Hard to Handle (Love in the Balance 2)

Aiden had crossed behind the car and approached, his hand out. His brows raised in surprise when he saw her standing there, seething. She forced her shoulders to relax.

“I was going to get your door for you.” He studied her a little too intently, the quirk of his lips a little too bemused. “Something wrong?”

Other than a gross overreaction I can’t explain? No, nothing at all.

What had she planned on doing anyway? Bursting out of the car and demanding he kiss her before he left to go home? “I need to get something else.” She gestured to Axle’s. “Inside.” Worst lie ever. She’d be amazed if he bought it. “If you don’t mind.”

“Sure.” He paced to the door as he dug in his pocket for the keys. Giving her a final wary (disbelieving?) glance before unlocking the store, he shut off the alarm code and let her in.

So. Here they were. Sadie made a show of looking for the imaginary “something” she needed badly enough to insist on coming in. She vanished behind a shelf to collect herself. Boxes were lined up in neat rows, the front window display orderly. There wasn’t so much as a discarded pen or scrap of paper lying around.

She crossed to the counter, where Aiden leaned against the cash register, waiting for her. There, peeking out of a drawer was a form. A Midwest price sheet. Good enough. She came behind the counter, latched on to a corner, and pulled it free.

“Here it is,” she announced brightly. Now she could leave with her dignity intact.

“You needed your own price guide?” Doubt clouded Aiden’s eyes. Evidently, his BS-o-meter was in working order.

“I…” Sadie flagged. “I don’t have one at home. I don’t want to go back to the office.”

Aiden’s expression said he wasn’t buying it. Was it too late to pretend she was drunk? She could stumble to the front door. Of course, then he would offer to drive her home and she’d get to replay that Will he kiss me or not? nightmare all over again.

“Well, if you have everything you need…” he drawled. The low timbre of his voice galloped down her rib cage like a troupe of Riverdancers.

He didn’t mean to speak so seductively. She must have imagined it. Like she imagined the hand that looked a lot like hers fisting the front of his shirt. Like she imagined the voice that sounded like a huskier version of her own, saying, There was one more thing.

Only it wasn’t her imagination.

Sadie’s out-of-body experience ended the moment she pressed her lips against Aiden’s for a very solid, full-on lip smash of a kiss. It was a little longer than the peck she’d given him at Rick’s party. And a lot more needy. She pulled back and flattened her hand against his solid chest, her stomach flopping like a dying fish.

With a clumsy smile she hoped would disguise her rattling nerves, she said, “Thanks for driving.” She’d taken one step toward the finish line—the glowing red EXIT sign over the front door—when Aiden caught her wrist.

“No, no, no,” he said as he brought her to stand before him again. “That was not an acceptable good-night kiss.”

Embarrassed, Sadie blurted out the first thing that popped into her head. “Why not? What was wrong with it?”

He clasped on to her other wrist and tugged her close, so close her thighs bumped his. “Wrong is such a harsh word.”

Sadie heard herself snort-laugh, not because it was funny but because her nerves were rattling like a game of Boggle. “Like you can do better?” she asked, her voice weak and edgy.

His grin was slow, sliding into place as he held her eyes. “Definitely.”

He released her wrists and skimmed his palms down her sides to the flare of her hips. His hot palms burned through her jeans as he bent and gripped the backs of her thighs. She sucked in a breath of anticipation at what might come next.

“Up,” he breathed into her ear.

He lifted her and Sadie let out a yelp of surprise and gripped his neck for support. Aiden deposited her on top of the counter. She pulled her arms from his neck and attempted to put them at her sides. She bumped the cash register with one wrist and the credit card machine with the other before giving up and holding them in front of her awkwardly.

Aiden’s lips twisted in amusement. “Like you haven’t kissed me before,” he teased, moving her hands back to his neck.

“That was a long time ago,” she said quietly, heart pounding.

With her arms locked around him, their faces inches apart, there was nowhere to look but into his eyes. Eyes erased of the trace of humor they’d held earlier, replaced by a deep, dark want she knew reflected in her own. Aiden wrapped one of her ankles around his waist, then the other, and tugged her until her butt was at the edge of the countertop. His big body settled between her legs. She crossed her feet around him, her breasts brushing against the front of his shirt, her body humming with excitement.