Drained (Edgars Family #6) - Suzanne Ferrell Page 0,83

she hurried over to the dryer. “I just happen to have done a load of towels a few days ago and haven’t had time to fold them.” She pulled out two, one she handed to Aaron, the other she squatted down and wrapped Stanley in before gathering him into her arms. “Geesh, you smell like a wet dog.”

He tilted his head at her as if to say, Duh, I am one, then licked her face as she toweled him down.

“Okay, that’s enough.” She laughed again and set him down on the floor, where he proceeded to the doggy shake, complete with the whap-a-whap-a flapping of his little ears. Then he trotted into her living room and made himself at home on the pillow he’d slept on last night.

“You can set your alarm now,” Aaron said taking the towel from her and putting them both in her dirty hamper in front of her washer. Then he hung his coat up on an empty hook by the garage door and hung the umbrella next to it.

By the time he was done, she’d entered the code to her alarm system and had corked the bottle of wine.

“It’s a cabernet that I like,” she said, handing him a glass of wine then headed into the living room.

Aaron turned off the lights in the laundry and kitchen as he followed her, trying not to think if the offer of wine meant she’d made her decision. Making assumptions in his work lead to mistakes. He wasn’t about to risk assuming something as important as his relationship with Brianna in his private life. No matter what she’d decided, he’d go with it. He kicked off his shoes, stowing them under the end table and took a seat on the end of the leather sofa as she used the remote control to turn on the gas fireplace.

“When Luke and Abby were looking for a new condo for me, I asked them to get one with a fireplace. It takes the chill off the air even in the summer when the lake-affect storms roll through over Lake Erie,” she said, sitting next to him on the sofa, her body pressed into his side.

He draped his arm over her shoulder and took a drink of the wine. “Mmm, that’s a nice wine.”

“It’s not too dry, and I like the bits of coca and blackberry in it.”

Nervous babbling.

Aaron hid his smile and leaned down to kiss her on the top of her head. “I like those two flavors, too.”

She shifted her head to look up at him, bringing her lips closer to his. He moved just enough to take what she was offering in a slow, easy kiss. Then he sat back and licked his lips.

“Mmm, blackberry and chocolate.” Watching her take another drink of her wine, he set his glass on the end table beside him. Then turned to sample the wine on her lips once more. “And I really like them on you.”

She took another drink but didn’t swallow and kissed him deeply, letting some of the wine slip into his mouth. He swallowed it and pulled her closer, but she braced her hand against his chest and pushed him away just enough to give her room to drink in the last little bit from her glass and set it on the table next to his. Then she repeated the kiss, sharing her wine with him.

Heat coursed through him.

Hands on her hips he pulled her closer, until she was straddling his lap, her knees on either side of his thighs and her breasts crushed tight against his chest, as he kissed her like a drunkard needing more taste of the fermented grapes. When her soft hand cupped his face and she pressed her body closer to his, he swept his tongue over hers and sampled the wine, tasting the cocoa and blackberry and her.

A low moan escaped him as he pressed her hips down so that her heat nestled against his cock straining at the zipper of his jeans. For the past three years he’d been celibate. Not because he’d lost his interest in sex. The problem was there was only one woman who interested him since the day he met her. And right now, she was seated firmly on his lap.

A matching soft purr came from Brianna and he knew he had to slow things down before he embarrassed himself right there on her couch. Easing his pressure on her mouth and rubbing one hand slowly up and