Explosive Alliance (Wingmen Warriors 9)

"I know a lot about singing." And, yeah, every nerve in him was shouting out a chorus while his pulse pounded percussion. He started to reach for her glasses so they could take this kiss to a deeper level...and paused. Things were getting out of hand fast, on her front porch for crying out loud, like he was a teenager.

His forehead fell to rest against hers. "Damn it, I swore to myself I wouldn't do that while I was here."

She stiffened in his arms. "Gee, thanks."

He palmed her back, skimming circles of reassurance even though he knew they couldn't take this any further. "You know why."

"Seems to me there were two of us doing that." Her hand slid around to splay against his chest, shadows smudging her eyes in the dim porch light. "Are you playing me?"

What the hell had he done to deserve that comment? He'd been damn near a freaking saint around her until now, all things considered. Well, a saint with mighty devilish thoughts about what she wore to bed each night and how much fun it would be to strip each item off, but he hadn't acted on the fantasies.

Time out.

He forced himself to remember the woman had more emotional baggage than a luggage terminal. "No games, I swear you're—"

"Never mind." She clapped her hand over his mouth. "It's a stupid question. If you are playing me, you wouldn't admit it."

He gripped her wrist and gently lowered her touch away. "I have done more than my fair share of things I'm not proud of over the years, but I'm not a liar." He linked his fingers through hers and held tight. "And I am absolutely telling the truth when I say I've never been as tempted as I am right now. Painfully so."

Her eyes widened right before her gaze fell...to his lap. He fought against the urge to groan until she looked up again, eyes wider. "Oh, my. Ouch."

"Yeah." Ouch about summed it up.

A smile teased along her pretty lips. "Gives total-package-with-bow-and-presents a whole new meaning."

Surprise jolted a short burst of laughter out of him. "The girl next door has a racy sense of humor."

An image of her in a cotton nightshirt with a silky red thong underneath blazed to life. He was so toast.

She eased out of his arms and slumped against the porch swing, hugging herself, his jacket swallowing her. "Don't let the glasses and wide eyes fool you. This girl next door has had to learn not to care what other people think. Anything I do these days is for my daughter or for myself."

Her words squeezed his heart tight in his chest. Hooking an elbow on the back of the swing, he stroked a stray hair from her brow, the satin of her skin gliding along his calluses. "You deserved better from life."

"Did I? Maybe. Maybe not." She angled her cheek into his hand. "Couldn't we just have a raging affair?"

God, was he ever tempted, more than he could remember being, but... "You deserve better from me."

Rolling her eyes, she sighed, "Heaven protect me from men who think they know what's best for my life." She pressed a kiss into his palm before gripping his wrist to ease his hand away. "Being the girl-next-door type sure does suck sometimes."

"Lady, I meant what I said. You are the hottest damned woman I've ever laid eyes on. But quite frankly, those wide brown eyes of yours scare the crap out of me." And wasn't that more truth than he'd even realized until the words fell out of his mouth? "Do you hear what I'm saying? You're not the kind I would just have an affair with."

More truth than he wanted to admit to himself, but the words were out there in the night air, porch light illuminating her shock. No mistaking it.

"Whoa, wait." She startled upright, rocking the swing. "You're not actually saying you want us to try—"

Was he? Hell, no. This wasn't a woman to mess with on any level if he wanted to look himself in the mirror in the morning with a clear conscience. "I realize that's out of the question. But if things were different, the past, the present, too—yeah, I would want to ask you out on a real date and not some half-assed groping on a porch."

He let himself spin out the fantasy date in the same way he'd spun other fantasies about her, not wise, but a small compensation for painful denial. "I would take you to dinner and talk to you, get to know you better. And sure, I'd start hoping that you would stay over for the night. But if not, that's okay. I could wait because we would be going out again."

She traced a thumb along his neck, gently rasping a fingernail over his late-day beard.

"Where would we go?"

"What?" He blinked twice to clear the throbbing need from one innocent touch.

"Where would we go on the second date?" Her hand fell away and she wrapped her arms tighter around her waist again, burrowing her chin into the collar of his jacket as if sinking into the fantasy date along with him.

"For a second date I would ask if it's okay to include your daughter on the outing. If you said yes—"