More Than a Mission - Caridad Pineiro [38]
Take it slow, he told himself. He needed to explore all the nuances of the woman sitting across from him, just as he could with the wine in the glass. Maybe he could uncover other things about her, as well, during this little…interlude.
He reached for a strawberry—a big, red ripe one. Picking it up, he brought it to her lips.
She covered his hand with hers, as if to steady it. A sweet touch. Gentle.
She took a bite of the berry and the juice from it escaped onto her lips, reddening them. She licked the juice away with her tongue.
He nearly groaned as he imagined that tongue licking other things. As it was, he had to shift his position on the blanket to ease the pressure of his erection against his jeans.
Men were sometimes too easy, Elizabeth thought. But as she took note of other things, her mouth suddenly went dry and she realized, maybe men and women weren’t all that different, as parts of her suddenly became…ready.
Physical response notwithstanding, she knew nothing about Aidan other than he would leave, and he in turn knew little about her. Not who or what she was. Not what she wanted from life.
But then again, maybe this didn’t have anything to do with any of that. Maybe this was one of those carpe diem times. Time to seize and be seized in return without any thought as to where that would lead. When the voice of common sense rose up to tell her it would lead to nothing good, she batted it way, tired of being sensible.
Grabbing another bit of bread and cheese, she once again offered it up to him. A little smidge of cheese remained on his lips and he must have sensed it for he was reaching up to wipe it away when she said, “Let me.”
He stopped, his gaze on her face as she shifted on the blanket to move closer and then, flicked her tongue over his lips to remove that one errant piece of cheese.
He moaned then. Or at least she thought he did, but he made no move to take it any further.
So maybe he wasn’t as easy as she had thought. It wasn’t going to stop her from doing the seizing. She was a modern woman after all.
Aidan took a deep breath to control himself since he wanted nothing more than to kiss her and lay her down on that blanket and take off every last piece of…
He gritted his jaw and told himself to maintain perspective. He was investigating her. She was likely a renowned assassin who would gut him quite easily with that little knife she was using to remove the skin from a pear she had pulled out of another bag.
With the pear peeled, she made slices which she placed on the plate beside the strawberries. Once she was done, she sipped her wine, grabbed a little more of the bread, cheese and ham. Another tomato.
He watched her enjoy the food with such gusto. He wanted to join her in that sensation and so he did the same, eating more of their purchases. He reached for a slice of pear but was waylaid as she offered her slice to him; he, in turn, offered her his slice.
The pear was sweet and so ripe that the juices dripped onto his fingers and downward. His gaze was locked with hers as they brought the slices of fruit to each other’s mouths. Their eyes never wavered from each other as they both bit down and ate the pear slices.
But when nothing was left and he would have reached for another piece, she did the unexpected.
She grabbed hold of his hand and brought it close to her mouth. Slowly, she licked the pear juice from each of his fingers and then finally, slipped his index finger into her mouth to lick it some more.
It was his undoing; he nearly burst the seams on his jeans.
He grasped her head in his hands, but some last little crumb of chivalry reared its head as he asked, “Are you sure about this?”
“No,” she said, and he had to smile at her honesty.
Thieves, he reminded himself as he closed the distance between them and said, “Me, neither,” just a moment before he finally kissed her as he had wanted to all day long.
Chapter 12
The other night hadn’t been an aberration, she thought. He really was an amazing kisser.