Kiss Me (2 page)

Not this time. This time he wanted the real deal. This time he wanted to explore the possibilities of commitment, of the future he could have with Jenna.

Their server delivered their meals. Jenna ignored the food and instead stared at Luke. The perfect sex buddy wanted her, only minus the sex. Now what was she supposed to do?

She’d carved a perfect future for herself, and Luke was about to upend it with his relationship talk. No sex would lead to other ways for them to bide their time. Long talks and shared dreams would take their friendship to a new level of intimacy. Could she handle that?

Not without bending the rules.

Luke ran a hand through his hair. She stared at his fingers with envy. How she would love to twine her own hands through his thick, dark hair until it stood on end as she kissed him with all the pent-up sexual energy she’d been hiding. She released a deep sigh, then quickly caught her breath as an idea struck her. She couldn’t stop the grin tugging her lips because she’d just discovered a tantalizing way to bend Luke’s no-sex rule.

Suddenly famished, she picked up the fork and knife and sliced into the filet. “Okay, so you want to prove you can be in a relationship without sex, right?”

“Yes, exactly,” he replied without picking up his silverware.

She shrugged. “But that wouldn’t really be much different from what we already have. We’d simply be friends who don’t have sex with each other, let alone anyone else.”

He frowned.

She savored a slice of the rare meat before washing it down with a sip of wine, then dabbed her lips with her napkin. “Intimacy and affection are important in a relationship and while I understand what you’re getting at, I need to have a certain level of affection.” She sliced into her meat again. “We can have that, you know…without sex.”

“How would we do that?”

“Kissing.”

He grinned. The playful twinkle in his green eyes told her she was on the right track.

He finally picked up his fork and knife, then dove into the sixteen ounce Porterhouse in front of him. “Kissing is good.”

“Kissing is
very
good.” She liked how the conversation had turned. Hell, she liked Luke. A lot. She trusted him, not necessarily with her heart, but with her body. She wanted to be with him. Yes, for sex, but also because she loved the respect he showed her.

Although she did miss sex, she’d missed kissing and cuddling even more. Sex was nice, but if she didn’t own a vibrator, she would never have known what it was that made your eyes roll back and your body surge with ecstasy. Now that she really thought about it, she’d very much like to take Luke up on his exclusive dating, no-sex relationship. It sounded safe and fun, and besides, he’d agreed to kissing, but never specified exactly where those kisses could be placed. And she could think of a few provocative places she’d love to kiss Luke. After that, he probably wouldn’t last more than a week with his no-sex, kissing-only rule. She’d have her sex buddy and still be able to remain emotionally detached.

She sliced into her filet again. “This is really weird.”

Luke reached for his wine. “How so?”

“I feel like we should sign a contract.”

“You’re right. This isn’t my most romantic moment.” He sent her a sexy smile that had her toes curling. “To be honest, I hadn’t planned on asking you to date me until later. I wanted to wine and dine you first. Show you how special you are to me, then take you home, and on your front porch, deliver the speech I had practiced.”

If he kept talking like this, she’d never be able to keep her emotions at bay. None of the guys she’d used to date would have ever put so much thought into asking her out. Their minds were on sex, not romance. “Were you going to serenade me too?” she asked, making light of a situation she didn’t know how to deal with, and it worked.

Luke laughed and pushed his plate aside. “Not unless you wanted to lose the windows in your house and have every stray dog come running.”

“I take it you can’t sing.”

“Only in the shower.”

The image of him naked, water cascading down his lean, muscular body had butterflies doing a little jig in the pit of her stomach. “Maybe you’ll show me sometime.”

With the pad of his thumb, he circled the rim of the wine glass he’d been holding. “If we’re showering together, singing will be the last thing on my mind.”

Warm fuzzies spiraled through her belly and tingled their way throughout her body until she felt dizzy and giddy with panic and passion. “Not unless you retract this no-sex rule of yours.”

He sucked in a breath. “Good point.” Leaning forward, he grasped her hand. “I really want to prove to you that I want more for us than casual sex. You’re special to me and deserve special treatment.” He rubbed his fingers over hers. “So, will you give me a chance?”

She wanted to. She also wanted to shove their plates out of the way, dive across the table and straddle his lap. Kiss him senseless and unleash every erotic fantasy she’d had about him over the last four months. Instead, she twined her fingers in his and nodded. “I’m game.”

A big grin spread across his kissable lips.

“Keep in mind, though, I’ll abide by your no-sex rule, because I get it. I get you. But if we’re being honest, I haven’t had sex in a long time, so don’t be surprised by how much I love to kiss.”

Heat simmered in his gaze.

“Or the places I love to kiss.”

At that moment, their server approached and Jenna smothered a giggle, because Luke looked as if he’d just signed a deal with the devil. Yeah, she’d date him. Being exclusive wasn’t a big deal to her considering she rarely dated. But for him though…

She wasn’t testing him. Not really. Yet a part of her looked forward to seeing just how far she could push the limits as to how intimate they could become, without sex.

While the server cleared their plates, Jenna imagined some kinky kissing scenarios, then out of nowhere, her conscience reared its ugly head.

He wanted honesty between them.

As a trained psychologist, she knew guilt served absolutely no purpose. Guilt sidetracks true feelings and manipulates motivations. She’d had professors claim that guilt wasn’t even an emotion. What a crock of crap. She was feeling highly emotional right now, and all those feelings were zeroing in on plain old guilt.

Her clinical mind knew she had no reason to feel any fault or self-reproach for not being totally honest with Luke. Okay, so he’d confessed to being a player and thought she was little miss prim and proper. Still, she saw no reason to humiliate herself by telling him all about her wild and wicked past. Not tonight, and not until she saw where whatever they’d just started ended up going.

*

Part of the plan Luke had concocted with Darci entailed Jenna taking a cab to the restaurant. This way, he’d be able to drive her home. But his plan had backfired on him, because as he pulled into Jenna’s driveway, he struggled with exactly how he should end the evening. Should he kiss her? He snuck a peek at Jenna’s long legs. With the way she sat, her black dress had hiked up and displayed miles of toned, tanned skin. Man, how he’d love to feel those thighs wrapped around his waist.

His arousal throbbed as he shifted the Explorer into park. No, kissing would be bad. Kissing would lead to touching. Touching would lead to stroking. Stroking would lead to — he cut the ignition, willed his cock to behave, then climbed out of the SUV. As he approached the passenger door to help Jenna, she’d already begun to scoot off her seat.

Her dress raised mid-thigh and he swore he caught a quick glimpse of her panties — hot pink. Worried about tenting his pants, he averted his gaze and offered his hand.

“Thanks for the ride home,” she said, and led him along the brick walkway to her front porch.

As she unlocked the door, he hesitated on the bottom step.

“Want to come in for a nightcap?”

He wanted to. Hell, he wanted to come, make her come. Make her scream his name loud enough to wake the neighbors.

“I, uh,” he floundered, his body and mind battling to make the right decision. If he went inside, he’d have an opportunity to spend more one-on-one time with Jenna. He was a changed man, right? He was now in an exclusive relationship not based on sex.

Except sex was what Jenna wanted.

When she leaned against the porch column and crossed her arms under her chest, the movement drew his gaze to the ample view of her cleavage.

He didn’t trust himself where Jenna was concerned. She could easily sway him from his no-sex rule with a simple bat of her long lashes. He needed to keep his cool and follow through with his original plan. Exclusive dating with only kissing allowed.

“I better head home.”

“What’s wrong?” She moved off the porch. Between her heels and the concrete step, she stood eyelevel. Her perfume, a potent mixture of wildflowers and sunshine, gripped him by the balls.

“Nothing. It’s late, and I have to go into the office tomorrow.”

“On a Sunday? You’re either dedicated or hell bent on avoiding another day of working on Darci’s house.”

Not only was he dedicated to his job, he had an opportunity with a client that would take him straight to partnership by the end of the summer. He couldn’t afford to let anything screw up his chances to become the primary accountant for Margie Benson, owner of Benson Steel & Fabricating. During the past ten years, the Cleveland-based company had grown in worth from two million to two hundred million dollars. Margie had expanded the operation into Detroit and St. Louis and was now looking at the accounting firm where he worked, Dryscal & Myers, and specifically at him, to take over their auditing program. A huge achievement if he landed the account and one that would not go unnoticed by the firm’s board of directors.

He frowned and thought about what Jenna had said. “Darci told me all she had left to work on was the kitchen.” He and Darci had been discussing the possibility of him purchasing her old Victorian home since she’d move in with Nate, and he’d suggested that she leave the kitchen alone. He’d rather remodel it himself and didn’t expect Darci to pay for the extensive makeover he’d had in mind.

“Yeah, but the yard needs a little TLC. I’m heading over in the morning to help.”

He glanced at the manicured flowerbeds surrounding Jenna’s walkway and front porch. “Well, considering what you’ve done with your own yard, I can see why Darci wants your expertise.”

The low, breathy laugh she released intensified the arousal he’d been sporting for most of the night. “I can’t take the credit. I pay the kids down the street to do it. I just happen to be a born supervisor.” She sent him a playful wink and cocked her head. “You sure you’re okay?”

Damn, she was sweet, and sexy, and he needed to leave before he did or said something stupid. “Yeah.” He hesitated, then tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “I had a great time.”

She smiled. “Me too.”

He thumbed toward his Explorer. “I should probably go.”

Her smile faltered. She shifted her gaze to his mouth, then looked away. “So…thanks again for everything.”

He stared at her lips. Just a kiss. That’s all he wanted. One taste of her and then he would leave. But would one kiss be enough?

Forcing his gaze away from temptation, he cleared his throat. “I shouldn’t be too long at the office. Would you like to go boating tomorrow afternoon?”

She widened her eyes and smiled. “I’d love to.”

“Great. I’ll pick you up around three?”

“Sounds good. I told Darci she only has me for a few hours anyway.”

“Great,” he said because he didn’t know what the hell else to say. He also couldn’t help drifting his gaze
to those lush, kissable lips again. Kissing was allowed. Maybe if he simply got their first kiss out of the way, he could relax a little.

Right, keep telling yourself that
.

Then he caught her staring at his mouth again. She licked her lips, and something inside him snapped. Without thinking about the consequences, he reached for her, brushed his palm against her silky, soft cheek until he cupped her head and drew her close. So close, her scent would linger on his skin and clothes for the rest of the night. He gave her a second to pull away from him, if she wanted. Instead, she swayed forward, nudged her nose against his, then parted her lips. Her moist, warm breath fanned across his mouth and he couldn’t help himself.

He brushed his lips against hers and swore he’d never felt anything more erotic in his life when she did the same. The soft graze, the lingering taste, as if they both wanted to sear this moment to memory, ripped through him.

Then she nipped his lower lip.

He lost it. Crushed his mouth against her parted lips, then drove his tongue deep. Their teeth scraped, noses collided and when she purred a muffled moan, he gripped her head with both hands and possessed her mouth, until they both came up breathless and gasping for air.

He’d meant to be gentle, wanted their first kiss to be chaste and simple. But that little, sexy tug she’d given him had shot his willpower to hell.

His lips stung, hers were swollen and moist. Unable to resist her tempting mouth he leaned in for another kiss.