Captured In Ink (Art of Love Series) (9 page)

God, he tasted good.

And he smelled good.

Not to mention that he felt great, Reesa thought, unable to resist rocking in his lap finally and moaning at the lovely friction between them.

The next thing Reesa knew, she was being kissed very thoroughly, Shane’s tongue invading and finding hers.

There was no mistaking the magic between them this time.

This
was unbound lust on the kitchen floor. No alcohol to dull the senses. No excuses other than simple need and a mutual attraction to each other too strong to deny.

Suddenly, dating was looking like the slowest path to the destination, but it would definitely give her a legitimate reason to sleep with Shane again when she got the chance.

Shane pulled away first from their kiss, but kept a firm grip on her hips.

“I have to call my father,” he said sadly, his words vibrating against her mouth. “I’d rather roll you over in the floor and make you even more happy to see me, but I’m going to do the mature thing this morning. We need to save the kitchen. Joe said water damage on floors can be expensive to fix.”

“How is calling your father going to help? Is he a plumber?” Reesa asked, running a hand over his face as she pulled the towel away. “Oh my God—you shaved. Did you shave for me?”

Shane sighed, the look of pleasure in Reesa’s eyes combined with her hand stroking his jaw threatened his resolve to prove to her that he wanted more than just a sexual relationship. Though he damn well wanted that too—God yes, he wanted that. He stroked her backside with trembling hands, which was becoming a common occurrence around her. Shaving had just taken on a whole new meaning to him. It was to put that pleased approval in her green gaze.

“Dad’s not a plumber, but he owns a lot of useful tools. Hopefully, he’ll have a set of channel locks or an adjustable wrench of some sort. We need to get the water turned off before you run out of towels or the crack decides to burst completely,” Shane said, sighing hard when Reesa finger-combed his wet hair and tucked it behind his ears.

Do not attack her. Just because she’s sexy and caring and sweet and—remember the kitchen needs saving. The kitchen is wet. You’re wet. Reesa probably is too, and in the good way—damn it.

Shane sighed again and spoke his regret out loud. “Damn our timing this morning. If the sink wasn’t a priority, I would show you what I am good at around the house.”

Reesa laughed his statement, wondering if her sexual frustration was as obvious to Shane as his was to her.

“I have the first set of towels I used this morning drying in the dryer now. I can stave off the leak a little longer. I’m not domestically talented, but I’m resourceful when I have to be,” she said, avoiding all response to his statement. Reesa didn’t dare answer it. She was too honest and he’d have her naked two seconds after she told him how badly she wanted him.

“Resourceful is good,” Shane said, bringing her forward in his lap again and settling her where he wanted to feel her most. He closed his eyes at how good it felt to hold her. “Resourcefully sexy. Resourcefully hot. I can’t believe how much your resourcefulness does for me. Can you tell?”

He pushed up against her, thrilled when she raggedly sighed.

“Yes, I can tell. Better let me up Shane while it’s still an option for both of us,” Reesa said quietly, closing her eyes against what she saw in his gaze, and okay—what she feared was also in hers beaming back at him.

“Hug me first,” Shane ordered softly, unable to let Reesa go when he wanted her so badly. “I need to hold you for a minute. I know it’s all we have time for right now.”

His honesty charmed her as it had that night two weeks ago. Reesa dropped the wet towel she had used to dry Shane’s hair on the floor beside his leg and wrapped both arms around him. When she did that, Shane brought his legs up and crossed them, rocking her further into his embrace until he had wrapped himself so completely around her that he cocooned her with his entire body.

This is bad
, Reesa thought as she let herself sink into the comfort of him.
Very bad, even though it’s also very good
. The man was practically melding with her. Hugging Shane felt even more intimate than kissing him. Kissing was predictable. This—whatever was in their embrace—she didn’t know what to make of it. She’d never had a man wrap her up in his arms like he wanted to make her part of him, which was the problem with Shane Larson. He was living some fantasy about her, and it was tempting to just go along with his delusion.

Oh hell
, she thought,
no, no, no.
There could be no keeping him or him keeping her.

Fun was fun, but Reesa knew she definitely was not ready to add seriously dating a younger man to her already crazy life. Losing Brent had been bad enough. When Shane stopped wanting to date her, she didn’t want to feel like she’d lost an arm or some other equally vital body part. She already knew he was going to be harder to forget than any other man. She still remembered everything about their one night.

Reesa pushed away and climbed off Shane as fast as she could without stumbling.

When she was standing over him, Reesa looked down into his face surprised to see something hard and fierce in his gaze as opposed to something soft and comforting.

Every male she had ever slept with had looked at her in that same possessive way and it had never sat well with her. Reesa was so not ready to see that look in Shane Larson’s eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Shane asked as he studied her slight curves.

“Nothing. I’m—I’m going to look for that wrench,” Reesa said, dashing out of the kitchen through the utility room door.

Shane watched Reesa flee and rolled himself forward until he could stand. He fished his phone out of the towel basket and called his father. The tools were at Michael’s house, but it wouldn’t take his father long to get to Reesa’s after stopping for them.

Reesa came back in from the garage without anything, which made Shane grin at her guilty expression. He had hugged her and scared her, which seemed strange to him considering just moments before that they had both been ready to have sex on the kitchen floor. Why in the world was hugging more intimidating to her?

“Dad’s coming to the rescue and bringing wrenches. He’ll be here in thirty minutes,” Shane said, noting her discomfort and fighting not to ask her about it.

“It’s really nice of your father to come help someone he doesn’t know,” Reesa said.

Shane patted his tattoo. “My father is the role model for my superhero. That’s my deepest secret. You’re the only person besides my brother that I’ve told.”

Reesa smiled nervously and nodded. “Your secret is safe with me, but don’t make me your first for anything else, okay.”

“Too late,” he said, giving her his most wicked smile. “You broke in my tongue stud, and I consider it yours now. And you made me want you again so badly that I was making deals with the universe to find you. You don’t have to keep my interest in you a secret though. I’m bragging to everyone I know about you.”

“Please. I may be your most unique conquest, but I was hardly your first one for anything. You didn’t learn those moves without practice,” Reesa told him on a laugh. “If you’re done flirting now, I guess we might as well have coffee and bagels while we wait.”

Shane looked at his hands, biting back telling her she was going to be his last conquest,
and
that he wanted her to be his practice partner for all the things he’d never gotten to do with a woman yet. It was obviously too soon to go there with that panic lighting up her expression every time she looked at him.

“Let me go wash up. I brought two kinds of bagels. For future reference, I like blueberry.”

Shane took off to the bathroom, feeling Reesa’s nervous gaze following him as he left.

***

They were on coffee refills when Reesa heard a loud, growling sound outside.

“What’s that?” she asked, laughing. “Does your father drive a train?

“That’s Dad’s hog,” Shane explained, standing up. “It’s a big touring bike, lots of leather and chrome, very noisy. It’s his pride and joy.”

“Your father rides a motorcycle?” Reesa asked. “At his age?”

“
His age?
He’s only fifty-three. Dad’s ridden a bike all his life, or at least for as long as I can remember,” Shane said. He headed to the door with Reesa trailing a bit behind him.

“Oh hell, I should have known this would happen,” Shane said, sighing and looking out the door with a frown. “Michael and Carrie are here too. I’m sorry about the crowd. They’re just really curious about you.”

“Curious about me? Why?” Reesa asked.
How could they be curious? They didn’t know her.

“They want to meet you because they know I’m in love with you,” Shane said calmly, yelling when Reesa reached out and pinched his arm. “Hey—no pinching allowed. That hurts.”

“Wake up from dreamland and stop saying that. You are not in love with me. Read those textbooks you obviously skipped in school. You’re being delusional, Dr. Larson,” Reesa denied firmly. “And why did you tell your family that nonsense?”

Shane looked at Reesa, tilting his head and giving her a stern look. Jillian had demanded his personal details within minutes of him showing up at the house because her best friend had accepted the truth.

“Why wouldn’t I tell my family that I fell in love with a wonderful person?” Shane asked.

“I don’t know—maybe because the statement isn’t true?” Reesa suggested, flinging both hands into the air in a gesture of disbelief trying to emphasize to Shane how ridiculous his statements were when they were still practically strangers.

“You’re just frustrated and cranky. I guess I should have nailed you on the kitchen floor when I had the chance. Sorry I let you down, honey. I won’t make that mistake next time,” Shane said, grinning into Reesa’s suddenly furious face. Making her mad was every bit as much fun as he’d imagined it would be.

“For your information, I am not frustrated and cranky. I’m just a realist about our situation,” Reesa informed him. “And for future reference, there will be no nailing me until I’m ready to be nailed.”

“Give me five minutes,” Shane said confidently, absorbing her punch on his arm. “Woman, you’re vicious. Luckily I recognize the pseudo-violence for the mating ritual it is. But for the record, I like you finger-combing my hair a lot better than the violent stuff.”

“I guess I lied when I told Jillian you weren’t one of those stupid guy-guys,” Reesa said spitefully.

“What do you mean
guy-guys
?” Shane asked, truly confused about the description. “I’m just stating a hard fact—
a very hard fact
—when I say that I want you. And I’m also being a realist about our situation when I do.”

“Yeah—right. That’s just sex, Shane. The new hasn’t worn off yet. It will eventually go away. You don’t need a psych degree to know that.” Reesa watched a man and woman climb out of a car and walk to the giant man climbing off the bike. “Is that your father? Geez—he looks as big as you. Love the shaved head. Not many men make it look that good.”

“When he was younger, Dad looked like Michael—hair and all,” Shane said, grinning. “In height, I have him by a couple inches, but Dad is a big guy. It’s his shoulders I think. He still works out so he’s not lost much bulk over the years. You should see his new girlfriend—or I guess I should call her his fiancée now. Jessica’s almost six feet tall. Mom is the shortest person in our family, but even she is still several inches taller than you.”

Shane turned to Reesa and looked down. “You project tall. Anybody ever tell you that? Sometimes I forget how short you are until I’m standing right next to you like this. Most of the time, I think of you as my size.”

Reesa looked up at Shane and rolled her eyes dramatically while he watched. “You know, I get that all the time. People even tell me to duck my head when I walk through doorways. I know they mean well, but it’s so annoying. Sometimes I have to show them my driver’s license just to prove how short I am.”

Shane laughed at her self-deprecating humor because he’d already determined from a variety of clues that Reesa really, really hated being short. Maybe he could help her find ways to like it better. Thoughts of how he could do that made him smile wickedly when he looked at her.

“You’re like those tiny, bite size candy bars. I could eat a whole bag, one tiny candy bar at a time,” Shane told her, snickering at her green sparking gaze.

“Stop talking like that, and
stop looking at me that way
,” she ordered, pushing on his arm.

“What way?” Shane asked, grinning as Reesa pulled some hairs on his arm to torture him further. It really was starting to turn him on. “You already know I like it rough, so you’re only making the situation worse by getting physical with me when I want you so much. You might want to back off while I’m still feeling civilized.”

“You probably like sex any time and any way you can get it—not that I care what you like,” Reesa said sternly.

“I bet you ten dollars I could easily make it your top priority this morning,” Shane said, grinning. “You’ll be finger combing my hair again in gratitude.”