Chapter 3 #2
“The good-night kiss.” Without giving her time to process what he had said, he cupped her cheek, leaned in, and slid his lips over hers.
Georgie’s heart pounded so hard she could hear the roar of it echoing in her ears.
Her free hand landed on his chest as he tipped his head and delved deeper, his tongue tracing her bottom lip.
His taste was an intoxicating mix of wine and spice, and the moan that escaped from her seemed to infuse him with enthusiasm.
Maneuvering them into a doorway, he pressed her back against the wall and devoured her with just the firm pressure of his open mouth against hers, their world reduced to that quiet, dark alcove off the busy street.
Just for tonight, one night away from it all. She reached up to curl a hand around his neck and leaned into the most carnal kiss of her life. Oh my God, I’m kissing Jogger Guy, and oh he kisses like a dream—a dirty, sexy, erotic dream.
Encouraged by her responsiveness, he finally dipped his tongue into her mouth and tightened his arm around her waist.
Georgie clutched his other hand as her tongue dueled with his. More. She silently pleaded with him for relief from the aching, burning need that was unlike anything she had ever experienced.
The blast of a car horn startled them. He tore his lips free of hers and kissed a path to her neck.
“Why, Georgie Quinn,” he whispered. “I like the way you kiss.” He dragged his tongue along her jaw.
“And the way you taste.” With his erection snug against her belly, his hand coasted up over her ribs to cup her breast. “And the way you feel. I really like that.”
As her nipple tightened under his thumb, Georgie summoned some control. Shouldn’t she at least pretend to protest? But all she could seem to say was, “Nathan.”
“Yes?”
She tilted her head to give him better access to her neck. “We should stop this.”
He nibbled on her earlobe and sent a shudder straight through her. “Why?”
“I don’t do this kind of thing.” Kissing in public on a first date, restraining the urge to tear off his clothes to get to the good stuff, again on a first date.
“You should.” Continuing to lavish her ear with attention, he added, “You’re good at it.”
With a firm hand to his chest, she made one last attempt to rein in a situation that was spiraling into something she wasn’t ready for. “Please.”
As if she had thrown cold water in his face, he stopped and pulled back from her. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I was right there with you the whole way.”
He rewarded her with one of those grins that made his eyes crinkle and sparkle with mirth. “Take a walk with me?” Holding out his hand, he used those irresistible eyes to implore her.
She laced her fingers through his. “Since we’ve gotten the good-night kiss out of the way, there shouldn’t be anything else to worry about, right?”
“Absolutely,” he said in a light, breezy tone that told her she had everything in the world to be worried about.
“Oh, Nathan, this is beautiful!” she said of the shining hardwood floors, newly restored wood moldings, fresh paint in a dark tan she would have chosen herself, and elegant wall sconces. “You did all this?”
“I’ve been chipping away at it for the last year or so. It’s taking longer than usual because it needed everything.”
“This room is gorgeous.”
“I have ‘before’ pictures upstairs. You won’t believe the difference. Someone covered this floor with the most hideous carpet I’ve ever seen. Tearing it up and discovering this wood underneath it was like finding a million bucks.”
His passion for restoration was evident in the way his eyes lit up as he described the work he had done.
“Why anyone would want to cover this is beyond me.” Georgie squatted to run her hand over the glossy wood. She looked up to find him staring down at her with fire in his eyes and his jaw set with tension. “What?”
“That’s very sexy.”
“What is?”
“Watching you caress my wood floor.”
“Been a while for you, has it?”
He laughed and held out a hand to help her up. “Come see the rest.”
On the way up a steep flight of stairs, she noticed the kitchen had been taken down to studs. To the right of the stairs on the second floor was a large, fully renovated bedroom with a rumpled queen-size bed, a dresser, and bedside tables. “You live here?”
He nodded. “I always live in the houses I’m working on. Saves time and money.”
“Don’t you get tired of the chaos?”
Shrugging, he said, “I grew up with five brothers. I’m used to chaos.”
“I guess you would be. It would drive me nuts to live like this.”
“Have a need for order, do you?”
“Some semblance of it, anyway.” When the statement reminded her of the current disorder in her life, she quickly pushed the thought aside, determined to enjoy every minute of her brief escape from reality.
He pointed out the new light fixtures in the bathroom. “Energy-efficient lights and hot water heater. I’m kind of into the whole environmental thing.”
“No!” she said, scandalized. “I hadn’t noticed.”
“Very funny, Georgie Quinn.”
“I hate to tell you, but you tipped your hand with the hissy fit you had at the Dumpster—not to mention the organically grown flowers.”
With a sheepish grin, he said, “Everyone has to do their part.”
She pointed to a door. “What’s in here?”
“My brother Ben has been crashing in there, but he’s gone to Block Island for the night with some friends.” Nathan’s face clouded. “He’s going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment.”
His distress over his brother made Georgie want to reach out to him, but a sudden bout of shyness stopped her. The passion they’d shared on the street already seemed like a long time ago. She watched him make an effort to shake off his worries and return his focus to her.
“Can I get you a drink or anything? Believe it or not, I do have a fridge in this place.”
She shook her head. “I’m good. I should probably be getting home.”
“Right.”
They stared at each other for an endless moment before both took a step forward in the same instant.
His arms closed around her, lifting her right off her feet into another of those sexually charged kisses that had left her lips tingling and her body burning earlier. This is insanity! It has to stop! She would stop it. In just a minute. Surely one more minute won’t hurt anything.
His relentless tongue explored, teased, enticed.
Okay, maybe two more minutes.
Georgie clung to him, her fingers gripping his muscular shoulders.
He held her in a vise-like grip.
The next thing she knew, she was falling, and he was coming down on top of her as she landed on his bed.
Alarms! Bells! Whistles! Stop! Now! This is wrong!
This isn’t you—you don’t do this! Oh, but I want to.
I really, really want to! I want to let this amazing, sexy man make me forget, just for tonight, all the misery of the last three months.
Don’t I deserve that much? Yes, but oh how I’ll hate myself in the morning.
The morning is twelve hours from now, though.
Twelve blessed hours of release from the worry, the pain, the uncertainty.
“Georgie,” he gasped as he pulled back from her. “I can’t seem to resist you.” Resting his forehead on hers, he drew in a deep, cleansing breath. “But we should stop. I’ll walk you home.”
I don’t want to go home! I don’t want to be in a house full of memories that remind me over and over that I’m never going to see my mother again!
Don’t make me go back there. Please don’t.
Telling herself that one night with him—one night of mindless, no-holds-barred, no-commitment sex with the most devastatingly sexy man she had ever met—was just what she needed, she reached up to release a button on his shirt.
He went still on top of her. “Georgie?”
Another button popped free.
Exhaling a long deep breath, he reached for the hand at work on his shirt. “Are you sure?”
She nodded.
“But—”
With a finger to his lips, she told him she was done talking.