pretended to mull that one over. “You didn’t strike me as being all that strange.”
“Wait, what?”
“Look,” he crossed that invisible barrier and stepped right into her buffer space. The jokes and sly smile were gone. “I need to deal with something else here.”
The change in direction made her brain shut down for a second. “What?”
“You say that word a lot.”
“How could you know that? You’ve known me for a sum total of two hours.”
“Probably less than half that, but it was some pretty intense time.”
She refused to blush. Women who had sex in the bathroom during a high-class wedding did not blush. “True.”
He smiled. “Which brings us full circle.”
For some reason when he relaxed and his mouth turned up, she got more nervous. “To what exactly?”
“The wedding.”
Here it was. He’d beg her to keep her mouth shut. Throw some money around, maybe a threat or two. Explain how it would be good for her to pretend it never happened.
She’d feel smug if she weren’t so disappointed. She wasn’t expecting a marriage proposal or even a cup of coffee from the man, but being reminded of how little she meant to him chilled her from the inside out. “I was wondering when you’d get to that.”
“Katie, I’m sorry.” He reached down and slipped his fingers through hers. The move pulled her closer, until nothing more than a slip of hot air separated them.
“You’re…what?”
“Honestly, do you just feel compelled to use that word?”
She almost said “what” but stopped the word in time. “Right now, yeah.”
Staring down at their linked hands, she wondered what was happening. She’d made a lot of bad choices with men and slept with a few she should have run away from, but none of them came walking into the middle of her out-of-control life, spouting off about regrets and how they should have treated her better. Not her experience at all.
“I’m sorry.” When she didn’t respond, he ducked his head until her gaze met his again. “I can’t be the first man who’s ever apologized to you for something.”
She did a quick mental check and couldn’t come up with another name for that list. “You’re sorry for the sex?”
His mouth fell into a severe frown. “Hell no.”
“Then I’m confused.”
He squeezed her hand in a gentle move that mirrored the concern in his face. “Clearly.”
“Maybe we should start this conversation again.” In a public place, with a wall between them. And no touching. Definitely no touching. His fingers swept over her skin and her good intentions went down faster than the Titanic. No woman could withstand that sort of temptation. Certainly not one with her record of questionable choices.
“I am trying to apologize for running out of the wedding before I even got your name. That was a pretty shitty thing to do in light of what happened between us.”
Damn, he couldn’t even describe their horizontal bathroom dancing without sounding refined. “Do you have trouble saying the word ‘sex’?”
He smiled. “No trouble saying or doing.”
She wasn’t sure where he was going or what he was looking for. He was either super smooth or an ass in hiding. Unfortunately both possibilities appealed to her. Everything about him appealed to her.
Instead of crawling all over him, she went with the truth. “Admittedly, I was surprised you took a few seconds to zip your pants before you hauled it out of there.”
He winced. “That bad, huh?”
“Does the phrase ‘ass on fire’ tell you anything?”
“Only that I need to work on my skills.”
She had no complaints in that department. None. At. All. “So, now what?”
“Depends. Is my apology accepted?”
Her heart started pounding. The noise drowned out the doubts and questions ringing in her ears. It thundered through her until it muffled everything else. “Is this really why you’re here?”
“Why else would I track you down?”
“I have no idea. Unless you’ve wiped out crime on Oahu, I’m guessing you have work to do, and I figure there are other women who take up your time. Why you’d spare a few minutes to come over here is, well, let’s just say I don’t get it.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Actually I am.”
“Do you own a mirror?”
That’s all it took. A simple bit of flattery and she fell right into her old pattern. She recognized it, heard the warning signal screech through her brain…and ignored it all.
“Is it possible you’re really here for this?” She stepped into him then, pressed her chest against his as she lifted her chin and brought her mouth to the whisper of space right under his.
“Katie?”
“What?”
He smiled then. “I didn’t come for a booty call.”
She knew when a man was interested. This guy had it written all over him. “So you’re saying no?”
His gaze toured her face, landing on her mouth. “I’m not an idiot.”
He mumbled the denial right before his head lowered and his lips brushed against hers. For the second time, an engulfing heat swept through him. He’d had sex before. Hell, he’d had great sex before, but there was something about Katie that rubbed him raw and sent a blast of want shooting through him.
At thirty-seven he’d passed his need-sex-all-the-time phase long ago. Now he preferred a mix of hot and comfort, a woman who could set his nerves blazing and hold an intelligent conversation afterward. But Katie brought out something else in him. A memory of that time before responsibility and politics when he could just enjoy without worrying about how it would play out or who would care.
Gentle kissing turned hot before he could calm it down. One minute he was tasting her with small kisses on the corners of her mouth, getting to know her nice and slow. The next, his hands traced up and down her back as his tongue swept inside.
Like last time, reason abandoned him. His body overruled his mind. Before common sense stepped in and screwed up everything, he walked her backward until her butt smacked against the island. He tugged on material, hoping to push aside her shirt and find bare skin, but he pulled out a towel instead. The surprise made
