appreciate why I'd bleed myself dry for the game.
I walked closer, and she sucked in a breath at my sudden nearness.
My hands reached out, stilling hers where they fidgeted with the bottle. Her fingers were ice cold.
Lia tilted her chin up. She was taller tonight, probably wearing different shoes, and I found that I very much wanted to see how easily I could kiss her from this angle. I wanted to boost her up onto my kitchen counter and step between her legs so I could press as closely as possible.
I barely knew her. Why did I feel like I did?
"Why are you so nervous?" I asked.
"Well, there's the whole I'm in a stranger’s house thing, and I still don't know for sure you won't murder me and hide my body."
I grinned, coasting my hands up her arms, then dragging them back down again. "So suspicious."
Lia swallowed, eyes huge on my face. "Are you going to do those things?"
"I wasn't planning to, no."
"Good." While she may not have been touching me back, she allowed me to slide my fingers between hers. The drag of my skin on hers, which was far softer, far smoother, felt dirty somehow. Like we were naked, like we were already in bed. Judging by the flush on her cheeks, she felt it too. "You're not like ... secretly married or something, right?"
My smile was slow. "No wife, no girlfriend."
"Do you like animals?"
"Depends on which kind. Dogs, yes. Cats, sometimes, if they're not trying to claw my eyes out. I have a complicated relationship with sheep because I was raised on a sheep farm. I think fish are pointless, and I am out of my mind terrified of horses."
Lia laughed softly. What was she looking for, as those bottomless eyes searched my face? She looked so serious. What a change from the fiery girl at the pub, pushing and pushing my buttons, simply because she sensed that I enjoyed having them pushed.
I liked her. It was a strange realization to have in the wake of knowing how much I wanted her. But I did. I liked her. I liked that she was asking me simple questions, and that she was sweet to my housekeeper. I even liked the flat way she said her vowels in her American accent.
Her fingers curled tightly around mine, like she was afraid I'd pull away.
That was when I heard myself say, "I play professional football."
Lia's lips curled up at the edges. "I know."
I blinked. "Did you know the night we met?"
She shook her head. "You showed up on my news app when I was in Haworth. When I saw your picture, I dropped my phone on the floor."
"Did you now?" I murmured, slowly tugging her closer. Her face showed no shock, no awe, no clamoring to know more. My entire being relaxed.
She nodded, keeping her eyes trained on my lips. "They used your name in Beatles lyrics."
"Journalists think they're so clever." I tugged one hand free of hers, sliding it over the curve of her waist, then her hips. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."
Lia laid her hand on my chest, spreading her fingers wide. "When would you have? After I commented on the way players flopped to the ground all the time?"
Chuckling, I exerted the smallest bit of pressure on her hips. "Fair enough."
"Th-there's a lot we didn't share with each other."
Her slight stutter was triggered by my fingers sliding up under the hem of her shirt, where endless miles of smooth skin greeted me.
"Any husbands or boyfriends?" I asked.
Lia shook her head.
"Do you like animals?" My nose sank into her hair, and I inhaled deep into my lungs.
"Mm-hmm."
The timer dinged on the oven. There was a perfectly good dinner in there, probably getting burned to a crisp, but we both ignored it.
"Jude?"
My name on her lips did strange things to me. As I hummed in response to that, my lips ghosted over her downy soft temples.
"I …" Her voice trailed off when I kissed my way down her cheekbones to the corner of her lips. "Holy shit, you're killing me."
Ducking my head, I sucked her lower lip into my mouth, covering her curves with my palm when her hips tilted toward me.
Here. I'd take her right here the first time. In the kitchen, with the dinner burning and the windows open, and the bright, airy space holding the echo of the sounds she'd make.
Then we could talk all bloody night.
Lia moaned when I did the same thing to her