“I should ask you the same thing. If you’d relax your brain for a minute, we could avoid all this.”
“Avoid what? Psychoanalyzing each other under the table?”
“Hell no. That’s the part about us that turns me on the most.”
“There’s no us,” she said and looked away. Her cheeks flushed again, planting the strangest desire to put his lips on that pink spot. “What happened to being friends?”
“Would it make things easier for you to stick a label on this thing between us? I’m okay with calling us friends if you are. But be prepared for an extra dose of friendliness.”
She snorted. “Let’s skip the labels.”
“Agreed. With all the labels off the table, let’s just see what happens if I do this.”
He tipped her chin up and drew her lips close, a hairbreadth from his, letting her get used to the idea before committing.
Her whole body stilled.
He wanted Elise-on-Fire, as she’d been on the couch the first time he’d kissed her, before she freaked out. And he felt not one iota of remorse in pushing her buttons in order to get her there.
“Scared?” he murmured against her lips. “Wanna go home and watch Blade Runner for the four-thousandth time?”
“Not with you,” she shot back, grazing his mouth as she enunciated, and it was such a deliberate tease, it shouldn’t have sent a long, dark spike of lust through his gut.
He pulled back a fraction, gratified when she swayed after him. “Rather do something else with me? All you have to do is ask.”
Her irises flared, and he fell into the chocolaty depths. The expanse between them was an ocean, an eternity, the length of the universe, and he wanted to close the gap in the worst way. Holding back hurt. Badly. But he wanted to see if she’d take the plunge.
“Dax,” she murmured and her breath fanned his face as she slid both hands on either side of his jaw. “There is something I want to do with you. Something I’ve been thinking about for a long time.”
Whatever it was, he’d do it. This not-quite-a-kiss had him so thoroughly hot it was a wonder he didn’t spontaneously combust. “What’s that, sweetheart?”
“I want to beat you at your own game,” she whispered and the gap vanished.
Hungrily, she devoured him, tongue slick against his, claiming it masterfully. Her hands guided his head to angle against her mouth more deeply, and fire shot through his groin, nearly triggering a premature release the likes of which he’d not had to fight back in almost two decades.
Groaning, he tried to gain some control, but she eased him backward, hands gliding along his chest like poetry, fingers working beneath the hem to feel him up, and he couldn’t stand it.
“Elise,” he growled as she nipped at his ear. At the same moment, her fingernails scraped down his abs. White-hot lust zigzagged through the southern hemisphere.
They were in public. On purpose—to prevent anything too out-of-control from happening. Of course Elise had smashed that idea to smithereens.
He firmed his mouth and slowed it down. Way down. Languorously, he tasted her as he would fine wine and she softened under his kiss.
Emboldened now that he had the upper hand, he palmed the small of her back and hefted her torso against his. She moaned and angled her head to suck him in deeper, and he nearly lost his balance. Shifting to the back of the bench, he gripped her tighter, losing himself in the wave of sensations until he hardly knew which way was up.
They either needed to stop right now or take this behind closed doors. He pulled back reluctantly with a butterfly caress of his mouth against her temple.
It had to be the former. It was the middle of the day; he had to get back to work and see about the mess he’d left behind. She probably needed time to assess. Analyze. Work through her checklists and talk herself off the ledge.
Breathing hard, she pursed kiss-stung lips and peered at him under seductively lowered lashes. “Did I win?”
Eight
They held hands as they strolled back to Elise’s office and she reveled in every moment of it. Dax didn’t pause by his car, clearly intending to walk her all the way back inside. Maybe he was caught up in the rush and reluctant to part ways, too.
Wouldn’t that be something? Dax Wakefield affected by Elise Arundel.
What was she doing with him?
For once, she had no idea and furthermore, didn’t care. Or at least she didn’t right now. Dax had a magic mouth, capable of altering her brain activity.