No way in hell, she thought, taking a step back. Not him.
She didn’t have the time for men right now. And she didn’t have the experience with men to tangle with a guy like Marco DeLuca—ever.
Her first thought was to grab her oranges and run. Then she remembered that Marc loved food almost as much as she did. That she still hadn’t figured out what was wrong with her sauce. And that she was tired of running from men.
Sexy hum or not.
She grabbed a dark-chocolate bar from her basket and broke off a square. “Open up.” He did, and she shoved it in his mouth. “Now smell this.” She placed the Valencia orange to his nose.
“It smells really”—he cracked a smile—“orangey.”
“Orangey? That all you’ve got?”
“Fruity?” He shrugged matter-of-factly, but his eyes were twinkling with humor.
“Never mind, smell this.” She grabbed the sour orange and put it to his nose.
His nostrils flared, and he scrunched up his face. Dang it. Why was this so hard? She was picking out an acid for her sauce, for God’s sake. It was Cooking 101.
“What were you hoping for?”
“Well, not fruity or orangey, and definitely not—” She mimicked his disgusted expression, and he laughed. “I was hoping for more tart, I guess. It’s for a sauce to go over a pepper-crusted lamb chop.”
He turned the bill of his cap backward and surveyed the choices. Lexi was too busy trying not to survey him to notice how many varieties of oranges the store offered.
“How about this?” He broke off a chunk of chocolate and held it to her mouth. When she didn’t open, he teased it across the seam of her lips until she parted them on a gasp. He slid the chocolate in and she nearly moaned, because of the chocolate or the fluttering going on in her girly region, she didn’t know.
Marc reached behind him, and when he turned back around, he stared down at her with those intense brown eyes and cocked a brow. She figured what the hell and opened.
“Oh my God,” she moaned, savoring the bitter and tart and dissecting each individual taste. “Is that a kumquat? I never would have thought to add that. It’s incredible.”
“Yes, you would have. You made me a chocolate cake with these things on the top for my eighteenth birthday.”
She had. How had she forgotten that? And why had he remembered?
“How many do you need?” he asked, smiling smugly.
“About twenty, I guess. They’re so small.”
Marc bagged her citrus and dropped it in her basket. Bending over, he grabbed the handles and strode off—with her groceries.
“What are you doing?” She followed behind him.
“What else do you need?” He didn’t slow down.
“What I need is to carry my own basket to the counter and pay so I can get home.”
“Great, checkout it is.” He never broke his stride and wouldn’t give up the basket.
“Fine,” she conceded, looking at his groceries, “but I need a few things first.”
CHAPTER 3
Marc smiled as she led him around the store, those heels of hers slapping the ground and a delicate, feminine scent lingering behind her. “A few things” didn’t even begin to describe what she was buying. She loaded up the basket with a loaf of herbed focaccia bread, a block of wasabi gouda, adding an apple and some kind of bone that Biff wrapped specially for her. He had no idea what she was going to use it for, a broth maybe, but the way she carried it instead of dropping it in the basket told him that it was important.
Then she added in a jar of fig preserves, and Marc wondered what he was doing. He had run into the store to grab a quick lunch, which he’d done. And now he was good to go.
Hell, he needed to go. Needed to get out of this store. Away from Lexi before he did something that he wouldn’t be proud of—like break man law and kiss his best friend’s ex-wife.
Plus, instead of playing “carry the hot girl’s books to class” he should be in the truck, halfway out of town already. He’d promised a buddy in Sonoma that he’d drive over the hill and pick up ten cases of wine slated for the Showdown wine tasting.
He’d been looking forward to getting out of town since last week. No office meant no e-mail, no phone calls, no BS. Just him, his dog, and a winding country road.
Then he saw Lexi in that sundress and those shoes, looking