Tell Me You Crave Me (Search and Seduce #3)(19)

“No, as you’re very aware, I’m a grown man. Or should I remind you?”

She took her own bold step toward him. “Grown man, huh? Is that why you parade Blondie around, with the grand plan to get drunk and get laid?”

The low light of the flickering outside bulb was enough for her to see his eyebrow arch and his grin widen.

“You jealous there, baby?”

“I’m…I don’t know,” she said with a weird hitch in her voice. He’d just called her baby again. The only time he’d done that was when they’d been—

“Listen,” he said. “I didn’t come out here to fight.”

“Then why did you come out here?”

“I wanted to let you know I only agreed to helping you out with this list of bridesmaid duties because Matt didn’t leave me any choice.”

“Oh.” She cocked her head. “So you’re saying you don’t want to help me?”

He glared at her. “I’m saying you and I agreed to keep our distance from each other, and I’m not trying to be a dick by making that harder. Jesus. We can both be adults about this.”

“I’m trying to be an adult about this,” she said confidently. “Unlike you, this is new for me.”

“What’s new for you?” he asked. “Sex?”

“No,” she said quickly. “I mean this whole dating, sleeping together, then…”

“Seeing the guy you f*cked in your shop around town and knowing that kind of thing is never going to happen again?”

“Yeah,” she snapped. “It’d be easier if I just never saw you again.”

“Well, don’t spare my feelings,” he said.

“What feelings?” she countered. “Your ego seems to outweigh any that I can see.”

“Oh, getting feisty?” he said. His demeanor was still joking, but a fleck of something in his eyes made her think he’d actually been cut by her words. So something could actually hurt the guy. At least now she knew he felt something besides lust.

“Just being honest,” she admitted. “Sex changed things between us.”

“Why does it have to change? You were a pain the ass before tonight, and you still are. So why are you extra sassy with me?”

“Same reason you followed me out here,” she said.

“I followed you out here because I care about you. Unlike that guy in there who didn’t even notice you’re gone.”

She raised her brows. Was that East being…perceptive? Caring?

If that were true, it just pissed her off even more.

“I don’t need you thinking you can come after me and save the day. You don’t even have a jacket to offer me. So stop this bullshit excuse. I won’t tell my brother, okay? You don’t have to stalk me to make sure.”

A low growl broke from his chest. “You think that’s what this is about? You think you have me pegged?”

“I know I do,” she said. “Unlike those bimbos you flaunt around, I know you, East. I won’t ruin your precious relationship with my brother, or my family, so go back inside. We’re good. And we’re done.”

“Oh, we’re not good,” he rasped. “And we’re not done.” In two strides, he was face to face with her, gripping the back of her hair. He yanked her face up to meet his gaze. The zing of lust spread fast, like hot lava, from her core to her stomach, and in a millisecond she was drowning, just from his rough hands on her.

“East. What are you doing?”

He pulled her hair. Not too hard. Just hard enough. “See, I can’t go back to my date knowing you’re sitting with that idiot who can’t see what’s right in front of him. Just like that other idiot you were with last night. You have a thing for idiots, baby?”

She stared him down. “Looks like I must.”

He yanked her hair harder, and she gasped, loving the sting. Wanting more. Wanting to pin him down and kiss the hell out of him. Wanting to hate him for making her feel the way she was feeling. Just wanting him.

“Mouthy,” he said. “That’s my problem with you now. Because maybe you’re right. Maybe sex did change something, because I can’t walk into the bar and just see you. Now you know exactly how that mouth of yours feels on my skin.” He pulled her closer so that he could nip her earlobe. “I also know how you bite my shoulder when you’re close to coming for me.” Another nip along her jaw. “And I know how you gasp once, then moan my name, when I slam deep inside of you.”

She gasped. And she felt his smile against her neck.

“Yeah, just like that,” he said.

The * meant for her to react to him. And her body betrayed her by heating up. Playing right into his hands. But damn it, there was no place she’d rather be at the moment. She couldn’t look at him without feeling the desire she’d repressed for twenty-five years. The genie was out of the bottle and couldn’t be put back in.

“Well, I know you now, too,” she said, trying to sound calm, but her body was boiling from the heat of her blood. “I know that you bore easily.” She skimmed her mouth along his and took a deep breath. “I know you like a challenge. And I can tell you right now, Easton Ambrose, I’m never going to be another notch on your bedpost.”