green had taken over and there was no sunshine to be had. They were also holding me hostage.
Yikes.
With no choice other than to throw myself bodily at him and straddle his lap and beg him to rub other parts, I turned my gaze to the TV.
Relaxation was history.
9
“You weren’t lying.” Shiloh leaned back into the cushion and patted her stomach. “That was the best steak I ever ate.”
I took a pull of my beer and kept my eyes averted. It was three days after Shiloh had stopped avoiding me. The third night in a row I’d been to her house after work. The third night we’d had dinner, engaged in playful banter, and watched a movie.
Tonight I got to her house before she did, this had been prearranged and she’d given me a key. There was only so much takeout I could handle. And since Shiloh had been forthcoming about her inability to cook, I took over that task. This meant I was there before her to get the potatoes in the oven and the steaks ready to grill.
This decision came easy. Last night before I left, Shiloh rummaged through a drawer in her kitchen, found her spare and gave it to me, then rattled off her alarm code, and that was it. I spent the rest of the night lying in my bed wondering if she understood what was going on between us. I’d kept both nights light—no deep conversations. Two friends hanging out. Both nights her legs ended up in my lap. The first night it had taken about twenty minutes for her to relax once my hands were on her. Last night when I pulled her feet out from under her and started rubbing it was instantaneous. No tension at all.
But right then, sitting on her couch, it was me who was tense. She’d gotten home later than she’d planned, rushed in still in uniform yelling her apologies. I hadn’t fully recovered from how hot she looked in her gear when she came out in a pair of loose-fitting shorts and a tight tank top. I was grateful I’d been standing next to her kitchen island seasoning the steaks. Not only were the cabinets a welcomed barrier to prevent me from groping the hell out of her but they also hid my erection. Now with nothing to hide a hard-on, it was paramount I kept my gaze diverted.
As if she sensed my discomfort on her own accord she arranged herself in the corner of the couch and draped her legs over my lap.
Jesus fuck.
When my hands didn’t go to her feet fast enough she shifted them and I looked down at her hot pink toenails.
Cute.
Something I learned last night—Tomboy Shiloh liked to get her “feet done” as she called it. Every two weeks she went and had a pedicure. Further, she explained her toenails were always painted a shade of pink. And when she offered that minuscule piece of information that seemed like no big deal but really was something oddly personal about her, my chest got tight. There was also something insanely sexy about her having pink toenails inside her combat boots.
“Luke?” Shiloh called when I didn’t move.
Her voice was a little unsteady, a little nervous, a little unsure.
I preferred her breathy moans when I dug my fingers into her muscular calves.
I set my beer down on the side table and went to work on her legs.
Smooth, soft skin. She’d shaved between last night and today. A mental image of her in the shower wet and soapy assaulted my mind and I barely contained my growl of approval. Or was it arousal I was containing? I decided it was both—I approved of her naked in the shower—or did she take a bath and prop her foot up on the side of the tub while she shaved?
Christ.
Touching Shiloh was a slippery slope. My palms had a mind of their own and it was by sheer force of will I’d kept them below the knee. A respectable distance from where they wanted to roam. There were times I caught Shiloh staring at me and I could see desire. But there were other times when I saw apprehension. My hands were not venturing beyond her knee until that apprehension was gone.
“Luke?” she repeated.
“Yeah?”
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” I lied. “Why?”
“You’re acting funny.”
She scooted her ass closer to me, this was something she’d done last night, too, so she could fully recline. Tonight, since I wasn’t looking at her, two things happened simultaneously,