He barked out a bitter laugh and pushed his plate away before sliding over Lila’s abandoned seat. Right beside me. “I thought I was but after talking to Cassie I realized that what I was doing, was teaching my daughter to be scared. To live scared.” He shook his head. “That’s not the lesson I want her to learn Tara. I was wrong.”
“You weren’t.”
“I was.” His words came out strong. Firm. Decided. “I want Lila to lead a big full life and part of that is risking heartache and I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but my little girl has a heart as big as Texas.”
“I’ve noticed. We should all hope to be so brave.”
“Exactly what I was thinking.”
I nodded as understanding dawned. “So we can be friends, you and me and me and Lila.” I ignored the disappointment that came instantly and tried for a smile I didn’t quite feel. “I’m in.”
“You and Lila can be friends, but you have to know we can never be friends.”
Ouch, but okay.
“Not just friends, anyway.” His gaze darkened and I realized his intent about a moment before his lips crashed into mine.
I gasped and pulled back. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to kiss the hell out of you if you’d stop running away.” To prove his point, Chris pulled my chair closer and bracketed my hips with his hands. “Come here.”
“But, Lila-,”
“Is watching some show with dancing and singing teens, we’re good. Anymore objections?” Before I could tell him that yeah, I had a few more objections, his lips were on mine again and all I could think about was that no man should taste like pepperoni and cheese, especially one as potently masculine as Chris Jacobs.
He tasted like pizza and heaven, which in my book were kind of the same thing, and he kissed me like I was the oxygen he required to sustain life. Like I was a glass of ice water after a long hot day in the Texas sun. It was intoxicating to be kissed so thoroughly, with so much want and need. Chris held my face like I was precious to him and slanted his mouth across mine, teasing my lips with his tongue until I opened up.
Until I let him in.
The kiss went on and on, his fingers sliding into my hair and massaging my scalp while my hands roamed the expanse of his chest and down to his midsection. He was hard in all the right places and my hands enjoyed the journey down to the waistband of his jeans and then his zipper.
Chris inhaled deeply and pulled back, hazel eyes dark—almost black—with desire, lips slick from my kisses and his chest heaving with exertion. “As much as I want you to touch me, we can’t. Not tonight.”
Lila. Just one kiss from this man and I was ready to toss my clothes aside with his daughter less than fifteen feet away. “Right.” I shook my head, trying to free it of all lusty thoughts where this man was concerned. Dang but he could scramble my brains like no other, which was exactly the reason I needed to keep my distance. “We shouldn’t be doing this anyway.”
He sighed and ran his fingers down the length of my hair. “We just talked about this, Tara.”
“No, you talked and I listened. And disagreed.”
“That didn’t feel like disagreement to me.”
I let out a long sigh that was half growl because I wanted this man just as much, if not more, than I wanted to strangle him. “I didn’t say that I didn’t want you, Chris. It’s clear we desire each other.”
“I don’t just desire you, Tara. I want to devour you. I want to lay you out and kiss your body, please you until you scream my name and beg me to give you what we both want.” I let out a shuddery breath at the heat and specificity of his words. My nostrils flared and my hands shook. “But I also want to curl up on the sofa with you and watch a movie. Argue with you about who’s the better Law & Order detective team.”
I snorted and laugh and shook my head. “Benson and Stabler, hands down.” But that wasn’t the point here, I couldn’t let him charm me. Again. “That’s not what you said last week, Chris and the week before that you said something else. I don’t think you know what you want.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I was confused and sure, maybe I was a little scared too, of trusting again. But I’m sure now.”
“You were sure before too. So sure that you were angry that your daughter wanted to come see me in the hospital. After I’d been hit by a truck.” Okay that was a little dramatic, it was just a small SUV but that was, technically, a truck.