Page 22 of Wilde Abandon
“And now you sell them for top dollar.”He looked so impressed with her.
“I know my dad didn’t tell you about my other side gig, because he doesn’t know about it.Did you find out about it some other way?”
“What kind of computer guy would I be if I didn’t do some online digging to find everything I could about you?”
Annoyance pinched her full lips tight.“The kind who should have simply asked me what he wanted to know?”
He chuckled.“You’re not going to let me off the hook anytime soon, are you?”
“I understand why you wanted to get to know me again without the past getting in the way.I just wish—well, I can’t have what I wish.But you’re here now, and that makes me happy.”
His gaze narrowed.“What do you wish?”
She leaned in and brushed her lips to his.“That there had never been a reason that you had to leave me in the first place.”
He brushed his fingertips down the side of her face.“What if I promise to never leave you again?”
The words melted her heart.She leaned into his touch.“I hope you keep that promise.”
“I will as long as you let me.”He kissed her this time.It was slow and thorough and toe curling, making her body lean in closer to his and her mind start daydreaming about what it would be like to be alone and naked with him.He ended the sultry kiss with a hum as he pulled away, then said, “You’re not getting out of admitting you also run a thriving jewelry shop.”
Busted.She made custom leather bracelets for men and women.“I design everything myself and stamp it all by hand.I’ve even created some of my own stamps.I have a guy who makes them for me.”
“I want you to make me something.I’ll pay whatever it costs.I just want it to be something you made just for me.”
She’d already thought about making him a gift.“Okay.But I want to spend more time with you, so I can come up with something that matches who you are now.”
His phone alarm went off.He swore, then checked the time.“I’m sorry.I didn’t know we’d been here so long.You do that to me.I think about you, I’m with you, and I lose track of time.”
She pulled a fifty-dollar bill out of her bag and placed it on the table.
He snatched it up and tried to hand it back to her.“I’ll pay for lunch.”
She grabbed the bill and set it on the table again.“I told you it was on me.Just like last night when I told you the beers and food were on me, too.But you left me that tip, so I’m paying it forward.It’s more than enough to cover our lunch and give Bea a big tip.So you kind of are paying for lunch.”
He obviously made more money than her as a computer programmer, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t hold up her end when she invited him to lunch.
He shook his head, cupped her face, and kissed her again.“You surprise me.”
“I don’t know how.It seems like you know a hell of a lot more about me than I do about you.”
“And that annoys you.”An apology lit his eyes.
“I just want to know you the way you know me.”She didn’t like the sad look on his face.“And that’s what we’re doing, right?Spending time together so we know each other again.”
“There are so many things I want to know about you.How you take your coffee in the afternoon when you wake up.What you sleep in.Hopefully, that’s in my bed very soon.How you taste.”
Since he’d kissed her many times now, she quickly realized he had a whole other place on her he’d like to taste, and the heat level in the diner went up a million degrees, it seemed.
“Fox?”
“Yeah?”
She put her hand on his chest, right over his thumping heart.“You and I think a lot alike.”
He leaned in to take her mouth again, but froze when a second phone alarm went off.“Shit.I have to go.”
“Where’s the fire?”