The Naughty List Bundle - Kylie Adams [41]
“It is. But your family is so different, so special. It’s the way I always thought families should be. I’ve enjoyed hearing about them. And I have had a few things vexing my mind.”
A grin took him by surprise; she sounded so worried. “Vexing you, huh?”
“Yes.”
“All right.” Turning, he gave her his full attention. The setting sun did amazing things to her fair hair and her blue eyes while making her skin appear even smoother. It was still hot and humid outside, even though it was evening, and she’d removed his shirt. He could visually trace the outline of her breasts beneath the T-shirt, the full shape of them, the roundness, even the delicate jut of her nipples. His abdomen pulled tight in an effort to fight off the inevitable reaction in his body, but he still felt himself harden. He could see the narrowness of her midriff, the dip of her waist. She hadn’t tucked the T-shirt in, and still the flare of her hips was obvious and suggestive.
She shaded her eyes with a small hand and blurted, “Why did you kiss me?”
Taken completely off guard, he blinked at her. After a moment, he said, “Come again?”
“Earlier.” She bit the side of her mouth and shifted nervously. “When you kissed me. Why’d you do it?”
She had to ask? He was thirty-six years old, had been kissing females since he was twelve, and yet none of them had ever asked him such a thing. Trying to figure out what she was thinking, he countered her question with one of his own. “Why do you think I did it?”
She looked so young when she turned bashful. He wondered at the man who’d given her up, who hadn’t really loved her, as she’d put it. Sawyer had already decided he was a damn fool. Now, seeing her like this, he was glad. She deserved better than a fool, better than a man who’d be stupid enough to let her go.
He stepped closer, so tempted to kiss her again, to show her instead of tell her about her appeal. But he knew it wasn’t right, that he was taking advantage of her situation and confusion. She stared down at her bare feet. “My sister always told me I was pretty.”
He wanted to see her eyes, but no matter how he willed it, she wouldn’t look up. “You’re very pretty. But I hardly kiss every pretty woman I see.”And in truth, he’d known women much more beautiful. They simply hadn’t interested him; they didn’t draw him as she did. “Besides,” he added, trying for some humor, “your face is bruised, and your lips are chapped, and there’s dark circles under your eyes.”
“Oh.” She touched her cheeks, then let her hands drop away with a frown.
He waited while she thought about that. “Alden used to tell me I was shaped…okay.”
“Okay?”
She gave a grave nod. “Men can be…enticed, by physical stuff, I know.”
She was attempting to sound blasé, and he barely held back his laugh. Alden must have been a complete and total putz. She was much better off without him. “Honey, you’re sexy as hell, and sure, to some men that’s all that matters, but again—” He gave a philosophical shrug.
“You don’t kiss every sexy woman you see?”
“Exactly.”
She licked her lips, and her expression was earnest, if reserved. “So then why did you?”
Very softly, he admitted, “I shouldn’t have.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
Her cheek was sun-warmed beneath his palm as he tilted up her face, determined to see her eyes, to read her. Besides, he couldn’t seem to not touch her. “What’s your real question, sweetheart?”
Her eyes darkened, and the pulse in her throat raced, but she didn’t look away this time. She fidgeted, shifting from one foot to the next. “Did…did you think since I was available, but determined not to be here too long, you could just…you know. Have a quick fling?”
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d smiled so much. But she amused and delighted him with her every word—when she wasn’t provoking him and pricking his temper. She was both the most open, honest woman he’d ever met, sharing her feelings and emotions without reserve or caution, and the most stubbornly elusive, refusing to tell