Free Seized by Love (Love in Bloom: The Ryders, Book 1): Blue Ryder by Melissa Foster

him even better.
    “So, how does this work?” she asked, eyeing the paints.
    “It’s a pretty hard concept. We pick up the brushes”—he handed her a paintbrush—“and then we paint.”
    “It’s good to see that being on a date didn’t dampen your ability to be a smart-ass.” She smiled with the tease. “I’m a truly sucky painter.”
    “I somehow doubt you’re a truly sucky anything.” He leaned in and kissed her, and she closed her eyes, willing him to kiss her longer.
    She’d known it would be like this, that it would feel right, and good, and incredibly natural to fall under Blue’s spell. Just another reason she’d fought going out with him for so long. She’d known she’d never have a chance of resisting him once that door was opened. His lips lingered on hers, drawing out the kiss, so that by the time he pulled away, she was breathless for more.
    He ran his fingertips through her hair and touched his forehead to hers. “I really like kissing you.”
    Afraid if she tried to respond she’d say something like, Then don’t stop , she opted for silence instead.
    “Do you want to join the others or do our own thing?”
    Her mind was still spinning from their kiss. He must have sensed it in her silence, because he went on to explain. “When I called to make reservations, they said we could paint what the instructor is painting.” He pointed at a tall guy who was walking from table to table, looking over the paintings and commenting on each one. “Or we can go totally rogue and do our own thing.”
    “That’s what I want to do,” she said, feeling silly for being so awestruck. “Our own thing.”
    “A woman after my own heart.” He held her gaze, and when his phone vibrated with a call, it reminded her that she needed to check her webcast.
    “Why don’t you take that call while I run to the ladies’ room, and then we can paint.”
    Blue slid from the booth and reached for her hand, pulling her against him. “Is it cheesy to tell you that I’ll miss you while you’re gone?” He cracked a smile, but she was too lost in the feel of his arms around her and the press of his muscles against her chest to care if it was cheesy.
    “I kind of like cheesy.”
    His lips met hers in another sensual, sizzling kiss, and then he held her hand until she’d taken too many steps to keep holding it, and that fraction of a second, with his eyes on her, his fingertips grazing the tips of hers, felt like a scene from a movie, and it made Lizzie even dizzier.
    She walked in a daze to the ladies’ room, coming back to the present the moment the door clicked shut behind her. She pulled out her cell phone and tried to find a signal. Nearly all of the lower Cape had spotty Internet and cell service. She held the phone over her head. Still no signal. Damn . She stepped from the ladies’ room and into the hall, holding her phone high above her head, glad the hallway turned a corner so Blue couldn’t see her. Her phone finally picked up a signal. She navigated to her Naked Baker site and clicked play on the newest show.
    She paced the narrow hall, holding the phone over her head and praying no one came in from the dining room. Her heart hammered in her chest as she stared up at the video loading as slowly as molasses dripping from a jar, and suddenly her sexy voice filled the air.
    Shitshitshit . She pressed the volume button to mute as Blue came around the corner.
    “Hey there. Everything okay?” He eyed her phone as she clicked off the video and shoved it into her back pocket.
    “Yeah.” Thinkthinkthink! “Maddy called, but I lost the signal.” She hated lying at all, but lying to Blue felt like the biggest, most painful lie she’d ever told. Even worse than when she’d snuck out of her parents’ house to meet a boy in high school, and that was pretty darn bad.
    “Do you want to call her back? We can step outside to get a signal.”
    He was so thoughtful and considerate, and she was still keeping her