Off the Record (Off #3)(35)

I snort. “Oh, is that what you’re calling the women you bang these days? Friends? I suppose we’re friends, but we haven’t gotten around to the banging part.” I cannot help the flurry of words that are pouring out of me. I can’t stand the nonchalance with which he is treating this situation.

“Ever...last night—”

“Don’t, Linc. Don’t you dare try to explain it away. You know...I had come to accept the way you are with women. Hell, I was willing to throw myself in the long line of women waiting to get a piece of you. But I wasn’t good enough for you the other night. And it didn’t take you long to find someone else. Someone better, apparently. I’m sorry I don’t meet up to your standards—”

My words are cut off as Linc stalks over to me and grabs my face with his hands. I have no time to brace for the assault he places upon my lips. His mouth covers mine in a blazing hot kiss. His tongue is in my mouth and he’s backing me right up into the kitchen counter. My coffee cup falls to the floor, splattering both of our legs with coffee before shattering. But I could care less.

Linc has his entire body pressed into mine and he has taken absolute possession of my mouth. All of the thoughts and anger fly out of my head, and my hands grab onto his shirt to desperately keep him in place.

I’ve never been kissed like this before. It is hard, possessive and as our teeth knock together, I realize somewhat brutal. Just before he ends the kiss, Linc grabs hold of my bottom lip with his teeth, biting a groan out of me. Then he softly sucks on it before pulling away.

My chest is heaving with the effort to breathe, and although Linc has pulled his lips from mine, his erection is still pressed into my belly. I itch to move my hand down and take hold of it.

“Ever,” Linc begins, looking straight into my eyes. “Renner was not a date. She’s my cousin. One of my best friends. We grew up together and she’s like a sister to me. In fact, she’s the one that threw the shoe that split my chin open.”

“She clocked you with her shoe?” Images of her launching a stiletto at him fill my mind, and I have to wonder what Linc did to make a grown woman do that.

He chuckles. “Yes. I believe she was seven years old when she threw one of her Mary Jane’s at me in a fit of temper. Lesson learned...never piss off a red head.”

I can’t even respond. Humiliation runs through every vein in my body and I groan. I try to pull out of his arms so I can run to my bedroom and hide from the shame of my rant, but he holds me tight. So I do the next best thing and I bury my face in his chest. I’m sure the heat from my cheeks is burning a hole through his t-shirt. I’m not so far gone in my mortification though that I fail to notice the hard muscles of his chest under my hot cheek.

I can feel him give me a kiss on top of my head, then he steps back. He’s holding on to my upper arms, otherwise I would have bolted.

“That was quite a display of jealousy you gave me there, Miss Montgomery.”

My head snaps up and I glare at him. “I was not jealous!”

He merely raises an eyebrow at me and I clamp my mouth shut. Oh, God I was so jealous! I give him a sheepish grin and he chuckles at me.

Then he leans in and captures my lips again. Except this time...it’s soft. Sweet. Full of promise of something more to come.

To my dismay, it’s also way too short.

When he pulls back, he’s looking at me solemnly. “Ever...don’t let there be any doubt that I want you. Only you. You’re all I f*cking think about.”

Oh my. My toes practically curl in my running shoes with the want and frustration in his voice. All of the doubts that I had have fled. He truly does want me. And God help me, but I want him too.

Badly.

I take a shaky breath in and let it out. “But...we’re going to wait?”

“Yes,” he says as he gives me one more soft kiss. “We’re going to wait. I have something special planned.”

I let out a sigh as he grins at me. I’ll have to be satisfied with holding on to the anticipation of the day that Linc decides the time is right. “So be it. Let’s go run off this sexual frustration then.”





When we come back from our run, I head toward the bathroom to take a shower. Linc surprises me by grabbing my hand.

“I forgot to tell you, we’re going on a trip today. You’ll need to pack for at least a week.”

“Where are we going? And why are you springing this on me just now?”

“I go out to Jackson, Wyoming every summer for my vacation. I’ve had this planned but I wanted to surprise you.”

I remember now. He told me during our interview and a little thrill rushes through me. I’ve always wanted to go out West, and the thought of me and Linc holed up in a mountain cabin has my insides squirming. The mere fact that he wanted to surprise me causes butterflies to let loose in my stomach. It is an incredibly romantic gesture. This has to be the “something special” he has planned. It has to be.

But then I remember something.

“Uh, Linc. I can’t stay for a whole week.”

“Why not? You’re on assignment, you know.” He sounds a bit put out that I’m not willing or wanting to say the whole week with him.

“I know. And I would love to stay the whole week. But it’s my mom’s birthday. And I always go home to spend it with her. I mean...after the cancer...I don’t want to miss one of her birthdays.”