We were close enough that I could smell the coffee and mint toothpaste on his breath. My tongue darted out to touch my lips and I swore his eyes darkened.
I went in for the kill. Our mouths met in ferocious hunger and our tongues fought each other for dominance. Colt’s hand on the back of my neck tightened and I leaned into him, ready for more, ready for it on the kitchen table.
A phone rang. Colt’s lips tore from mine, his face wreathed in annoyance at our thwarted lust.
“Fuck, why does this always happen?” He shifted me on his lap so he could get to the cell in his pocket and answered it. “Yeah?”
When I made a move to get up, he stopped me.
“Yeah, okay. Be right there.” He hung up and set his phone on the kitchen table. “I gotta go.”
“Okay.”
We stared at each other and then our lips were meshing. “I really have to go,” Colt growled against my mouth even as he kissed me again.
“I heard you,” I answered, tugging at his shirt, wanting to get to the skin beneath.
He pulled back and grasped my hands to still their wandering. “Not like this.”
“Not like what?” I demanded. “Every time I decide I want to have sex with you, we get interrupted.”
He didn’t smile from my jest. “If all I wanted was sex, it would’ve happened by now.”
“Well, that’s a bit arrogant, don’t you think?”
Colt’s gaze dropped to my traitorous nipples, but said nothing.
I rolled my eyes. “Fine.”
“I want you, but not like this. Not when you’re still confused.”
“Confused about what exactly?”
“Confused about what it means when I take you to my bed. It’s gonna mean something, babe. And I’m not sure you’re ready for all that.”
“What if I’m never ready?” I ventured to ask. Colt’s intensity scared me, but I valued his honesty.
“Then you were never meant to be my woman.”
With that pronouncement, Colt stalked from the kitchen, leaving me with a lukewarm cup of coffee.
Chapter 9
The next threedays ironed out into a routine. I spent the daytime bored in Colt’s home while Cheese hung out on the porch, acting as a guard. At night, I slept alone, feeling restless and achy. Colt hadn’t made another move to sleep next to me and he hadn’t kissed me again. The man was a sensual battering ram and he’d gotten through my fortress walls. But that was exactly why he kept his distance.
Colt wanted something real with me, something lasting. And he was giving me the opportunity to decide if I wanted to be in it for the long haul. I didn’t know if I would’ve chosen to be with Colt if my circumstances had been different. Even though I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him after we’d kissed at Dive Bar, I’d done nothing to seek him out of my own volition. I’d turned to him only because he’d proven to me that he was a protector of women.
If I chose to be with Colt now, it meant risking an unknown future, my safety, and being pulled deeper into a lifestyle I didn’t understand.
Rationally explaining all of that to my overworked libido wasn’t doing the trick.
“Will you please, please, please take me to the garage with you?” I asked again, setting down the crust of my toast.
“No,” Colt said for what had to be the hundredth time that morning.
“I’m bored out of my skull.”
“No, Mia,” Colt said, setting down his empty coffee cup. “It’s not safe yet.”