Oh wow, flirting? Her?
He drew closer, far too sexy for her peace of mind in a black polo shirt and well-cut chinos. “Alone?”
“Alone.” She touched her bottom lip with the tip of her tongue. Flirting. Who knew she had it in her? “Unless I’m doing a life drawing, that is. Then it’s me and the model naked.”
His nostrils flared. His Adam’s apple jerked up and down his throat. “You’re teasing me now, aren’t you?”
She nodded. “A little. Sometimes I have my models keep their clothes—”
He didn’t let her say on. Instead, he curled his arm around her waist, flattened his palm to the small of her back and yanked her to his body, his lips capturing hers with a hunger she understood all too well.
All morning that same hunger had gnawed at her. She’d ached for him from the second she’d opened her eyes after a night’s sleep consisting of highly erotic dreams involving him and numerous activities even she would be hesitant to paint.
His hard body pressed to hers now, solid and warm and so very there. With her. He swept his tongue into her mouth, finding hers with demanding purpose. She whimpered, her body reacting to the possessive ferocity of his touch, his kiss.
Oh God, if she wasn’t careful, she’d do something embarrassing like strip his clothes from his body and impale herself on his—
He tore his lips from hers and gazed down into her eyes. “I’m sorry.” He smoothed his palm slowly up her back. “I didn’t mean to get quite so carried away.”
She laughed out a shaky breath. “I’ll forgive you. As long as I heard correctly that you did bring croissants?”
He grinned. Devilish delight glinted in his eyes. “Croissants are your sexual weakness? Good to know.”
“No, you are my—” She smacked her palm to her mouth. Crap, why did she go and blurt out something like that?
He chuckled and brushed his lips over hers. “Let’s go eat before Zachary comes looking for us.”
“Not going to do that,” Zachary shouted from somewhere nearby.
Heat flooded Sienna’s cheeks. James laughed.
“You are so going to get it, Zachary Francis Cornwell,” she shouted back, disengaging herself from James’s embrace.
An undeniable sense of loss and disappointment flowed through her at the lack of contact with his body. She drew a deep breath. She had to rein it in. One night. They’d only shared one night together—not even that. That didn’t make for a romantic, fairy-tale happy ever after. She had to remember that.
He’d also worked very hard at keeping her away from his sister last night at the gallery, which meant while he may want her sexually, he didn’t want her interacting with his family.
Yeah, so not the behavior of a man ready for a relationship. Sex with him was one thing. But anything other than that? Totally outside the realm of possibility.
They walked different paths with different ideals and goals.
Enjoy the sex and leave the fantasy for the art. No pain that way.
“C’mon.” She tempered the rapid beat of her heart. Well, tried to. “Let’s go eat. I baked muffins this morning. And Zach is cooking bacon and eggs.” She parted the curtain separating her studio from the rest of the warehouse, and raised her voice. “It’s not too late to run away now.”
“Bite me, sis,” Zach tossed over his shoulder from the kitchen without turning to face her. The smell of butter and bacon frying in a pan filled Sienna’s nose, and she smiled. Who would have thought Zach would actually be making breakfast? Contrary to everything she’d first believed, James was good not just for her, but her little family of two.
“Wow.” A tingling charge of electricity shot through her at the realization.
“Wow what?”
She caught her bottom lip with her teeth and shook her head, flicking him a quick look. “Nothing. Hungry?”
The light in his eyes told her he was. Just not for food.
“C’mon,” she said, not letting him answer.
She led him into the living area to where Zach had already laid out the table for breakfast. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled her nose, along with the delicious smell of hot buttered toast. Her mouth watered and a smile stretched her lips. In the middle of the table sat a plate piled high with croissants clearly from a bakery and not the supermarket down the road.