She shrugged. “I hated that job anyway.”
His heart swelled and he smiled broadly.
“What are you smiling about?” she asked, pointing at him with her fork.
“Nothing.” His smile widened further.
She grinned. “Your dimples are showing, Sedric.”
He flushed.
“And you’re blushing.”
He scowled. “I’m not.”
“Don’t stop. It’s adorable.”
He lifted an eyebrow at her. “Sedric Lionheart is not adorable.”
“But you are. Adorable, I mean. When your dimples show and you blush.”
It was impossible not to grin and blush when she said things like that. While he was basking in her compliment, she stole a piece of shrimp from his plate.
“Are you trying to distract me so you can steal my food?”
“Maybe.” She stole another shrimp and popped it into her mouth.
“Hey.”
She laughed and poked another shrimp with her fork. He caught her fork with his before she could lift her prize to her open mouth. Was she flirting with him? And teasing him? Hadn’t she just told him she didn’t want to have anything to do with him? He would never understand her. He didn’t know why he bothered trying.
“If you want my food, you should ask,” he said.
“Can I have one of your shrimp?” She looked into his eyes expectantly. He couldn’t refuse her anything when she looked at him like that.
He picked up one of his few remaining shrimp and offered it to her. She leaned across the table and drew his fingers into her mouth. When her tongue brushed his fingertips, his dick stirred in his shorts, ready and willing to take on anything Jessica had in mind. When it came to this woman, that part of his anatomy didn’t give a flying f**k what was going on in his head or his heart.
Jessica leaned back and chewed with her eyes closed in bliss.
And that would be why. The woman was too damned sexy for her own good.
“It’s soooo good,” she murmured.
Sed’s mouth went dry.
Her bare foot brushed his under the table. His toes curled. He expected her to move away immediately, but instead she rubbed her big toe against his instep. His stomach clenched with need. Cock throbbed incessantly. Did she realize what she was doing to him?
“Are you going to finish that?” she asked.
He shoved his plate in her direction. “I need a drink.” And a cold, cold shower. He slid out of the booth and opened the refrigerator. Why had Myrna insisted they move all the beer to the other bus? He didn’t feel like going over there and getting one, so he reached for a bottle of water. When a hand settled against the small of his back, he froze.
“Is there anything good to drink in there?” Jessica asked, peeking around his body.
The fruity scent of her shampoo assailed him and his eyes drifted closed. What had she asked him?
Oh yeah. Drink.
“All the alcohol’s on the other bus.”
Jessica reached in the refrigerator and retrieved a bottle of orange juice. She pressed the container against his belly and he danced sideways. “Cold!”
She laughed and tried to move around him, but he caught her around the waist and turned her to face him. She opened her bottle of juice and took a long drink, looking unconcerned by his nearness.
“What is this you’re doing?”
She gazed up at him with those remarkable jade-green eyes of hers. “What do you mean?”
“This. This flirting.”
“Do you want me to stop?”
“That depends on its purpose. If you’re doing it to mess with my head, then yes, stop, please, it’s torture. But if you’re trying to work me into a frenzy so I can’t keep my hands off you—”
“The second one.”
His heart stuttered.
She took another sip of her juice. “Drink?” she offered, tipping the bottle toward him.
Juice sloshed out of the bottle and splashed against his chest. It trickled down the center of his belly and disappeared into the waistband of his shorts. “Whoops.” She leaned forward and licked the juice from his skin, working her way down his body.
He wished his brain worked better when his dick was hard. What had turned her from cold to hot in less than half an hour?
“I thought you said you hated me,” he said.
She stood straight again and leaned closer, her hand pressing against the tent in his shorts. He drew a sharp breath through his teeth.
“I still hate you,” she said. “That doesn’t seem to stop me from wanting you, though.”
“So, this is just about—”
“Sex, Sedric. Nothing more.”
Could he have a purely sexual relationship with Jessica? He had no problem having that kind of relationships with dozens of other women, so why was he hesitating with her? Because she was different.
She could hurt him.
She did hurt him.
Just looking at her hurt. When he couldn’t see her, it hurt. When he thought about her, it hurt. When he tried not to think about her, it hurt. But which hurt more, being with her or being without her?
The entire time his internal battle raged, she just stared up at him, waiting for him to make the next move. His hand trembled as he lifted it to cup her jaw. His thumb brushed across her lips. Should he kiss her? She wouldn’t realize that he hadn’t kissed another woman since he’d fallen in love with her. Maybe his body had cheated, but his heart never had.
Her eyes drifted closed as he lowered his head. He hesitated, a hair’s breadth between their lips. Something told him he’d regret this tomorrow, but now seemed more important. He traced the contour of her lush upper lip with his tongue. She sighed, trembling, as her lips parted. His tongue probed deeper, running along the ridge of her teeth, the roof of her mouth, and then stroked the surface of her tongue. She groaned and squeezed his hard-on through his shorts.
He shuddered and kissed her deeply, a ripple of delight streaking down his spine. He drew the tang of orange juice from her mouth into his, kissing her until her unique flavor greeted his tongue. That’s what he wanted. Her taste. God, he’d missed it so much. He couldn’t get enough. She groaned into his mouth.
The bottle of orange juice slipped from her hand. It hit the floor with a thunk and tipped onto its side, its contents glugging out and spreading across the linoleum.
Jessica pulled away. “Oh crap.”
She bent to retrieve the half-empty bottle, put it on the table, and reached for a dish towel. He spooned up against her back, his hand running up her belly under her shirt.