“You didn’t go through with it?”
“No, I…couldn’t.” His cheeks pinked a bit. “And I’m glad I couldn’t.”
My palms got clammy and joy surged through me. He did desire me—I knew that—but now I knew it was different for him than it had been with anyone else. I’d known that for a while in my heart, and even by what he told me, but to hear him say the words—the actual words. They were more captivating than the western slope orange-and-pink sunset before us.
I took a sip of my wine, the spiciness a wonderful complement to the sweet corn and robust pork of the tamales. Talon watched me eat, but I had long gotten over being self-conscious around him. He’d seen me in every position possible.
“Those tamales are the bomb, aren’t they?” he said.
I nodded, swallowing another mouthful. “I do miss Felicia’s cooking. That’s for sure.”
“You can always come back.”
“We’ve had this discussion, Talon. You kicked me out.”
“And I told you, I regret doing that.”
“I believe you. I really do. But something happened to you that night, and until you deal with it, I don’t think I should be here. At least not on a permanent basis. I mean, I’ll come by. To see Marj.”
“Just to see Marj?”
Did he want me to say I wanted to see him? Of course I always wanted to see him. But I still didn’t know where we stood. Other than the amazing sexual chemistry, I wasn’t sure what was between us. I knew my feelings, but I didn’t know his…and I wasn’t sure he did either. “I’m always happy to see you. You know that.”
“Good. I’d like for us to have dinner sometime.”
The last time he asked me to dinner… That was the night he went crazy on me and kicked me out of this house. So I decided to play it light. “Isn’t that what we’re doing right now?”
“Touché,” he said. “Seriously, I’d like to take you to dinner.”
“You mean in your bedroom, like last time?” I said boldly.
He cleared his throat. “No. I want to take you out on…”
He really couldn’t even say the word, could he? “A date? You want to take me on a date, Talon?”
He looked down at the table, his head bobbing.
“Is that a yes?” Damn it, I was going to make him say it.
“Yes,” he said under his breath.
“Fine. Then look me in the eye and ask me out. Like a man.”
He lifted his head up, and his dark eyes were blazing with fire. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“I want you to ask me out.”
“You said ‘like a man.’” He clenched his hands into fists.
“Well…yeah.”
He rose with such force that the wrought-iron chair he’d been sitting in toppled over. He advanced around the table, grabbed my arm, and yanked me to my feet.
“I’ll show you what a man I can be.” He crushed his lips down onto mine.
I opened for him without meaning to. I would always respond to him, whether I wanted to or not. He plunged his tongue into my mouth and took. This was the kind of kiss I was used to getting from Talon. And even though I’d loved the kisses the other night that had been soft giving, this kind of kiss fueled my desire for him like no other. He broke the kiss with a loud smack and trailed little nips and bites on my neck and up to my earlobe, where he tugged. “Look at what you do to me, blue eyes,” he whispered. “Do you want me to be a man for you? You want me to show you what a real man can do?”
I sighed, groaned, as he continued his assault on the outer shell of my ear, nipping, biting, the pleasure-pain bursting through me in sparks of fire.