Grinning, he pressed his lips to her forehead. “Maybe, but I doubt anyone could hear that enough.”
His lips trailed over her cheek and down her neck. Faith hummed in pleasure. “Have I mentioned last night was the best night of my life, and that I can’t wait to get you naked again?”
“Maybe,” he murmured against her throat, gripped her ass with both hands and pulled her hips against his, making her groan. “But tell me again.” He lifted his head, brushed her hair off her forehead and cradled her jaw. “Tell me in a way you haven’t told me before.”
She sighed. Her gut ached. Her body yearned. Faith met his eyes. “Last night...opened a new chapter in my life. You make me feel...strong and treasured and beautiful in a way I’ve never felt before. You make me realize there’s more to life than Holly and St. Nicholas Hardware. I was starting to believe I wasn’t capable of handling things on my own. You changed that.”
His devilish smile had softened into a look of surprise. He didn’t say anything for a long moment, just searched her eyes. “Really?”
“Really.”
“I...don’t know what to say. No one’s ever...”
She shook her head and kiss him lightly. “Don’t say anything. You asked, I answered. Now let me go, so I can move the ladder. The sooner I get this done, the sooner I can get you back to bed. And I’m dying to get you back to bed.”
She stepped to the ground and turned toward the ladder. Gripping the sides, she pulled it carefully away from the house.
Grant’s hands covered hers and pushed the ladder back against the house with a clatter.
“Grant...” she said, annoyed.
She cut a look over her shoulder just as one of his arms circled her waist and hauled her up against him, forcing all the air from her lungs. But there was no mistaking the erection pressed against the curve of her ass. Or the rasp of desire in his voice when he put his lips to her temple and said, “Why wait?”
Faith fought to pull her gray matter back together. “Why wait for what?”
“To take the edge off that need.”
She groaned and rubbed against him. “Because you have practice in half an hour, I have to close the store, and there are lights hanging off Dwayne’s roof. If you’d stop distracting me, I’d get it done.”
“If you let me do it, it would get done faster.”
“Says you.”
“I don’t want you up on that ladder in the dark.”
“Same. And you need to let your shoulder rest. You’re supposed to be recuperating, remember?”
“I stopped by another store while I was in Ashland.” One of his hands moved lower, pressed between her legs and closed over her sex.
Shock and excitement twined and skipped through her chest. She sucked a breath and rocked away from his hand, only to meet with more pressure behind her from his hips...and that iron swell. “Grant, Dwayne’s going to be home soon.” She glanced around the front yard, to the quiet street and the houses with lights shining in the windows surrounding them. “And we’re in public.”
“Don’t you want to know which store?”
He gripped her sex tighter and all the built up lust from the last twenty-four hours spilled between her legs. A groan ebbed from Faith’s throat.
“Naughty,” he whispered with wicked glee at her ear. “Bet you didn’t even know it was there. I swear it was like a speakeasy, the front door off an alley and unmarked.”
He clenched and released her sex as he spoke, and within thirty seconds, Faith was dizzy with the same clawing need he’d instilled in her the night before.
Without warning, his hand disappeared from between her legs, and while a minute ago all she’d been able to think about was getting him to stop, now all she could think about was getting his touch back.
The man seriously messed with her mind.
“I want to show you one of the little treats I picked up for you.”
While he reached into his pocket, Faith forced her head clear. She pushed at his arm wrapped around her waist, but he held her in a vice. And the more she moved, the more she rubbed his erection, exciting them both.
“I want to see it,” she told him, “after I’m done with the lights.”