promised. “Can I make it up to you now?”
“It’s kinda early for alcohol,” she said, her tone wry.
“Coffee then?”
She nodded. “Sure.” She could use a shot of caffeine since she’d been out of the house early to catch their flight.
Aiden asked for two coffees, hers with cream and sugar, and just sugar for his. The attendant filled the order, placed the paper cups on their trays along with a warm cinnamon roll for a morning snack, then moved on to the next row.
“I think you’re getting off way too easy for standing me up,” she said, motioning to the free coffee she was sipping. “I waited for two hours that evening and you never showed. The least you could have done was text me to let me know you weren’t coming.”
His grimace reflected a genuine amount of contrition. “I really am sorry about that. I was just so thrown by Perry’s decision to pit us against each other, I needed time to process it all.”
“I get it,” she said as she pulled off a piece of her cinnamon roll and popped it into her mouth. “Honestly, I felt the same way.”
“But I’m fine now,” he reassured her with a grin while biting into his own breakfast pastry. “In fact, I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
“That’s good, because you’re going down, Landry,” she said with a playful, flirtatious growl that sounded very suggestive, even to her own ears. Her innocent comment had twisted into a sexual innuendo that hung in the air between them like a challenge of its own.
“Mmm, we’ll see about that,” he murmured.
His eyes had turned dark and hot, and something deep inside Chloe quivered with awareness. After what seemed like an endless amount of time, he finally glanced away, took a drink of his coffee and devoured the rest of his cinnamon roll before she’d even finished half of hers.
Not quite ready to let the slow burn between them fade away, she decided to embrace her new go-with-it attitude and have a little fun with Aiden. “So, back to that questionnaire we filled out. How important is sexual compatibility to you in a relationship?”
Aiden’s bemused expression told her that he had no qualms discussing the intimate details of his sexual preferences with her, and it was that playful, comfortable attitude she enjoyed so much about him. They could pretty much talk about anything and it never felt awkward.
“On a scale of one to ten, I’d rate it a nine. I have a healthy sexual appetite and I’d like my partner to match that. You?”
She’d always pegged him for a man who went the distance, in everything he did. Including sex, it seemed, and that enticing thought had her nipples tightening against the confines of her lace bra. “Oh, definitely a nine for me, too,” she murmured, even knowing they were playing with fire with this particular conversation.
“And what about foreplay?” he asked before she could formulate another question, so effortlessly turning the tables so that she was now sitting in the hot seat. And clearly, he liked having the upper hand.
There was no mistaking the wicked grin curving his lips, or the shameless look in his eyes that dared her to be just as bold and brazen. She’d never shied away from a little risk and adventure, and this discussion was much too entertaining to pass up.
“Well, that all depends on the situation,” she said as she took another small bite of her cinnamon pastry and oh-so-slowly sucked the sweet icing off her index finger, which he watched with avid heat and interest. “I love being caressed and stroked and having a man’s hands and mouth all over my body, and vice versa. I could indulge in foreplay for hours before the main act, if there’s time and we both want to take it slow and tease one another.”
Just the thought of Aiden’s fingers and lips skimming intimate places made her pulse race a bit faster. “However, there’s something to be said for a hard, fast quickie, when you’re already so hot for each other that touching isn’t even necessary to climax.”
“Agreed,” he said, the gruff, husky pitch of his voice brimming with a low, heady thrum of arousal.
She swallowed hard. He’d subtly shifted closer, his upper body now turned toward her seat. Their gazes were locked, his intense stare so hot and dark and hypnotic it seemed to singe right through her.
The sizzling arc of energy between them was palpable, and in the depth of Aiden’s