him. “Can we eat now?”
I laughed. But I had to admit that I was suddenly as ravenous as he appeared to be.
We ate side by side, Conrad making jokes about the failures of the Oregon people in trying to make Texas-style barbecue. But he seemed to enjoy the food, devouring it and stealing a few of my French fries. Every time he would take a fry from my plate, he would lean into me, his shoulder brushing mine, his hand slipping across my hip or my breast before his hand would snake up and take the fry. I knew it was coming every time, but I liked the way he thought he was sneaking it.
“You’re beautiful when you laugh,” he whispered into my ear after he told a joke, causing me to nearly fall over in gales of laughter. “But, again, you’re beautiful when you’re not laughing.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere with me.”
“Yeah? Then what if I said that the dimple in your cheek that comes out when you smile, or when you say certain words, drives me wild?”
“Does it?”
“I imagine it making an appearance when you feel pleasure.”
I bit my lips, fighting the blush that threatened to again appear on my face. “You shouldn’t talk like that.”
“Why not? I can’t help where my mind goes when I’m with you.”
“You should try.”
He moved closer to me, his lips brushing against my cheek. “What do I have to do to convince you that I want you?”
“You don’t have to convince me.”
“That good.” He brushed his lips against my cheek again. “Because I do. I’ve thought about you almost constantly since the moment I saw you across the room at the launch party.”
“Why me?”
“Why not you?” He kissed the corner of my lips. “You are beautiful and graceful and more charming than I can ever hope to be.”
“I doubt that.”
“Don’t doubt it. It’s true, darling.”
I pulled back a little, reaching up to touch his face. “Don’t call me that. You call everyone darling.”
“Do I?”
“You called one of the waitresses that on our way in. And two of the nurses the other night.”
“Then, what do I call you?”
He ran his lips along the bottom edge of my jaw as he waited for my response. It made it hard for me to think clearly.
“I don’t know.”
“How about, love?” he asked, his lips moving down to my throat, sending waves of pleasure down my spine to nest in the small of my back. “Or babe. Or honey.”
“What about my name?”
“Mellissa,” he whispered, drawing out the syllables until it sounded almost like a song. “Or Melli.”
I groaned because his lips had found that little spot behind my ear that had the power to send me over the edge. I ran my fingers through his hair, drawing his head closer to me. His breath on my skin increased the intensity of the shivers that were moving along my spine, making that tightness in the small of my back grow and spread around to my lower belly, again waking that ball of desire that I had finally managed to tame.
His hand moved over my thigh, sliding down toward my knee, searching for the lower edge of my skirt. He couldn’t find it; it was tucked under my calves a little too primly. His hand made its way back up, pressing roughly against my inner thigh even as his lips caressed the side of my neck with the gentlest of touches. And then his fingers were urging my legs apart, his hand forcing the material of my skirt back against my panties, his fingers seeking out the swollen button that had been standing at attention since his first touch days ago.
“Not here,” I said, pushing at his hand.
“Then where?”
My mind immediately went places it shouldn’t have. The ladies’ room, but the idea of fucking in a dirty stall didn’t really turn me on. We could go to my place, but my grandmother wasn’t as hard of hearing as might be necessary. There was Annie and Madison’s place. Annie called me yesterday and told me where the spare key was, asking that I go by and water her plants once or twice while she