“It’s Zach. And I’m not going to turn into the Big Bad Wolf.”
She could feel herself blushing.
“I know. But—”
“But, yes, I’m flirting with you.”
She wasn’t just blushing, she was turning crimson.
“I wish you wouldn’t.”
“Why?”
Why? Why? What kind of question was that?
“Mister…Zach. See, I’m not terribly good at this.”
“Guys must come on to you all the time.”
“I never—I don’t—”
“You don’t encourage it.”
She nodded. The tip of her tongue slid over her bottom lip. There was nothing coy or kittenish in the gesture and suddenly he knew that she was telling him the truth. She didn’t encourage this kind of thing, God only knew why, and he was a rat for doing this to her.
She’d told him, in every way imaginable, that she didn’t play around.
He was thirty-four.
He’d been with a lot of women, probably more than most men. No immodesty there, just simple honesty.
The thing was, he could read women pretty well. Be honest, Castelianos. He could read women extremely well.
This one was beautiful. Incredibly beautiful, and an amazing combination of tough and tender, and he could think of a thousand ways to kill the time it would take for the power to come on again.
And yes, he believed her when she said she didn’t play at hooking up.
He could change that in a heartbeat.
He’d caught her watching him. Felt her eyes following his every motion. He’d noticed the little blip in her pulse rate when he’d taken her hand and led her down the stairs.
Most of all, he’d felt the way she’d settled into his arms out there on that dark landing, the way she’d pressed her face against his throat and all but given herself up to him.
It had been enough to drive him crazy.
Earlier, before the power outage, he’d been fooling around. A man. A woman. Alone, obviously sharing an attraction to each other. Why not take it to the next logical step? Dinner, some wine, then a tumble into his bed.
Now…
Now, somehow, things had changed.
She’d gone from being a desirable woman to one he wanted with an ache so deep in his belly, it was almost a pain.
He’d been without a woman for a while. That was part of it, but there was more to it than that. There was something about this woman, something in her toughness, her sweetness…
Her—for lack of a better word—her innocence.