slowly pulling me back into his embrace, “and very, very appreciated.” He kissed my cheek, nuzzling along the line of my jaw until his lips were pressed against the curve of my neck and his hands were splayed across my back, slipping over the silky material.
I leaned back and started working on the buttons of his shirt. I grew impatient after the first three and just started pulling it up and over his head. His arms rose and then dropped along with the fabric, and his chest was bare to me. I put my hands on him, wondering if this was how sculptors felt as they molded a piece of art, for surely that’s what Leo was. He was all angles and planes, taut skin over smooth muscles. Just a sprinkling of chest hair above a flat belly.
His breath hitched as my fingers traveled over him and down to the waistband of his jeans.
He lifted his head and gazed down at me.
“Are you sure?” he whispered, and I had to chuckle. The nightie and the candles and the turned-down bed linens hadn’t been obvious enough? I smiled up into his ocean-blue eyes.
“Very sure.”
His low chuckle was sexy times infinity, and I suddenly found myself wrapped in an embrace so strong it stole my breath away. Or maybe it was his kisses doing that? Or his hands on my body? Did it matter? Whatever it was, I was dizzy and breathless—and liking it. The robe slid from my arms as he kissed my shoulder. I popped the button of his jeans and had the momentary wherewithal to wonder if my new black lace underwear had granted me superpowers of seduction. I’d taken the bra off earlier but still had on the panties. I had thought about taking those off, too, but realized I might be feeling bold, but not that bold.
Minutes later, those panties were on the floor anyway, along with the nightie and Leo’s jeans and boxers, and we were on the bed. I couldn’t seem to keep my hands in one place. I wanted to explore all of him all at once. His shoulders and back and hips . . . and all the rest of him. Leo’s mouth and fingertips seemed to be doing the same over my body, exploring. A heated kiss here, a soft caress there, a squeeze, a nuzzle, a not-so-gentle bite that sent sensations tumbling over themselves as they raced from my core to the tips of my limbs. Our breath mingled as our torsos pressed together.
Leo teased his lips against the corner of my mouth, then lifted his head to gaze down at me. His eyes were dark and intense in the candlelight, his voice husky as he whispered, “I like you, Brooke.”
Such a simple declaration, yet it made my heart hammer in my chest, because I understood what he meant. It was easy to want someone, easy to be infatuated with a smile, but far more complicated to actually like someone. And Leo Walker liked me.
“I like you, too,” I said, and then I showed him just how much.
Chapter 19
“Where do you think we’re going to find money in the budget to fix up the community center?” Vera VonMeisterburger had her white hair up in a bun today, which accentuated the beaklike quality of her nose, which, in turn, matched remarkably well with the screechy, crowlike quality of her voice. “If we can’t afford a simple bat sanctuary, I don’t see how we can afford to redesign the community center.”
It was Wednesday, and that meant another city council meeting. My reluctant reentry into reality after a glorious night spent rolling in the sheets with Leo had been tough to take, and now I was sitting at the Palomino Pub, torn between arguing my point or just staring over at the bar to watch Leo wash and dry glasses. He was so good at it. Washing and drying glasses, I meant. Although he was damn fine at everything he’d done last night, too. I didn’t have a long list of partners to compare him to, but just like I don’t know how to ballroom dance, I could still recognize a master at work.
He’d stayed until almost two in the morning, and we’d made the most of that time together. We’d even briefly discussed him staying until morning, but the idea of Leo doing the walk of shame and encountering my father on his morning sojourn through town made us think better of it.