eating, he didn’t stop putting food in his
mouth long enough it seemed to even breathe. He looked up over one of the
endless forkfuls of grilled chicken, saw the look on her face and laughed.
“I’m kind of being a pig.”
“I was just wondering if you had eaten since you got to
town, you look like—I don’t even know. Don’t you have any food at your place?”
“Not much, besides the chocolate and the coffee.”
“I thought you said you could cook?” Her eyebrows arched
accusingly as if she had finally found something to fault him on.
Leaning back in his chair, he swallowed. “I can. I just
don’t bother when it’s only me. I eat constantly. Actually the training just
makes me always starved. So do you.”
That little flit of fire passed through her eyes again. It
reminded him of that look he’d seen her get last night. When he told her what
he wanted or said something particularly provoking, her lids slid down slowly
and her eyes widened, then her lips would open as she licked them
unconsciously. The fact that she didn’t even know she was doing it made it all
the more mouthwatering. He leaned back, stretching his legs out he folded his
arms across his chest and looked at her intently. He watched her wriggle in her
chair, but her face snapped back to the conversation.
“So what do you do when you’re not either ravishing me, or
training, or pretending to be a book nerd.”
“Who says I’m not a book nerd?”
Another bright smile from her, dimming the sexual heat a bit.
“Yeah, well, I’ll give you that one, but that doesn’t answer the question.”
“Honestly, not much. Before I came here it was train all
week, race all weekend. That’s been it for about six months. Before that, well
besides college, then the string of boring jobs and trying to figure out what
to do when I grow up, my life was a little messy. Kind of like you said yours
was. And just like you, I’m not going there either.”
“Fair enough. So, no fun at all?”
“You fishing for info on significant others?”
“Duh.” Her grin flashed at the comment but she did pink up a
bit again.
He couldn’t help the chuckle. “No, and I wouldn’t have been
with you if there was. Hasn’t been for a long time. Why do you think I need you
so bad? Fun? Ha, I haven’t had this much fun my entire life. And no, I’m not
kidding”
Something like sympathy mixed with “bullshit” crossed
her face.
“You bring things out of me I didn’t even know were there,
Teryn, and I can’t for the life of me figure out how or why. I find myself just
blurting out crap I never tell anybody. Like right now, for one. Then once I
touch you, I just can’t stop. It’s kind of unnerving, if you want the truth.
And I’m pretty damn straight about things like that.”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” A new pink flush crawled up her
neck to her cheeks, egging him on.
“Like hell. So why is it when I say things like that to you,
sitting here across dinner, you pink up and get that scared-rabbit look? But
when I’m buried in you up to my balls, you are the exact opposite.”
The pink flush turned deeper, and he saw a little sheen of
perspiration appear on her upper lip. A small grin curled her mouth into that
enticing shape he wanted to kiss. Just as every time since he’d laid eyes on
her, he couldn’t resist the fire that flared up in her instantly behind those
long lashes when he baited her like that. He knew his words were rough, he did
it on purpose to see what she would do. She didn’t back down, instead it seemed
to spur her on. It wasn’t taking him long to learn how to coax that inner sex
goddess out into the world of the living.
Most women would feign some kind of surprise, pretend they
weren’t as hot as he was, even if it was a total lie. Try to play the
being-a-proper-girl game, hide what they felt, which he thought was just plain
stupid and a waste of time.
Not Teryn. He’d watched her sit there in that bar, size