Can't Stand the Heat - Louisa Edwards [89]
“I don’t know what could make me feel better right now,” Miranda said. “God. Not too dramatic, am I?”
The rueful curve of her pink mouth made Adam ache to snatch her up and kiss her.
“No, it’s my fault,” Adam said, swinging off the sofa before his shaky impulse control gave out completely. “I promised you distraction and I haven’t delivered yet.”
“What did you have in mind?” Miranda asked. Her eyes were wide and guileless. Adam must have imagined the sultry note in her tone.
“Um. We could watch a movie or something. Except. Damn. My TV broke a few weeks ago and I haven’t had it fixed because I’m not really here enough to watch anything anyway, plus it’s summer so Devon’s show is in reruns, and it’s the one thing I really watch, and only so I can mock him for it mercilessly.”
Miranda laughed, which shut him up. She looked surprised at herself for it.
“Who needs TV?” she said, shaking her head and smiling. “You’re the perfect distraction all on your own.”
She unfolded herself from the couch and approached, her gaze never wavering from his face.
“Am I?” Adam forced out between suddenly dry lips.
“Well.” Miranda considered it. “You could be doing an even better job of it.”
She stepped directly in front of him. Her hands fluttered, then settled lightly on his hips.
“I don’t want to push you, if you’re not feeling . . .” Adam coughed, then started again. “I mean, this isn’t why I asked you back here.”
“I know,” she said, pushing her thumbs in circles against his hipbones. The touch rucked up his T-shirt a little, and then her hands were resting on the bare skin of his sides.
“Is it why you came?” Adam asked, feeling like the wrong answer was a bucket of ice water suspended over his head, just waiting to fall.
“Not that I’m turning you down, no matter what,” he hastened to add. “If all you’re looking for with me is oblivion, one night to feel instead of to think, I can give you that. But I’d like to know ahead of time if that’s all it is.”
Her hands stilled on his skin, making Adam wish he’d bitten his tongue and gone with it.
But as he watched, the lines of tension in Miranda’s face softened, melting like sugar into caramel.
“That’s not all it is,” she told him. A new wash of pink stained her cheeks as she confessed, “I’ve actually been picturing this moment ever since you hopped up on that stage and started singing, back at Chapel.”
Adam’s heart started to pound, but he managed a cocky grin. “Liked that, did you?”
“Far more than I expected. I especially appreciated your song choice.”
He ran his hands up her arms to her shoulders, enjoying the shivery arch of her body into his palms. It was subtle but addictive.
“One of my all-time favorites,” he whispered. “It’s been stuck in my head a lot recently. For some reason.”
Now they were both breathing too fast.
“Want to give me a tour of the rest of your place?” Miranda asked.
With all their cooking lessons and makeout sessions, they’d never made it past the kitchen to the more private areas of the townhouse.
Adam sucked in air, instantly imagining Miranda’s dark red hair flowing over the plain green sheets on his low, wide bed.
“Yeah,” he groaned. “Let’s do the tour.”
She squeaked when he picked her up, but obligingly wrapped her slim legs around his waist for balance.
“The kitchen, you already know.”
“Intimately,” she said directly into his ear, causing a full-body shudder that almost caused him to drop her.
Adam cursed and firmed his hold on her delectable round ass. Not exactly a hardship.
“This is the living room,” he recounted doggedly, rounding the corner of the bookcase that screened his bed from the rest of the apartment. “And oh, look, the bedroom.”
“Fascinating.” Again with the ear, but this time Adam was ready for