Strong and Sexy (Sky High Air #2)(6)

She wanted to be never rattled or ruffled.

“Am I?” His thumb glided over her skin, sending all her erogenous zones into tap-dance mode. “Missing something?”

“Yes. N-no. I mean…”

He smiled. And not just a curving of his lips, but with his whole face. His eyes lit, those laugh lines fanned out, and damn, that sexy dimple. “Yeah,” he murmured. “Definitely missing something.”

“I’m a little crazy tonight,” she admitted.

“A little crazy once in a while isn’t a bad thing.”

Oh boy. She’d bet the bank he knew how to coax a woman into doing a whole host of crazy stuff. Just the thought made her feel a little warm, and a nervous laugh escaped.

“You’re beautiful, you know that?”

She had to let out another laugh, but he didn’t as he traced a finger over her lower lip. “You are,” he murmured.

Beautiful? Or crazy?

“You going to tell me what brought you to this closet?”

“I was garnering my courage.”

“For?”

Well wasn’t that just the question of the night, as there were so many, many things she’d needed courage for, not the least of which was standing here in front of him and telling him what she really wanted. A kiss…

“Talk to me.”

She licked her lips. “There’s a man and a woman in that first office down the hall. Together. And they’re…not talking.”

“Ah.” A fond smile crossed his mouth. “You must have found Noah and Bailey. They’ve just come home from their honeymoon. So yeah, I seriously doubt they’re…talking.”

“Yeah. See…” She gnawed on her lower lip. “I was hoping for that.”

“Talking.”

“No. The not talking.”

Silence.

And then more silence.

Oh, God.

Slowly she tipped her head up and looked at him, but he wasn’t laughing at her.

A good start, she figured.

In fact, his eyes were no longer smiling at all, but full of a heart-stopping heat. “Can you repeat that request?” he asked.

Well, yes, she could, but it would make his possible rejection that much harder to take. “I was wondering your stance on being seduced by a woman who isn’t really so good at this sort of thing, but wants to be better…”

He blinked. “Just to be clear.” His voice was soft, gravelly, and did things to every erogenous zone in her body. “Is this you coming on to me?”

“Oh, God.” She covered her face. “If you don’t know, then I’m even worse at this than I thought. Yes. Yes, that’s what I’m pathetically attempting to do. Come on to you, a complete stranger in a closet, but now I’m hearing it as you must be hearing it, and I sound like the lunatic that everyone thinks I am, and—”

His hands settled on her bare arms, gliding up, down, and then back up again, over her shoulders to her face, where he gently pulled her hands away so he could see her.

“I saw the mistletoe,” she rushed to explain. “It’s everywhere. And people were kissing. And I couldn’t get kissing off my mind…God. Forget it, okay? Just forget me.” She took a step back, but because this was her, she tripped over something on the floor behind her. She’d have fallen on her ass if he hadn’t held her upright. “Thanks,” she managed. “But I need to go now. I really need to go—”

He put a finger to her lips.

Right. Stop talking. Good idea.

His eyes, still hot, and also a little amused—because that’s what she wanted to see in a man’s eyes after she’d tried to seduce him, amusement—locked onto hers. She couldn’t look away. There was just something about the way he was taking her in, as if he could see so much more than she’d intended him to. “Seriously. I’ve—”

He turned away.

Okaaaay…“Got to go.”

But he was rustling through one of the shelves. Then he bent to look lower and she tried not to look at his butt. She failed, of course. “Um, yeah. So I’ll see you around.” Or not. Hopefully not— “Got it.” Straightening, he revealed what he held—a sprig of mistletoe.

“Oh,” she breathed. Her heart skipped a beat, then raced, beating so loud and hard she couldn’t hear anything but the blood pumping through her veins.

His mouth quirked slightly, but his eyes held hers, and in them wasn’t amusement so much as…

Pure staggering heat.

“Did you change your mind?” he asked.

Was he kidding? She wanted to jump him. Now. “No.”

With a smile that turned her bones to mush, he raised his arm so that the mistletoe was above their heads.

Oh, God.

“Your move,” he whispered.

She looked at his mouth, her own tingling in anticipation. “Maybe you could…”

“Oh, no. I’m not taking advantage of a woman in a closet, drenched in champagne.” He smiled. “But if she wanted to take advantage of me, now see, that’s a different story entirely.”

He was teasing her, his eyes lit with mischievousness and a wicked, wicked intent.

“I’m a klutz,” she whispered. “I might hurt you by accident.”