The anger built the longer he considered her comment, which was probably why, when he did speak, the question came out surlier than he’d intended. “And what the hell does that mean?”
She placed a soft kiss on his mouth. “Nothing.”
Something. But he’d better not push her. He’d already opened a can of thought best left sealed.
“You want to check off the list and walk away,” he said, reiterating her original request. He’d been all for that—still was all for it. But those two words “walk away” niggled at him. Why? Because your list is ongoing and can’t be completely checked off.
“Exactly,” she said, her expression stoic. She slid her hand higher on his thigh. “Back home?”
His heart gave the faintest clench. He knew she was referring to his home, not hers. For a short period of time it’d been her home as well. In her mind, maybe it still was her home. In the interim.
The realization warmed him. Even though it shouldn’t.
* * *
Kimber pulled the sheet over her breasts as Landon held on to a corner to cover his bare butt. He arranged himself on the balcony sofa, head resting on the back of it, chest glistening with sweat in the moonlight.
“I can’t believe we did that out here,” she said, lifting a lock of hair from her forehead. She sent a furtive glance at the buildings surrounding them and prayed no one had equipped their window with a telescope. She’d seen a movie like that once.
“We had to,” he said, his voice low and deep and damn sexy. “It was number five.”
“And we have to go in order.”
He turned his head and smiled at her, the sight of his straight, white teeth and faint, light brown stubble on his jaw nearly undoing her. And she was pretty well undone as it was. “Are you making fun of me?”
A little. She widened her eyes innocently. “Not at all.”
“We stayed under the sheet.” And the couch didn’t face the surrounding buildings, which, hopefully, had thwarted any would-be voyeur neighbors. “Worried your ass is going to be on YouTube?” he asked.
A joke. At his expense. She’d pegged his sense of humor. Finally. “Mine? You were on top. I’m safe.”
His throat bobbed when he laughed. He looked as sexy without his glasses as he had with them. She honestly had no idea which look she preferred. Suited up, bespectacled, fresh-home-from-work Landon or stripped-down, easy smile, relaxed Landon. Given that her heart ached as she watched him now, all disheveled and relaxed, she considered the buttoned-up version of him might offer safer passage out of this affair. Then again, he’d lost the ability to look foreboding and intimidating in that suit long ago. Because she knew him now. She knew what was under that no-nonsense powerhouse. A warm, smiling, laughing man whom she liked way too much.
He tugged the sheet, dragging it dangerously low and nearly exposing her breasts. Before she flashed the world—at least a section of Lake Shore Drive—her 34 Bs, she clutched the sheet to her chest.
“We should go in,” he said. “Take care of six.”
Anticipation thrummed low in her stomach. “I don’t see how it could possibly be better than five,” she lied. Everything had been pretty darn phenomenal, each experience better than the last. She took solace that there were five more items to tick off the list.
What happens when we reach ten?
Ignoring the voice in the back of her head busily proving Mick right—that she wasn’t cut out for this—she allowed Landon to help her stand. He kept her wrapped in the sheet against them as they went inside. The heated press of their nude bodies had her sighing, anxious for more of him already.
“My room,” he murmured.
They kissed their way through the house, stopping to untangle the sheet from their feet. At one point, she tripped and he caught her, bracing a hand against the wall to keep them both from crashing to the hardwood floor.
“That’s it.” He lifted her into his arms, yanking the sheet from her body.
“No! I’m too heavy!” She covered her face with her hands when he cradled her.
He adjusted his grip, his muscles bunching against her body. “Shut up.” Showing annoyingly little exertion for his efforts, he carried her down the hallway and dropped her onto her feet on his bedroom floor. His gaze danced over her bare body. The light wasn’t on, and the room, washed in darkness, made her bolder than usual. She straightened her spine, pushed her breasts out. Landon kissed her so softly, so slowly, and so thoroughly, she melted into him and forgot all about the list.