Sandcastle Beach (Matchmaker Bay #3) - Jenny Holiday Page 0,140

not to smile. “You think I’m smart?”

“I do.”

She looked down, all embarrassed suddenly, and it did something to him. “What?” he said gently, nudging her shoulder with his.

“No one has ever said that to me before.”

Well, that pissed him right off. “What about this gaggle of girlfriends you keep telling me about?”

“Well, yeah, they’re great, but we go so far back, it’s automatic loyalty from them, you know? They’re biased. If you asked them to make a list of my qualities, they’d be all smart, creative, pretty—”

“That’s all true.” Shit. That had just popped out.

She’d been rattling off her list of adjectives in a jokey, self-deprecating way, but when he interrupted her, she stopped talking, and her eyes widened.

He was so mixed up. He wanted to kiss her. Hell, he wanted to bend her over the beige sofa that had been the source of so many jokes. But he also wanted to warm her hands up. And give her father a piece of his mind.

And play Battleship. And Scrabble and Boggle…and everything.

He closed his eyes for a moment, to block her out. He couldn’t think with her right there. He needed to get his addled brain back under control. He needed her not to be so goddamn compelling. He needed her not to—

Kiss him?

Oh, shit.

That was what he got for closing his eyes against Elise Maxwell.

He was nearly undone when her soft, almost hesitant lips came down on his with a shaky little puff of breath.

He’d been making a list of things he didn’t need, but suddenly those things were mere wisps of memory. They were so small, so insignificant, compared to the need barreling down on him.

For a few seconds, he kept his eyes closed and allowed it to happen. Made his hands into tight fists by his side and let her lips move over his. Let her hair fall against his face—she was half kneeling over him—a honey curtain that smelled like goddamn lemons.

She was only touching him with her lips, but it was like all the crazy colors of her—of her sofa cushions and her clothing and her—were assaulting him, every part of him all at once.

Then she sighed a little. Her tongue touched the seam of his lips, and this was going to be it. He had already compromised his principles by being here at all. Now he was going to move beyond compromising them and throw them out the goddamn window. So much for a lifetime of careful discipline. This was how little it took to prove what kind of man he was.

But just as he groaned in surrender, she laid a palm against his cheek. In addition to being too soft for his stubbly face, it was cold. It delivered whatever was the opposite of a burn.

It shocked him back to his senses.

He grabbed it and pulled it down, then gently levered her away from him.

“Oh my God. I’m sorry.” She tried to pull her hand from his, but he held fast. “I misread this. I’m so sorry.” She closed her eyes against him, like he’d done with her a few moments ago, but in his case, it had been to try to stem the tide of lust. She, by contrast, was embarrassed. Mortified, even, he’d venture, given how red her face had turned.

He hated that. So he decided to tell her the truth. It wasn’t like it could make things any more awkward than they currently were. “No. No, you didn’t misread.”

Those pretty hazel eyes flew open, then darted down to their still-clasped hands.

He could feel his own face heating to match hers as he let go of her hands. “I mean, why else am I at the home of my interior designer on Friday night drinking wine and getting all cozy on the sofa?” He smirked, trying to lighten the bombshell confession he’d made. “The beige sofa?”

She pressed her lips together, doing that thing where she tried to suppress a smile. “Because you wanted to look at my samples?”

He wasn’t sure if she’d meant that as a double entendre or if he just had a dirty mind. Screw it, he was going to go with the dirty version. “I do want to look at your samples. Jesus Christ, Elise, I want to do more than look at them.”

Wary but interested, her eyes moved over his face like she was reading a book. “Why do I sense a but coming?”

He nodded and ran his fingers through his hair. “But you’re working for me.