Baking Me Crazy (Donner Bakery, #1)(47)

If she'd fallen into our normal rhythms, if she'd acted like herself right away, I might not have felt so certain about what I needed to do.

"So I'll tell you, Jocelyn Marie, I'll tell you exactly why there couldn't be a thing better in the world than the fact that you know me as well as you do and I know you in the same way."

Her throat, elegant and graceful, worked in a visible swallow, but she stayed silent.

"Because you know that when I say something to you, it's the truth, even if it's hard to hear. Even if it scares the hell out of you, you know that I'd rather rip my tongue out than tell you something that's a lie."

She blinked, and her jaw worked back and forth.

I licked my lips and lifted my hand from the back of the seat. Framing her face were a few curls, the ones that escaped the confines of whatever she'd done to it. I touched one, and she held herself so still that I almost smiled. The hair was soft, and the way it coiled around itself made me want to pull it straight just to watch it spring back into place.

Her chest lifted on a sharp inhale while I stared at the one curl.

"Do you know what the first thing was that I noticed about you?" I asked.

Joss shook her head slowly, one short back and forth motion as she held herself in place. Okay, I guess I'd be narrating this one solo.

"It was your hair." I slid my thumb and forefinger along the curl and stretched it gently, smiling when it bounced back. "I remember, like it happened yesterday, seeing you come into the gym that first day. It looked like your hair was exploding from the top of your head."

She exhaled a laugh. That little puff of air had my shoulders relaxing.

"It was your eyes next," I continued. I moved my thumb from her hair to the soft patch of skin underneath the edge of her lower lashes. "I've never, not in my entire life, been as intimidated as I was when you spoke to me the first time and turned those eyes right on me."

"Seriously?" she whispered.

I gave her a self-deprecating smile. "Seriously. Don't you remember the ass-kicking you gave me?"

"Maybe." But her smile, bright and sweet and fast, told me she remembered.

"I was stumbling over my words, couldn't even think of what I wanted to say because I couldn't stop staring. You were so fast, so graceful, so confident, I felt like I had a brick tied to my tongue for all the good it did me."

Joss shifted on the bench, lifting herself up a couple of inches so she could angle her legs toward me. "I don't remember you sounding awkward."

I swallowed. "I asked you out to dinner when we were done playing."

She nodded, her eyes turning sad. "And I said no."

I nodded back. "Do you remember what you said next?"

Her chin tipped up, and she inhaled slowly. "I said I could use a friend, though."

My thumb moved from the skin around her eyes, traced the sculpted edge of her high cheekbone, then touched the soft downy lobe of her ear, which made her shiver. She was so soft everywhere.

"Being your friend has been the greatest part of my life," I told her. "And even though I very much wanted to take you out for dinner just like this one, I don't regret a single day of the past five years because you know me in a way that no one else ever has."

"N-not even your family?" she stuttered when my thumb followed the edge of her jaw. I slid closer, thank God for bench seats.

"No one." Finally, I reached the edge of her mouth, those pink lips that were open as she breathed unsteadily. The line along her bottom lip was full and soft as I touched it. "Your mouth, that was next."

Her eyes fluttered shut. "Wh-what?"

I leaned in further, and the soft exhalation from her mouth hit mine. I pulled it into my lungs.

"I noticed your mouth next. Even now, this mouth makes me insane. When you smile, it's like a weapon."

Those eyes snapped open.

I traced the upper lip now, the sweet V of the cupid's bow. The tip of Joss's tongue darted out to lick her lips, but she caught the pad of my thumb as she did it.

My hand moved to cup the side of her face, and slowly, slowly, slowly, she tilted her head more fully into my palm.

That was my sign, the one I was waiting for. I wet my lips, her eyes tracking each movement. I dipped my chin and lightly, so lightly touched my lips to hers.

Click.

A puzzle piece. A lock. A key fitting into place, the one, singular, unique place it was meant for.

I brushed my lips back and forth slowly, memorizing the satin of her lips as she exhaled shakily, her hands sliding up my forearms to grip my wrists.

Joss tilted her head to the side for a new angle, and I touched my tongue gently to the seam of her lips. Immediately, she opened, and the sweet touch of her tongue against mine had me groaning deep from within my chest. This was my drug. This was the bright shot into my veins that had me flying.

I sipped at her lower lip, and she made a sound, a plea for more when she shifted again, tightening her grip on my wrists.

My hands were shaking as I held her face, then tilted my own to kiss her more deeply, sweeping my tongue against hers harder than before. There was so much pent-up energy coursing through my body I had to fight, claw, and snarl at the impulse to pull her onto my lap and kiss her as deep, wet, hard as I'd imagined so many times. To feel her skin under my hands. To know what her weight would feel like in my arms.