered the enemy just a few hours ago was capricious and wouldn’t lead anywhere she needed to go.
The wild child was totally miffed, though. A good kiss—and she sensed this would’ve been on the superlative end of the scale—was one of the things that should never be passed up, provided it was between two people who had no other commitments.
Did Rick have a girlfriend? She hadn’t thought much about that—hadn’t allowed herself to think about him in terms of any kind of relationship. And just the idea she was thinking about it now scattered her thoughts willy-nilly.
Rick and Kenny began discussing the morning’s skunk encounter, and somewhere between the polar extremes of her thoughts, her mediator said to get out of there while things were in neutral.
“I’m going to leave the cookies with y’all,” she said when Kenny hesitated in his own skunk tale for a moment. “If I stay, I’ll only want more.”
“Yeah, me, too.” Something in Rick’s tone fractured the reserve she’d momentarily gained. Was he insinuating something, or was her imagination running away with her? Either way, she needed to get out of there. Immediately. She scooted to the edge of the counter to jump down.
Rick’s hands flew to her waist, lifting her. Involuntarily, her eyes swept up to meet his, and she saw her own frustration mirrored there. Time seemed to slow down as the press of his thumbs along her rib cage imprinted on her consciousness. She was still aware of where they’d been long after they were gone and he’d set her on her feet.
“Some for the road.” Kenny grabbed a handful of cookies and screwed the lid back onto the enormous jar before they all left the kitchen.
Her irritation and frustration coalesced into one manageable, meaningful mass, which grew with every step back to her cabin.
By the time she reached her door, she was carrying a weighted balloon in her chest cavity, and though she tried to mollify it, her “Good night” to Kenny and Rick was expelled on a petulant huff.
She closed the door, aching for the kiss that had been thwarted by Kenny, who’d made it his job—intentional or not—to be their chaperone...all the way back to her cabin.
CHAPTER EIGHT
BY NOON FRIDAY, SOMETHING was in the air—and it didn’t look or feel normal. An eerie yellow tinge clung