time at work.”
“I must have caught you at a good moment, then, since you’re sightseeing right now. Or, at least, we were sightseeing before we got stuck in this.”
“You did catch me at a good moment.” Maybe the romantic reputation of Paris was doing something to him, because he lifted his hands to cup her cheeks. Let his fingers slip into her hair that cascaded from beneath her hat. After all, what better place to kiss a beautiful woman than under an umbrella by the Seine in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower? “I’m enjoying this very good moment.”
Her eyes locked with his. He watched her lips part, took that as the invitation he was looking for and lowered his mouth to hers.
The kiss was everything he’d known it would be. Her sexy lips had tormented him the entire time they’d been together in that elevator and standing close to one another on the observation deck. Hell, they’d tormented him just minutes after they’d met as he’d watched her nibble her baguette and sip her espresso. He could still faintly taste the coffee on her lips and an incredible sweetness that was her alone.
He pulled back an inch, to see how she was feeling about their kiss. If she thought it was as amazing as he did. If she’d be all right with another, longer exploration. Her eyes were wide, her cheeks a deep pink as she stared at him, but thankfully she didn’t pull away and he went back for more.
He’d intended to keep it sweet, gentle, but the little gasp that left her mouth and swirled into his own had him delving deeper, all sense of anything around them gone except for the unexpected intimacy of this kiss they were sharing. Her slim hand came up to cradle his neck. It was cold, and soft, and added another layer of delicious sensation to the moment, and he had to taste more of her rain-moistened skin. Wondered if she’d possibly let him taste more than her face and throat. If she’d let him explore every inch of what he knew would be one beautiful body on one very special, beautiful afternoon.
Lost in sensory overload, Avery’s eyelids flickered, then drifted shut again as Jack’s hot mouth moved from her lips to slide across her chilled cheek. Touched the hollow of her throat, her jaw, the tender spot beneath her ear. She’d never kissed a man she’d just met before, but if it was always this good, she planned to keep doing it. And doing it. And doing it.
His hands cupping her cheeks were warm, and his breath that mingled with her own was warm, too, as he brought his mouth back to hers. Her heart pounded in her ears nearly as hard as the rain on the umbrella. She curled one hand behind his neck, hanging on tight before her wobbly knees completely gave way and she sank to the ground to join the water pooling around their feet.
The sensation of cold rain and snow splattering over her face had her opening her eyes and pulling her mouth from his. Dazed, she realized she’d loosened her grip on the umbrella, letting it sway sideways, no longer protecting them. Jack grasped the handle to right it, holding it above their heads again, his dark brown eyes gleaming. His black hair, now a shiny, wet ebony, clung to his forehead. Water droplets slid down his temple.
“Umbrellas don’t work too well hanging upside down. Unless your goal is to collect water instead of repel it,” he said, a slow smile curving the sexy lips that had made her lose track of exactly where they were. Lips that had traveled deliciously across several inches of her skin until she nearly forgot her own name.
“I know. Sorry.” She cleared her throat, trying to gather her wits. “Except you didn’t bring an umbrella at all, so you would have gotten wet anyway.”
“True. Not that I mind. I like watching the raindrops track down your cute nose and onto your pretty lips.” His finger reached out to trace the parts he’d just mentioned, lingering at her mouth, and she nearly licked the raindrops from his finger until she remembered a few very important things.
Things like the fact that she barely knew him. Like the fact that they were standing in a public place. Like the fact that she wasn’t looking for a new relationship to replace the not-good one she’d only recently left.
She stared at the silkiness of his dark brows and the thickness of his black lashes, all damp and spiky from the rain. At the water dripping from his hair, over a prominent cheekbone, down the hollow of his cheek and across his stubborn-looking jaw. The thought crossed her mind that she’d never, ever spent time with a man so crazily good-looking. Even more good-looking than her ex-boyfriend, Kent, and she’d thought at the time he was a god in the flesh. At least for a while, until she’d figured out the kind of overly confident and egotistical guy he really was. Until she’d found out he was actually the one convinced he was godlike.
Getting it on again so soon with another man was not something she planned on doing.
She drew a deep breath. Time to bring some kind of normalcy to a very abnormal day. “Let’s go to the café, dry off a little and get some food. You being Mr. Hungry and all.”
“I’ve realized there’s only one thing I’m hungry for at the moment.” His lips moved close to hers again as his eyes, all smoldering and intense, met hers. “You. All of you.”
All of her? Was he saying what she thought he was saying? She tried to think of a quick, light response and opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Maybe because she could barely breathe.
He kissed one corner of her mouth, then the other. “What do you say we head to the hotel for a while? A little dessert before lunch. I want a better taste of you.”
Her heart leaped into her throat. Never having kissed a man she didn’t know also meant never having had a quick fling with one. Never dreamed she ever would. But something about the way he was looking at her, the way his fingers were softly stroking her cheek and throat, something about the way her body quivered from head to toe and heat pooled between her legs had her actually wondering if maybe today was the day to change that.
After all, her last two relationships had ended with loud, hurtful thuds. Didn’t she deserve some no-strings fun, just this once? She’d only be in Paris for one month, busy at work most of the time. The perfect setup for exactly what he was suggesting. And what would be the harm of enjoying what she knew would be one exciting, memorable afternoon with an exciting, memorable man?
“I… um…” She stopped talking and licked her lips, gathering the courage to shove aside her hesitation and just say yes.
“I know. We’ve just met, and it’s not something I usually do, either. Honest.” He cupped her cheeks with his cold hands and pressed a soft kiss to her mouth. “But being with you here in Paris just feels right. Doesn’t it? It just feels damned right.”
She found herself nodding, because it did. For whatever crazy reason, it felt all too right. A no-strings, nothing-serious, no-way-to-get-hurt moment with a super-sexy man to help her forget all about her past disappointments.
Another drop of water slid over her eyelid, distracting her from all those thoughts, and she swiped it away. “Except I’m all wet, you know.”
The second the words left her mouth his eyes got all hot and devilish, and she felt herself flush, realizing what she’d said. “That’s a plus, not a problem.”
A breathless laugh left her lips. Before she could change her mind she decided to give herself a little present to make up for what she’d been through with her past jerky boyfriends.
Silent communication must have zinged between them, because they grasped one another’s hands and headed in a near run to the hotel. To her surprise, the closer they got, the more excited she felt. She was entering
