“Do you want me to write about it?”
“Do you want me to kiss you?”
The gauntlet had been thrown down. And Grace could either run from it and let her massive amount of man issues push him away, or she could …
And then there was no more thinking as they both reached for each other, their mouths meeting hungrily, her fingers tangling in his hair as his hands found her waist.
Dimly Grace thought of the cab driver and the free show he was getting, but for the first time in her life, she didn’t care about being proper or appropriate. She didn’t care that her mother would probably faint at the thought of her daughter indulging in a PDA, and she didn’t care that kissing Jake definitely violated her no-man rule.
She only cared about the way his lips fit perfectly over hers, the way his tongue slid against hers in hot, lingering strokes. One of his arms pulled her closer, his fingers splaying over the small of her back, his hand hot through the thin fabric of her dress.
He broke away only long enough to nudge her chin to the side so he had access to her neck, and if they hadn’t fogged up the windows before, they did now, because the hot, wet kisses against her neck were just about the best thing she’d felt in way too long.
Grace tugged at Jake’s hair, bringing his mouth back to hers as the cab started moving again. She poured herself into the kiss, and had his hands not held her waist steady, she would have crawled on top of him to get closer, dignity be damned.
It was Jake who came to his senses first, gently pulling her back, although his heavy breathing told her he didn’t set her aside easily. “We’re here.”
“What?” she asked, already loathing the separation.
He smiled. “We’re at your apartment.”
Oh. Oh. Mortified to realize that they were parked outside her building—had possibly been parked for quite some time—Grace adjusted her skirt even as she fumbled for her wallet.
And she absolutely refused to glance at the rearview mirror. No way could she meet this cab driver’s eyes.
Jake put a warm hand over hers. “I’ve got this. I’ll pay him after he takes me back to my place.”
Grace was both relieved and disappointed that he didn’t even make a token effort to prolong their evening. What would she have said if he’d asked to come up?
Then she pictured Jake peeling her dress over her head. His hand finding her bra clasp, his lips finding her—
“Grace?”
“Right,” she breathed. “Right.”
She reached for the door handle. “Goodnight.”
His eyes roamed her face, his expression more serious than she would have expected. He opened his mouth, and for a second she thought he was going to ask to come up after all. She held her breath.
Then the cabbie made some impatient muttering noise, and the moment slid away, Jake’s soft expression disappearing behind his usual easy smile. “Night, Brighton.”
That wasn’t her heart sinking at his flippant tone. Really, it wasn’t.
“Malone,” she said, keeping her voice cheeky rather than longing. At that, 2.0 breathed a sigh of relief. “You should work on your kissing technique. Stiletto has a few articles you could read. I’ll email you.”
She heard his chuckle even as she got out of the cab and closed the door with a saucy wink as her farewell.
Grace refused to turn around and stare after the cab, but when she felt her phone vibrate, she let herself get her hopes up that it would be a text message from Jake.
She wasn’t disappointed.
You seemed to like my technique just fine.
She rolled her eyes as she typed her response. Cocky.
He wrote back immediately. Maybe. Horny? Definitely.
Grace was smiling as she started to slide her phone back into her purse, but then it buzzed again and she wasn’t smiling so much as swooning at his next message.