Kyla didn’t hesitate; she lifted her flour-covered hands and clasped his head, kissing him back with a hunger of her own. It was almost as if they were both breaking a long, torturous fast.
Driven almost mad with his desire for her, Tanner lifted her up and set her on the counter, his h*ps quickly seeking out relief between her thighs. He drew her forward and cradled her sweet, hot core between his legs. He leaned in, needing her to know how desperate he was for her, if she didn’t know already.
She tugged on his hair and pressed against him; both of them groaned as their tongues danced. Tanner ran his hand down her back, slipped his fingers beneath the hem of her shirt and moved it upward.
Silk.
That’s what her skin felt like — pure silk. He trailed his hand up, caressing the fine muscles of her back, splaying his fingers wide against her flesh. As she whimpered into his mouth, he leaned back just a bit and moved his hand around her rib cage, his thumb brushing the underside of her breast with his thumb.
Yes! Yessssss…
Without further hesitation, he cupped that luscious mound, feeling her soft skin through the tiny lace bra she was wearing.
Perfect.
She was absolutely perfect, fitting just right in the palm of his hand. He wanted the fabric out of his way, wanted to taste the sweet peaks of her br**sts, needed her to be lying beneath him. He reached down, preparing to pull her shirt over her head, when a loud beeping startled him. Kyla edged away, staring at him sightlessly.
“I’m sorry. That got out of hand,” she whispered.
Tanner found himself leaning against the counter, his body throbbing as he looked at the space she’d been filling only moments before. Turning toward her, he saw her hands shaking as she pulled a hot pan from the oven and set it on the stovetop.
“Why don’t you just turn off the oven so we can continue what we started?” he said, coming up behind her and running his hands down her sides to rest on her hips.
She shuddered in his arms, then bent forward and gripped the front of the stove. Tanner took the opportunity to slide his mouth seductively down the curve of her neck.
“I can’t,” she said, wriggling out of his embrace and turning around to look at him.
“I don’t understand, Kyla.” He wasn’t going to let her off the hook without an explanation.
“I don’t want to have sex, Tanner.” She couldn’t be any clearer than that. “If you want to leave, I understand.”
At first, he had to contend with the slightest edge of irritation. She was lying. It was more than obvious that she did indeed want to have sex. Why was she fighting him so hard? It wasn’t as if either one of them was a virgin. When two people felt a mutual attraction, shouldn’t they just do what their bodies were meant to do? Get na**d and get it on, right?
“Yes, you do,” he finally replied when the silence had stretched on for too long.
“No. I know you probably think I’m nothing but a tease, but I don’t want to have sex. I just…”
She trailed off as if she didn’t know what she wanted. But he wasn’t worried. He knew what she wanted. He could think for the both of them.
He leaned against her, taking her chin with his fingers and lifting her head so she was forced to look at him. “If you want to wait a while longer, I’ll wait.”
He was bowled over when those words exited his mouth. That hadn’t been what he’d intended to say. But when a shocked but grateful expression entered her eyes, he knew he’d said the right thing. He leaned down and kissed her chastely, and then backed up. He absolutely couldn’t keep touching her right now or he would quickly have her back up on the counter.
“I brought wine,” he said, going back to the door and grabbing the bottle he’d left just inside the door, where he’d hastily set the bottle his assistant had brought to him at his request.
Kyla looked a little unsure, but after a couple of seconds, she went to her cupboard and pulled out two glasses.
“I don’t have fancy wineglasses, but I’m sure it will taste the same no matter what we drink it from,” she said with a self-conscious giggle.
“Of course it will,” he said, though some experts claimed that the shape of the glass could influence wine’s flavor and aroma. No need to point that out. Could he taste or smell anything but her? Not bloody likely. So he poured the wine and asked, “What can I do to help?” He leaned against the counter as she began taking the cookies off the pan and setting them on wax paper.
“You can stay out of the way so I can finish up in here.”
“Have you forgotten that I’m a master chef, Kyla?”
“I haven’t forgotten that, but this is my cooking time, and I don’t like to be shown up.”
With a grin, Tanner grabbed a couple of the cookies, taking a big bite from one and groaning his approval. “Oh, this is good,” he mumbled. Once he’d swallowed, he popped the rest of the cookie in his mouth.
He saw the delight in her eyes at his compliment, and though she scolded him, telling him to quit eating all the cookies, she put a glass of milk in front of him and said he needed it to wash them down. Cookies and wine just didn’t have the same flair.
“Who taught you how to bake?” he asked when his mouth was finally empty.
“My mother,” she said quietly, and her eyes drooped.
He shouldn’t, but he really wanted to know her full story, know what had happened a couple of years ago. Yes, he could look it up, find out the information from a second party, but that’s not what he wanted. He wanted her to tell him, to share with him. She’d given him only a small snippet so far.
“You know you can talk to me about it if you need to.”
“Why would you want to listen to my drama?” Kyla was trying to make a joke here, but it was falling flat.
“Sometimes it’s easier to talk to someone you don’t know real well, someone who wasn’t there.”
“I may eventually take you up on that offer,” she said before pausing. “If you’re still around.”
She said that last part with a disappointment that lingered, and Tanner suddenly felt himself wanting to be around long enough for her to trust him.
But he wouldn’t be. They both knew that. Tanner wasn’t the type of man who stayed in the trenches too long. Yes, he’d had his moments in his life when he found himself among the masses, but those times didn’t last. There were a couple of kinds of people in this world, and he was certainly on the top of the list.