Rufus just sat and looked up at Kai angelically, his tail going at two hundred beats per second. He had found someone new to charm and he was in doggy heaven. Rufus gave Kai his doggy grin and Kai responded by rubbing both of Rufus’s ears and her dog rolled his eyes, delighted. Flick couldn’t blame him, suspecting she'd have the same reaction if he rubbed anything of hers.
Behave, girl.
“Shake your fingers out,” Kai ordered and Flick groaned when the blood started rushing back to her battered palm and fingers.
“Ah, that hurts like hell.”
“He’s too strong for you,” Kai said, shaking his head. His biceps bulged as he easily kept Rufus from lunging away in pursuit of a phantom rabbit.
Now that she had some feeling back in her hands, Flick held out her hand for the leash. “I’m good now, thanks.”
“You can’t run him properly because you can’t control him,” Kai said and flicked a quick look at his watch. “I still have about five miles to do on this trail. I’ll take him with me and tire him out.”
“I’m not sure if he’ll cope,” Flick tasted panic in the back of her throat. “I only rescued him three months back and he was a wreck. Five miles might be a bit much for him.”
“Bullshit,” Kai stated his tone firm.
“I’m really not sure...” Flick bit the inside of her lip, feeling like a neurotic new mother.
“We’ll be fine,” Kai smiled and Flick felt her internal organs flip over. That was some smile, she thought; it made him look younger and even sexier, if that was at all possible. “And to keep you from worrying about your crazy dog, I’m going to give you something else to think about as youstrollhome.”
Stroll? Now he was just being rude. “Uh, what?”
His hot eyes ran up and down her body and they warmed her from the inside out. “You have such an amazing body. Women spend hours in the gym to look like you do naturally.”
Hoo...hoo boy.
“Genetics,” Flick just managed to gasp the word.
Kai lifted his hand and cupped the back of her head, his fingers spearing up into her hair and causing an instant fireworks display in her brain. And between her legs.
“And, God, you have a spectacular mouth.”
She did? She’d always thought she looked like Daffy Duck.
He dropped his head and she watched, mesmerized, as he closed the space between them. They were so close now that they could taste each other’s breath. His eyelashes were dark and stubby and up close she noticed the faint scar bisecting his left eyebrow. He’d conquered and then shattered her personal space. She just needed to pull in a deep breath and her breasts push into his hard pecs, with a small tilt of her head their lips would collide. Yet he just kept one hand in her hair and his eyes on her mouth.
It seemed to take forever for his mouth to touch hers. She expected dominance and a show of masculine strength, but his lips moved graciously, sensuously against hers. Flick couldn’t help her eyes closing, couldn’t stop her hands from reaching out to touch his warm chest, her bare thigh from moving between his legs. He nibbled and played with her mouth, licking her bottom lip with his tongue before giving it a gentle nibble. It was a perfect kiss, sweet and sexy, and Flick sighed her appreciation.
That slight parting of her lips was all that was needed for all hell to break loose. Flick felt his free arm band around her and he enveloped her; mouth, hands, his amazingly hard body. She wasn’t sure where she started and he ended. Her breasts were flattened by his hard chest and through the fabric of her shirt, her puckered nipples pushed against his skin. His erection, strong, hard, and delicious, was perfectly placed against her, and she couldn’t stop her hips from tilting to get closer, needing to drag her aching core against him. From a place far away Flick felt his fist tighten in her hair as he held her head in place, his tongue sweeping into her mouth, tangling with hers. He tasted of mint and coffee and sun and sex.
Wishing he would use his hands to touch her breasts, to give her nipples the attention they desired, and cup her between her legs, she moaned into his mouth, rotating her hips in invitation. Instead, she felt the leather of the hand strap of Rufus’s leash against her chin as he lifted his other hand to cradle her cheek.
God, he’d made her damp from nothing more than some body contact and a hot kiss. Flick couldn’t wait to find out what else he could do with that mouth.
“Fan-fucking-tastic.”
Flick blinked at his words, utterly confused as Kai stepped back, his fabulous and unusual eyes filled with passion. “I’ve been wondering how you tasted.”
Flick just stood in the sunlight, bemused, looking at him looking at her. Electricity, lust, passion—all those wonderful sensations so inadequately described in romance novels arced between them, and Flick knew that they were both considering whether to go another round, to throw themselves in the ring and see where their passion took them. The tension was explosive and she was about to break the standoff by initiating another kiss when he took a half step backward and a curtain fell in his eyes.
Big brain back in control, Flick thought, partly relieved, partly annoyed.
“I’ll be home in thirty minutes. You can pick him up then,” Kai said, suddenly all business. Flick blinked and watched, gobsmacked, as he tugged on the leash and her dog loped off with a stranger.
It took her a moment to come back to earth and when she did, she slapped her hands on her hips, annoyance replacing lust.
“You can’t just kiss me and then kidnap my dog!” she shouted at his back.