That’s when I realized he’d kissed me to shut me up.
I immediately went up in arms, my hands flying up in an ‘I can’t believe this’ gesture. His eyes took that movement in, then my open mouth to let words fly at him like bullets, and he moved back in.
This time, the kiss made the one before it look tame.
When he pulled back long seconds later, I was breathless and forgot that I was mad.
Why?
Because Wake Westfield had a kiss that was so dangerous, I knew that with only two, I’d be addicted to him forever.
“Kissing you isn’t gross,” I blurted before he could say something stupid like ‘you done’ again.
He grinned, then reached backward, tugged the collar of his shirt, and pulled it straight up and over his head in one smooth, effortless move.
You know the way that guys did that? I’d always thought it was so impressive. I mean, the man just effectively pulled his shirt over his head faster than it took me to take it off inside out and backward.
Then, for added effect, he’d thrown that shirt on the ground and had me up in his arms again before I could blink.
He stepped over his chunky Golden Retriever, who was laid out on the floor panting with his tongue hanging out, and started toward the stairs.
Seconds later, he was scaling them like I didn’t almost weigh two hundred pounds—and I did. I’d gotten on the scale this morning. I’d also silently judged myself, deemed myself lacking, and promised myself by this summer, I would have a banging bikini body. Which my inner, rational self knew was impossible, seeing as it was now May, and bikini season in Florida was practically in full effect.
“Why is it when you think so hard, I can practically see your brain ticking?” Wake asked as he shouldered open a door, walked straight to the bed, and dropped me onto it.
I gasped as I bounced a few times, then fell backward onto the bed in a rush.
“Uhhh.” I looked around. “We’re in your bedroom.”
And I was on his bed.
Holy shit, it smelled like him.
All spicy and manly and rawr.
“I’m about to fuck you, that’s why we’re in my bedroom,” he said. “Then, when I’m done, we’re going to go get something to eat because I’m starving after my run. Then we’re gonna come back here, let Tex out, then go back to my sister’s place so I can give my kid a hug.”
I blinked. “You have a kid?”
Why did I just ask that? I knew he had a freakin’ kid!
“Out of everything I just told you we were doing, that’s the only thing that you got out of it?” he asked.
Oh, I’d heard it all.
In fact, my mind was still trying to grasp on to the fact that he wanted me to have sex with him. Me, the curvy, nearly two-hundred-pound girl that hates herself every time she looks in a mirror.
Was he broken?
“The kid thing seems pretty important.” I looked around, feigning my ignorance. I damn well knew he had a kid. There was no way I could forget about that when he’d been so sweet about seeing her photos while I was asking him to tell me how to kill someone. Plus, I remembered every single second of our encounter, and had thought about him all the time since I’d seen him last. “I mean, technically, I feel like they should at least have some sign of life in your house?”
He grinned and grasped the string on his shorts, releasing the knot that was there holding them up.
“She doesn’t live with me. She lives with my sister,” he explained. “And as much as I’d love to have her here, she’s happy where she’s at. And I love her, so I’ll deal with not having her here if that’s what she wants. Plus, she’s almost sixteen now, and god forbid we disrupt her perfect teenage life in any way, shape, or form. Plus, I’m not dumb. I know you remembered that I had one.”
I grinned at that.
He sounded kind of put out that he didn’t have that type of relationship with his kid.
But that meant he was a good dad.
He had to have gotten out and wanted her there, but hadn’t gotten to have her because he didn’t want to mess up her routine.
“That’s good, in a vague sense, that you gave her that,” I said. “Most parents wouldn’t have.” Then blurted, “You don’t look like a dad.”
My eyes were taking in his entire body.
The way his pants now sagged on his trim hips.
The way he had tattoos on that very impressive chest that were downright screaming for me to run my tongue along the swirling lines.
“Years of nothing but eating a balanced diet and exercising will give you this.” He shrugged, letting his pants drop.