Chapter 9 More Than Tempted
MORE THAN TEMPTED
Saylor rolled over in the comfortable bed and tried to gather her bearings.
She looked out the window, saw the snow falling hard, and snuggled in some more.
Everything slammed back into her head, a collision of epic emotions.
It was hard to believe she’d known Rowan less than twenty-four hours but felt like they’d been in each other’s lives for years.
Not only was he familiar with diabetes, but he also asked her more questions, then worried he had offended her with his interest.
She’d dated men for months that knew less about her than Rowan did.
They’d talked about so much last night. Not just their lives, but things they enjoyed.
If it had been a date, she’d rank it a fifteen out of ten.
From his boyish grin, the impish look in his eyes when words spilled out of his mouth and he wondered if he should have taken it back, to the sex appeal oozing out of his skin.
Sitting under his arm after the phone calls to family made her want to stay rooted to the couch for days.
The way the snow was falling on top of all the ice told her that might actually happen.
Her stomach was grumbling and she realized there was a scent in the air.
Was that bacon?
She reached for her phone on the bedside, saw it was a little after six. They’d gone to bed before midnight, but not by much.
The second thing she checked was her blood sugar. Steady at 115 most of the night.
Perfect in her eyes.
She threw the covers back and stretched her arms over her head. This was the most comfortable bed she’d ever slept in. Stood to reason though, considering whose house it was.
Rowan’s T-shirt she slept in hit her mid-thigh. She was glad she was bold enough to ask him for one.
He’d granted her one of those wicked smirks of his too, even made a comment that he’d like to see her in it.
She’d been more than tempted to let him.
Since the aroma of coffee joined in, she pulled her leggings on, ran to the bathroom, then brushed her teeth, and raced down the stairs.
It’d be rude of her to lie in bed if Rowan was cooking breakfast.
“Merry Christmas,” he said when she rounded the stairs and saw him with his hair messed up, a T-shirt on and a pair of sweats. His feet were bare like hers.
Maybe that was why she was feeling playful when she saw the mistletoe hanging in the kitchen. It wasn’t there last night, so he must have had the same bug as her. Or the same feverish sensations that she’d experienced.
He’d said he did whatever he wanted in life.
Why couldn’t she?
She stopped under the fake green fern, cleared her throat, and pointed up.
Rowan smiled, his blue eyes lighting up as he strutted over.
She puckered her lips exaggeratedly, and he leaned down and did the same, touching them to hers.
It should have been silly. A goofy antic on both of their parts.
But the minute his lips touched hers, an electricity shot through her body, extending to her fingertips that forced her to pull him closer.
She wasn’t alone.
He yanked her to his chest, his mouth slanting against hers, his tongue invading, the two of them making out exactly as she wanted to do on the couch last night.
She wouldn’t feel bad about it.
She already considered what they shared a date in her mind. She kissed men on the first date all the time.
It was only a kiss.
Except it didn’t feel like only a kiss when she pressed against his body, wearing his shirt, no bra, her nipples hard and begging for more contact.
But he pulled back, breaking the spell that had come over them.
Or it could be the sizzling in the pan that had him jumping toward it and flipping the bacon.
“Don’t burn my breakfast,” she said.
“I won’t,” he said. “I boasted I could cook so I can’t fail you now.”
She wasn’t sure if there was any aspect of Rowan that someone could consider a failure.
“What are you making?” she asked.
He turned to the coffeemaker and started a cup for her. “Bacon, eggs, and toast. How do you like your eggs?”
“Any way you make them, I’ll eat them,” she said. “I’ll set the table.”
She gathered the plates and put them on the island while he broke eggs and scrambled them in a bowl, then popped bread in the toaster.
When her coffee was done, she grabbed it and put in the two creamers he’d had on the counter.
“How did you sleep?”
“Wonderfully,” she said. “That bed is like floating on a cloud. This whole place is a dream vacation. I was lying in bed thinking it’d be a great vacation and place to be stuck. Then I saw the snow outside.”
“It’s coming down hard,” he said. “They are calling it blizzard conditions and it won’t stop until late tomorrow.”
“Seriously?” she asked. She should be nervous or disappointed. She was neither.
“You’re smiling,” he said, leaning against the counter, his hands behind his back, his ankles crossed in front of him.
“There are worse places to be during a storm. If it wasn’t for you, I’d be at an airport for days.”
Talk about shitty.
It didn’t bear thinking of.
“Good thing I saved a damsel in distress.”
“I’m still embarrassed by my reaction. That wasn’t like me at all.”
He reached for her, pulled her into his arms, and held her. Not sexually. More of a comforting one.
“Never feel that way when it comes to your health. You know what you need and you fight for it. The stress of having to stay in the airport could have compounded things more. I’m not someone to think of the bad in life, but I might have had a few horrible thoughts of you in the airport without your extra supplies. ”
“I tried to not let them slip in because it hadn’t happened. I should thank you again.”
“You should,” he said. “With a kiss.”
She leaned up to look at him. His lips landed on hers hard and goofy.
The toast popped, so she wiggled away to prepare that while he finished with the bacon and eggs.
“How do you normally spend your Christmas mornings? It’s probably loud and full of an extraordinary amount of gifts under a fifteen foot tree.”
“Damn,” he said. “You’re good. Not the gift part, but the loudness and tree size now. West was the one with the money for years. He took care of things for my mother while she worked part time. By the time she could have gone to work full time there was no need, even though she wanted to.”
“I think that’s very noble of your brother to do that.”
Very few would take care of their family before themselves, but Rowan had given her some bits and pieces into how selfless West was in those early years.
Her grandmother was the only one that ever put her first.
“He’s a good guy even when he’s bossy.”
She laughed and dove into her eggs. “I think maybe being bossy comes naturally to him. How about you? You own a business. You have said little about it. I mean, do you have a lot of employees? Is it okay for you to be gone long?”
“I’m not bossy. I may be a chill dude, but I ensure everything is done correctly.
It’s my name and reputation on the line along with my brother’s.
He seeded the business for me like he did Elias.
Or anyone else that wants to go on their own, but we had to have a solid business plan, and if it was lacking, he filled in any gaps to guarantee success. ”
She wasn’t surprised there. “So if it was failing he’d just keep throwing money at it?”
Rowan laughed. “Never. He would find out what the issue was and go from there. But I’m doing well.
I cater toward the middle-of-the-line surfers.
My boards are custom designs if someone wants to pay for them, but also limited editions anyone can buy.
Bold and colorful is what I’m going for. Something different.”
“Just like you,” she said. “You’re different.”
“I’ve been told that enough in my life.”
“And it doesn’t bother you, does it?”
“Not at all. In a family my size, no one can blend in. It’s not allowed.”
“I wanted to blend in when I was a kid. Once I was diagnosed, the dream vanished.”
“Just be you,” he said. “And the rest falls in place.”
“I’m learning that,” she said, her hand reaching for his. He threaded their fingers together and held her stare for a good five seconds.
One of them had to break the spell, or she might do something she’d never done before and seduce a man.