by Geneva Lee
Gavin broke away, breathless, his mouth hovering dangerously close to mine. “I just need to know this is what you want.”
“Well, I didn’t want you to stop kissing me,” I grumbled. He took the hint. His arms snaked around me and I reacted instinctively as he lifted my body and pressed me against the wall. My legs wrapped around his lean torso, urging him closer. I had no doubt where this was leading. Not right here. Not right now. But soon. This was a sneak preview. A coming attraction. A restricted trailer for an R-rated evening. When we got to the feature presentation, I wanted him all to myself.
Gavin trailed away from my lips, brushing kisses along my jaw until he reached my ear. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you this weekend.”
“Me either,” I whimpered.
“I’m not sure how I’m going to get anything done today,” he admitted.
“Sick day?” He laughed and I joined him. It would definitely look suspicious if suddenly we both became ill. “Dinner, tonight? At my place, or… dammit.”
“We can go wherever.” I just wanted to be with him.
“I want you alone. But Imogen is staying with me still.”
I conveniently overlooked Lillian’s no boys rules. She would be at work late anyway, and someone needed to get laid in that house. “My place will be empty. We can order takeout.”
He shook his head. “I’ll cook.”
“You cook?”
“Don’t sound so surprised.” He grinned at my disbelief. It was little lopsided and I swear I almost fell in love with him on the spot.
I took a deep, steadying breath as he lowered me back to my feet. “Okay. My place. Seven?”
“I’ll be watching the clock.” He lifted my hand and kissed the inside of my palm softly.
I’d be watching the clock, too.
Chapter Fourteen
I didn’t tell anyone that Gavin was coming over for dinner. My best friends’ method of cheerleading usually just left me freaking out and there was really no one else to tell. As far as I knew we weren’t advertising this around the office. I might have told George if so. My perpetually absent roommate didn’t need to know, especially since I’d promised her no boys in the apartment. Since he was cooking, that left me to obsess over all the little details. I picked up the place, which only took me five minutes given how little time Lillian actually spent here and how terrified I was of making a mess in the spartan living space. My bedroom was another story. I decided, though, that if I straightened it, I’d be asking for trouble. It was better to take it slowly—a concept I hadn’t really tried before. Instead, I scrubbed down the already clean appliances. We never cooked. Then I set the table in the dining room. I stood back, Olive the cat circling around my ankles, and thought better of that.
“Does it seem like too much?” I asked the cat. That was what my life had come to: seeking romantic advice from my roommate’s cat. She meowed as if she had opinions on the matter. “You’re probably right.”
I took everything back off the table, which was in no way an insane move or anything. Then I decided to do something I was actually good at: figure out what to wear.
The entire contents of my closet had been emptied out onto my bed as I searched for the perfect outfit. I’d changed out of my office dress the second I got home, opting for pajama bottoms and a tank top. The dress had seemed too formal as if I wanted to keep him at arm’s length and in a tiny box of professionalism. Still, I couldn’t wear the pajamas either. But what exactly was a girl supposed to wear when a guy came over to make her dinner? I could go for casual and look like this happened to me all the time. Dressing up seemed like a no go. I didn’t need to look like I was heading out to a gala. I tried on a dozen different outfits, nearly breaking down to call the girls to see if one of my friends had a suggestion.
“What do I wear?” I asked no one in particular.
Olive had been weaving in and out of the piles of clothes. She meowed loudly and settled onto a simple, floral sundress.
“Perfect!” I told her.
She looked distinctly ruffled as I picked her up and took away her chosen ensemble. “Sorry, I’m going to need that.”
I really did have to get a life if I was going to continue to have conversations with the cat. Olive jumped from the end of the bed all the way to the dresser, which was pretty impressive given that it was at least 6 feet away. She batted at the top drawer. I hadn’t caught her with my special friend in a while, but clearly she still knew where I kept Mr. Dependable.
“With any luck, I will not be needing that thing anymore,” I promised her. I wondered how Lillian would take it if I gifted her cat a vibrator.
The dress was cool and Seattle was hot. The clouds had lifted after my morning meeting with Gavin, like a good omen. But an afternoon of sun had left the condo stuffy. Since no one up here had air conditioning, a fact which the Texan in me could not fathom, the strappy cotton sundress was a welcome relief from the heat. I opened all of the windows and set out a box fan to try to clear out some of the air. I had no idea what he planned to cook, but since the kitchen didn’t get much use, I wasn’t sure how much hotter it could get.
Since Gavin was involved I was guessing a whole lot hotter. I swept my hair into a topknot that sat loosely at the crown of my head and inspected my makeup. It was still done for work, maybe a little much with my more casual outfit choice, so instead of reapplying my lipstick, I wiped it off and settled on some gloss. I’d purposely taken off my watch when I’d gotten back, so I wouldn’t drive myself crazy checking it. As such, I lost track of time, so I was surprised when I heard him knock on the door.
He was even more dressed down than on Friday night. This time he’d opted for a thin white cotton T-shirt and another pair of jeans. As much as I liked seeing him in a suit, seeing him like this was even better. Maybe because it felt clandestine. I’d gotten the boss out of his clothes. I couldn’t help but wonder who else got to see him this way. He grinned and held up the bag of groceries. “Show me the kitchen.”
I stepped to the side to let him enter and then quickly led him to the kitchen as he requested. He glanced around at the shiny appliances. “Does anyone ever cook here?”
“I cleaned it,” I explained.
“These appliances look brand-new.”
“Sometimes we use the microwave.” To heat up the food, we ordered from restaurants. “Two working women don’t have a lot of time to cook.”
Gavin opened the refrigerator and let out a low chuckle. “You two really don’t cook much do you?”
I looked over his shoulder and realized that there was half a gallon of milk with an expiration date from three months ago, a carton of eggs of dubious age, and something that might have once been a vegetable. Or cheese. It was hard to say.
“I guess it’s time to confess that I don’t know how to cook.” I buried my face in my hands. If my mother could hear me, she would be ashamed. She’d tried so hard to teach me how to cook and I had thwarted her at every turn.
“You can’t cook anything?”
“Macaroni and cheese and sometimes eggs, but those don’t always turn out.”
“So, I guess I’ll be doing the cooking in this relationship.” He moved past me and began to un-bag the groceries.
In this relationship. Had he really just said that? Had we gone from possibly this is a date to a relationship that quickly? My head was still spinning as he turned and handed me a bundle of vegetables in a netted plastic bag.
“What are these?” I asked suspiciously.
“Don’t tell me you don’t eat Brussels sprouts,” he said.
I held them up and studied them for a moment. Yes, I recognized this vegetable. I tried not to show my dismay. “My mother made them when we were kids. I don’t remember them looking like this.”
“They were probably frozen. Do me a favor. Give my Brussels sprouts a fighting chance.”
I set them on the counter with a nod. When it came to Gavin, I was determin
ed to finally keep an open mind. I spent too much of the last few weeks fighting against my attraction for him. The least I could do was try his vegetables. That left me thinking about his cucumber.
“Can you wash those?” he asked me.
“Um, sure.” It took an embarrassing amount of time for me to find a pair of scissors to cut the bag open with. Then, I began to take one out and wash it.
“Not like that. It’ll take forever.” He moved behind me, his arms circling my waist, and picked up the entire bag to hold under the water. I was pretty certain he could be doing this without me as a buffer, but I wasn’t complaining. Instead, I leaned against his firm chest, more than willing to let him show me how it was done. When he finally stepped away, I missed him immediately.
“Now what?” I asked. If I had to be in the kitchen to be near him, I might as well be helping, and with any luck he’d have to show me what I was doing again.
“Washing the vegetables was the easy part,” he warned me.
“I’m a modern woman,” I told him, “I don’t just let my man cook for me. Teach me.”
He laughed at this and gestured to the package of steaks left on the counter. “Can you find me a pan for those?”
I screwed up my face. “Is a pan the one you put cereal in?”
Gavin looked stricken, and I burst into laughter.
“I’m not exactly that helpless in the kitchen.”
“Okay, sassy. Find me a pan.”
“We’re eating steak.” I might have been a little too happy about that. Seattle had spectacular access to seafood, and while I love me some lobster, sometimes all I wanted was red meat. You could take the girl out of Texas, but you couldn’t always take Texas out the girl.
“Yes. We’re going to reverse sear it.”
I waited for him to explain what this meant. Finally, he looked over and sighed. It sounded strangely contented like he was actually enjoying walking me through the cooking process.
“We’re going to cook it in the oven and then finish it on the stovetop.”
“Really?” I wasn’t sure I was buying this method. Maybe it was a weird Pacific Northwest thing.
“Who’s the one who knows how to cook here?”
He had a point. “Will this work?”
I pulled a skillet off of an upper shelf surprised to see it wasn’t covered in dust and cobwebs. I’d half-expected bats to fly out when I’d opened the cabinet door.
“That’s perfect.” He took it from me and began to show me how to prepare the meat. He rubbed down one of the steaks with a little bit of oil and then cracked some pepper on top of it before stepping to the side. “Now you try.”
“Me?”
“I’m beginning to wonder if the whole Texas rancher’s daughter story is a lie,” he teased me.
I grabbed the oil and poured a bunch into my hands, mimicking what he had just done. So, it wasn’t exactly cooking. It was more like combining a few things and then heating. Still, when Gavin put them into the preheated oven, I felt a strange sense of accomplishment.
“What’s for dessert?” I asked him mischievously.
Gavin jumped a little and dashed over to the bag. He pulled out a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream. “This is going to have to go in the freezer for a while. I totally forgot to put it in there.”
“That’s okay. We probably have a few minutes until the steak is done, right?”
“We have about 45 minutes,” he told me.
I heard my stomach rumble in protest. I hoped he didn’t catch it. “Oh. What else do we need to make?”
“I’ll wait until the steaks are close to being done before I start the vegetables,” he said.
“So, what are we going to do until then?” I eyed the bottle of wine peeking out from his grocery bag, and he nodded. I’d just reached in to pull it out, discovering it was the same Montepulciano that I had served him a few weeks ago, when Gavin hooked an index finger under the strap of my dress and tugged me toward him.
“I had a few thoughts about an appetizer.”
“Can’t wait?” I asked, already wondering what else he had in the bag.
“You could say that.” I started to turn my head to gesture toward the bottle of wine at the same moment he tried to kiss me. The result was a catastrophic bumping of the heads. We both took a step back, me rubbing my cheek and him rubbing his nose.
“Let’s try that again,” he suggested.
This time I was ready for him. So, so ready. His mouth found mine, but this time it wasn’t the hesitant first kiss or the desperate second kiss we’d shared, this was a full range of motion. Our limbs tangled together, our bodies fighting to be closer. Gavin pulled back and said, “About that appetizer.”
His eyes were the color of the ocean on a stormy day, fogged over with his own desire, as he picked me up and set me on the counter. We kissed like we were each other’s oxygen. I was lost to anything but him. I’d been waiting for this—dreaming about this—and it was finally happening. My breath hitched when I felt his hands sliding up my thighs, under my dress, and coming to rest on my bare hips. There was another pause, another chance for me to stop this in its tracks. Instead, my hand fisted in his T-shirt. I nearly had to refrain from shoving him even further down.
“I’ve been thinking about what I wanted for dinner all day,” he told me, as his thumbs wiggled under the band of my panties. I lifted my hips instinctively, allowing him to slip them down until they fell to the floor. “There was only one thing that I really wanted.”
“Steak?” I asked in a small voice.
“Something much, much sweeter.” A slow, wolfish grin spread over his face before he disappeared from view, then I felt soft, warm his lips pressing to my inner thigh.
“Oh that,” I moaned as he continued his progress toward the promised land. Before he reached it, his hands sunk into my hips and yanked me forward until I was teetering on the edge of the counter.
“There you go,” he coaxed me as my legs spread in invitation. I felt the heat of his breath first, caressing a long my bare skin.
My head fell backwards at the sensation and I yelped with frustration. “Oh God!”
“Is everything okay, Miss Hart?” he asked, his voice somewhat muffled by his mouth’s location.
“Don’t spoil your dinner though” I scolded him.
He laughed, which tickled a little. My legs, sensing an intrusion, tried to clamp shut, but Gavin nudged them apart, his five- o-clock shadow scratching the soft skin promisingly. I was about to grab onto his hair and get this ride going when his lips made contact. The soft, gentle kisses slowly became deeper until I felt his tongue split me open. I nearly lost control of my entire body. I had to prop my toes on the top of his shoulders to keep from falling over, but he helped steady me. A low groan of appreciation rumbled through his body as his mouth settled into place and began to flick and suck and tease. He wasn’t in a hurry. He was savoring every moment, judging from the primal, masculine sounds he was making.
I’d never gotten off this way before. I had always been a little self-conscious about a guy going downtown, but Gavin was making it pretty clear that this was exactly where he wanted to be. Without thinking—because that was pretty impossible at the moment—my hands found his hair and gripped it tightly, urging him on faster and harder. For a split second, I wondered if he could breathe. That thought flew out of my mind as my body began to crack and shatter on his tongue. He didn’t let up, even as my legs collapsed on his shoulders and my body went slack. It was only when I slumped, completely spent, onto the counter that he pressed one soft kiss to my trembling thigh and stood up. A second later, I felt my underwear being drawn back up my legs.
“You don’t want to keep them as a trophy, Mr. North?” I asked him. “I feel like you deserve some type of award for that.”
“The sounds you made,” he said, helping me back up into a seated position, “are all the reward I need. I’m going to be recalling those pretty much every moment until
I get you to make them again.”
“That sounds dangerous.” I tried to hide against his shoulder, but he tipped my chin so that I could see his face.
“What’s wrong? Did you not want…” he trailed away.
“No! It was great! Really, really great.” I shook my head, almost dizzy from it still. “I’ve never really…. that way…you know.”
“You must have dated some real idiots. I’m pretty certain I just found my happy place,” he told me
I tried to turn away, my cheeks flaming, but he stopped me. “Seriously, Cassie, you are so beautiful. Do you know that? I can hardly think of anything else when I’m around you.”
“I sound like a distraction,” I said softly.
“The best kind. Do you want to know what makes it even hotter?”
I managed to nod. How could he think I even held a candle to him?
“Your brain is just a sexy,” he murmured. “You’re the whole package.”
“Hmmmm….package.” My fingers slid down to the button of his jeans and I began to free him.
“You don’t have to,” he said, gently gripping my wrist. “That’s not what this is about between us.”
But I wanted to. For the first time in my life, I wanted to drop to my knees for a man. Then I want to do a whole bunch of other dirty stuff with him. Fate had other plans. Before I could finish releasing the Kraken, the front door swung open and a harried- looking Lillian bustled into the apartment. She dropped her bags on the dining room table along with her keys without noticing us.
I jumped off the counter quickly and did my best to look innocent. “Um, hello.”
She looked up, startled. It was clear she still hadn’t gotten used to me living there. “Cassie.” She caught sight of Gavin and did a double take. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you had company.”
“I should’ve told you,” I said apologetically. “I just figured you’d still be in the office.” It sounded like the lamest excuse ever, especially since I was breaking her no boys rule. In fact, I’d pretty much broken every rule on the counter just now. Guilt washed over me and before I could kick Gavin out, he stepped forward.