I Love How You Love Me (The Sullivans #13)(33)

The phone rang, jolting her out of the spell his words were weaving around her. But he made absolutely no move to answer it, didn’t even seem to notice it.

“You’re going to ignore that, aren’t you? Doesn’t it ever bother you, wondering who it is?”

“I’ve always found that the people I want to hear from know where to look for me. Just like you did.”

The phone stopped ringing for a few seconds, then immediately started again. “You’re not even going to check the caller ID?”

“What’s caller ID?”

She knew he was kidding—he must be kidding, right? Fortunately, when the phone started ringing a third time, he said, “If you want to answer it, be my guest.”

Of course she did, so she picked up the handset on the old phone, complete with spiral cord, that hung from the wall by the desk. “Hello.”

“Hello, it’s Shawna.” The woman on the other end of the line managed to infuse a ridiculous amount of sexiness into the three words. “It would be so nice if you could let Dylan know I want to talk to him.”

Grace figured out from less than a dozen words that this woman had been in Dylan’s bed. And that knowledge made her feel so jealous and irritated that despite knowing Dylan hated speaking on the phone unless he absolutely had to, she said, “No problem, Shawna. Hold on and I’ll pass him the phone.”

She held out the receiver to him, trying to read whether or not he was pleased by the obvious booty call, but he had his poker face on. And it was a damned good one, too.

“Hi, Shawna.” He listened to what she had to say before replying, “That’s nice of you to think of me for the game tonight.” Dylan paused and looked straight at Grace, his expression shifting from easy to intense in the blink of an eye. “But I’m seeing someone. Someone important. So I’m going to have to pass. Have fun at the game.”

I’m seeing someone? she thought as he put down the phone. “You didn’t have to turn down the tickets.” Someone important? “You could have gone with her.”

“Didn’t you just hear me say that I’m taken?”

For all the warnings she’d given herself about taking things too seriously with Dylan, she couldn’t stop a warm glow from washing over her. “I thought we agreed to take things slow.”

“We are.” He reached for her, drew her against him the way she’d been secretly longing for throughout their interview. “Slow and exclusive.”

But as thrilled as she was to hear Dylan say that he wanted only her, she had to try to make sense of something that didn’t make any sense. “How are you not with someone already?” She gestured to the phone. “Clearly, there are women lining up around the block for some time with you. And with the way you look, the way you kiss—” She made herself stop before she rambled on any longer about how amazing a catch he was. “I just don’t understand it.”

“I have all the same questions about you, Grace. The way you look. The way you kiss. The way I can’t stop smiling whenever you’re near. How are you still single?”

Was he nuts? The reason was obvious. “I’m a single mother of a ten-month-old.” Not to mention the fact that she hadn’t let anyone close enough to even try getting through the wall she’d put up around her heart after it had been smashed by her ex and his family.

“A great ten-month-old.”

Dylan’s affection for her son was yet another thing that set him a world apart from other men. “That’s another thing I can’t figure out.”

“What’s that?”

“How you are so willing to open up your life to a woman with baggage.”

“Anyone who would actually call Mason baggage, anyone who can’t see that he’s the greatest gift in the world, doesn’t deserve you.” He brushed back a lock of her hair, making her shiver despite the heat. “Did you get what you needed for today’s interview?”

With the way he was looking at her, she could only just manage to say, “Yes. We’ve covered a lot of ground today.”

“Not enough.” He took each of her hands in his and lifted them to his lips for a kiss before he started moving them both into the back area of the boathouse. “Not nearly enough.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“Is there—” My God, had anyone ever looked at her like this? Like he wanted to devour her in one big gulp and was only barely restraining himself from doing just that? “Is there something else you wanted to tell me?” But he didn’t answer, simply continued their path behind the nearly finished sloop. Her heart was racing as she followed him. “Something you need to show—”

When he backed her up against the wall, then lifted her hands and arms above her head so that her back arched slightly and her breasts pressed into the hard wall of his chest, she swallowed the last word.

“This.” He nipped at her lower lip, hard enough that it sent a blast of heat—and need—searing through her, head to toe. “I need to show you this.” He nipped at her again, her chin this time, sending even more bright bolts of desire through her. “I need to show you how much I want you.” He found her earlobe next with his teeth, and a low moan slipped from her lips. “How I haven’t been able to stop thinking of you since Saturday night.” He breathed her in once. Then once again. “Your scent…it drives me crazy.” He scraped his stubble across her neck. “Your skin…it’s so soft, so kissable.”