Year of Living Blonde (Sweet Life in Seattle, Book 1) (28 page)

This time when he stops, he turns his head away, his breath coming out in puffs of white smoke from the cold.

“We’re not alone,” he points out.

Natalie nods and then a big smile breaks out across her face.

“What is it?”

“That was my first kiss in a really long time.”

“I see, and how was it?”

“Not bad.”

He seems bemused. “Maybe I should kiss you again. I think I can do better than not bad.”

“I’m willing if you are.”

His expression grows sober and then his mouth is on hers—plundering. Natalie can barely catch her breath. Her hand slides to his jaw, and she isn’t sure if she’s encouraging him or trying to gain control.

“How is that?” he murmurs, sliding down to her neck. She gasps as he works his magic there. Finally, he pulls away.

Natalie studies his face as she tries to pull herself together. He’s so handsome it almost hurts to look at him. “That was interesting.” She’s determined not to be another one of the groupies who throw themselves at him.

Though who am I kidding? I’m kissing him like the world is going to end tonight.

Anthony puts his hand up to her face. His thumb rubs over her bottom lip and the move is so provocative it sends a pulse of lust straight between her thighs. “You have such a sexy mouth, Miss Natalie.”

“I do?”

“I’ve had . . . thoughts . . . about this mouth of yours.”

Natalie is stunned. No one has ever told her that in her entire life, including Peter. “So I’ve been walking around all this time with a sexy mouth and didn’t know it?”

“Guess so.”

Anthony has a sexy mouth, too, but she decides not to compliment him on it.
I’ll bet compliments on his appearance are all he ever hears from women.
“Well, you have a very sexy,” she searches around for something to compliment him on, “telescope!” she says, remembering Lindsay’s joke from earlier too late.

His eyebrows rise. “I have a sexy telescope?”

“Don’t you?”

He grins. “I like to think so.”

Anthony stares up at the night sky still smiling to himself about the telescope joke.
What the hell are you doing?

He knows he shouldn’t have kissed Natalie. She’s fresh from a divorce. Plus he’s her landlord and they still haven’t resolved any of their issues.

It’s that mouth—along with her stubborn attitude. For some reason it turns him on.

He knows what kind of man she thinks he is.
And by kissing her, you just proved her right.

It’s not like he wants to lead Natalie on. In fact, he likes her. A lot more than he suspects she likes him. She’s the real deal. When she finds out he’s agreed to lease the space next door to her bakery, she’s not going to be happy.

And you think she’s antagonistic now?

When Graham called earlier tonight it was to tell him that the two people who saw the shop space yesterday definitely want to lease it. Graham ran a background check on them and it’s all in the clear. Everything’s in order.

He’s not sure how he’s going to tell Natalie.

“
What do you like to look at with your telescope?” Natalie asks him. She puts her hands up to her face, rubbing them together and blowing into them. “I’m guessing it’s not Saturn and Jupiter.”

He watches her. “Didn’t you bring any gloves?”

“No, I forgot.”

“Here.” He takes her icy hands in his and covers them both with his own.

“You’re so warm,” she says in amazement.

“Yeah, my temperature tends to run a little hot.” He holds her hands in his, kneading them, trying to bring some heat to her fingers.

“So what do you look at?” She fidgets and he can tell she’s nervous again.

He lets out a breath. “You’re right, I don’t look at our local neighborhood—our solar system—very often.” He thinks about what he enjoys viewing with his telescope at home. He has a large Dobsonian that he built himself. “I like to go deep.”

“Deep?”

He’s still rubbing her hands. “My area of astronomy deals with the very distant past. We’re trying to figure out what happened right after the Big Bang. And that,” he pauses. “That fascinates me.”

Her hands seem warm, so he lets her take them back.

Anthony gets out his thermos and pours more coffee for both of them. Glancing at his watch he can see that it’s almost two.

He’s impressed she’s lasted this long. Occasionally he’s tried to bring girlfriends to star parties but stopped because they all wanted to leave after a half an hour.

“We should probably wrap it up,” he tells her. “It’s almost two o’clock in the morning.”

Natalie is looking through the viewfinder again. She turns to him. “Really? I can’t believe it’s already that late.”

The drive home is a quiet one and he figures she’s probably tired. When they get to her house, Anthony parks in the driveway right behind a white van.

“You don’t have to walk me to the door,” she tells him.

“Of course, I do. I want to.”

They both get out of his car.

Natalie is still quiet and he wonders what she’s thinking. She’s been acting kind of jittery since they kissed. When they get to the porch his instinct is to reach for her hand, but he doesn’t get the chance.

“Look, that was fun,” she says, turning to him. “But I don’t think we should take it any further between us.”

“Why?”

“I just think it’s a bad idea. I’m not ready for a relationship and when all is said and done, you’re still our evil landlord.”

“I’m not actually evil, you realize.”

Natalie smiles. “I suppose not.”

“But?”

“But I’m just not ready for anything more than kisses. This is all very new for me.”

“Okay.” He shrugs.

“Okay, what?”

“We won’t do anything more than kiss. I’m all right with that.”

Natalie looks stunned and in truth Anthony is stunned himself.

Did I really just say that? What kind of torture am I setting myself up for?

“Oh.” Instead of raising an eyebrow with a healthy dose of skepticism, as she should, Natalie looks a little hurt.

She thinks I don’t want her.

“It’s not that I don’t want more,” he tells her. “I like you, but we don’t have to make a big thing out of this. Let’s hang out and have fun. See where it takes us.”

She nods slowly and appears to be thinking it over. Finally, she gives him a small smile. “It would be another first for me.”

No sex? This is going to be a first for me, too.

Anthony smiles back. “All right, that settles it.”

“I have some trust issues, you know? That’s not your fault, though.”

He’s silent. Now would be the perfect time to clear the air and tell Natalie that he’s leasing out that space next door to the bakery.

Yeah, go ahead and tell her. Let’s see how much time she’ll want to spend with you then.

Anthony pushes away his guilty feelings. He has Serena to think about, after all. He needs that income.

Instead, he asks her, “Have you ever ridden on a motorcycle?”

She shakes her head. “No.”

“Then I’m picking you up tomorrow at noon.”

Natalie’s blue eyes grow wide. “On your motorcycle?”

“Yeah, we’ll go for a ride, and then grab some lunch.”

“Is it safe?”

Anthony gives a slow grin. “Miss Natalie, would I ask you to do something that wasn’t safe?”

She doesn’t seem to know how to respond. Oddly, he enjoys her reluctance. He’s so used to women chasing him that it’s refreshing to be the one doing the chasing for a change.

“What should I wear?”

He groans to himself.
Something tight and low-cut, please.
“Just be comfortable.”

They study each other. Standing under the porch light, he notices the strain on her face from being tired. It’s so late the sun will be up in only a few hours. “Guess I should go.”

“Thanks for inviting me tonight,” she says. “I had a nice time.”

Anthony steps closer. He can see on her face she knows he’s planning to kiss her again. “Give me your hands.”

She pulls them out of her pockets and he takes them. They’re still cold. He looks down and sees a round scar on the base of her thumb. Turns them over and there are more scars—one on her wrist and another by her index finger.

Anthony runs his thumb over the one on her wrist. “Battle scars?”

“The hazards of working around hot ovens all day.”

He warms her hands and then pulls her to him.

Natalie comes easily and he feels a small sense of triumph. Suddenly he hates the fact she’s been hurt and is distrustful of men. “I’m going to kiss you now,” he whispers.

“Okay,” she whispers back.

And then he lowers his mouth. She tastes sweet and luscious. Like a woman who hasn’t been well-kissed in a long time and who, frankly, needs it. He knows she was married for years, but there’s an innocence about the way she kisses.

Though their kiss is getting hotter by the second. He keeps thinking about her body. Those soft curves pressed into him. Those full breasts. He’s already getting hard. By the feel of her, Natalie is built like a playboy bunny circa nineteen-fifty-five and he wants to pull her in tight. Let her know what she’s doing to him.

Instead, he lets her go, gratified that Natalie doesn’t seem in any hurry to end things either. It’s quiet outside and he glances around her neighborhood.

“This night has taken me by surprise,” she murmurs.

“In a good way, I hope.”

“I think so.”

He’s still, holding her hands. “And now I have to ask you a question I’ve been wondering about since I picked you up.”

She blinks. “What’s that?”

“Why is there a broken fireman’s axe sticking out of your front door?”

Natalie’s face changes to quiet laughter.

“Is there something strange going on here I should know about? A psycho running around loose in your neighborhood?”

“That’s Excalibur,” she tells him, still laughing.

“King Arthur’s sword?”

“It’s a long story, but yes. My sister threw it at the door one night months ago and now it’s stuck. No one can pull it out.”

Anthony considers this. “No one?”

She shakes her head. “Everybody keeps trying. It sounds like I’m going to have to buy a new door, which is a shame.”

Anthony walks over to the door and studies the axe. From what he can tell, it went in at a sharp angle and the door’s thick maple has been expanding around it with the weather. As he’s examining it, considering various ideas, the perfect solution comes to him. “I’ll be right back,” he tells her.

“Where are you going?” Natalie watches as he walks back down to his car and pops the rear gate on his SUV open. It’s a good thing he still has everything with him. He pulls out the Dewar flask, along with an old rag, and a pair of safety gloves and brings it all back to the porch. “What the heck is that?” she asks.

“Liquid nitrogen.”

Natalie’s eyebrows go up, but she doesn’t say anything, just watches as Anthony puts on the safety gloves and readies the Dewar flask. He unwinds the metal coil and switches the lever over to liquid. “Stay back,” he tells her. “This stuff is extremely cold and you don’t want to get any of it on you.”

“Why do you have liquid nitrogen in your car?”

“Some of my students were using it to cool telescope camera optics for a project they’ve been cobbling together this quarter.” He chuckles. “They made ice cream with it, too. It tasted pretty good.”

Anthony presses the rag over the axe head and then puts the coil tip right up against it. He opens the valve and immediately there’s white smoke as the liquid nitrogen sprays across the rag pressed against the metal. There’s a crackling sound as everything freezes.

“That should hopefully do it,” he says. Still wearing the safety gloves, he grabs the blunt back of the axe head and gives a hard tug.

POP!

The axe comes out of the door easily.

He hears Natalie’s loud gasp. “Oh, my God!” Suddenly, she’s on top of him, throwing her arms around his neck as if he’s just won the Olympics. “You did it!”