Page 19 of The Bookbinder's Guide to Love

She smiled. “Also, I’m going to have to see your bookbinding skills. I’m not doubting you, but the journals have to be made a certain way. My product is an extension of who I am.”

“That’s fine. Whatever you need from me, I’ll deliver,” he said.

His energy changed when he said that. She could see he was sad, and almost lost. Was it because of Ford’s death, or something else?

She’d never really found a man in real life who lived up to the men she fantasized about. Sex was her way to find closeness, so she kept her emotions on a tight leash when it came to the men she sort of dated. But Wes was different.

His emotions...she sort of got them. Or was she just seeing something in him she wanted to see? He was complex, like every human being was.

Well, fuckity fuck. She didn’t want to relate to him. But she’d been lost so many times, and shedidrelate. It made him seem more real to her. Not that toady person who accused her of sleeping with his grandfather and forbade her to go to the funeral.

Seeing him this way touched a part of her she hadn’t realized was there. Some vulnerable part she’d never acknowledged until today when she’d learned Ford had died and felt the impact of his loss.

Sitting across from him, she didn’t feel as lost as she’d felt in the coffee shop earlier that afternoon. She felt like Wes saw her and she was definitely seeing him.

Her eyes dropped to his mouth. She wanted to know if he tasted as devilishly good as he looked. But he was talking about working for her. So that put him into off-limits territory. And she still wasn’t sure she trusted him.

Which of course just made her hungrier for a kiss.

“Sera?”

“Hmm...?”

“You’re staring at my mouth.”

Oh, Sera. Be smart. Just ignore the chemistry.But that wasn’t where she was right now. She felt edgy and like taking a risk. Who knew? This might be the exact thing they were both looking for. The attraction wasn’t one-way and maybe it was what they needed to clear the air and move forward. “Only fair since you were staring at mine earlier.”

He leaned across the table. The heat in his eyes made her shiver in the best way possible. He put his hand on hers. It was big and hot, and she wanted to feel it on her body. “I was imagining how it would feel under mine.”

“Me too.”

Five

“Wow, didn’t think that would shut you up,” she said, sitting back and taking a sip of her wine.

He took a long swallow of his beer, trying to give himself time to think, but now that she’d mentioned kissing him, he couldn’t stop thinking of how her body would feel pressed against his. He groaned.

She just smiled.

“So tomorrow you can come by the shop in the afternoon and show me your binding skills. I use six signatures in all the journals and then use a French kettle stitch to bind them together. Because of the nature of the journal Amber purchased, I cover them in a stiff cardboard and then cover that with fabric or leather to give the buyer two different price points,” she said.

“Moving on already?” he asked.

“You clearly needed a few minutes to stop thinking about hooking up,” she said.

“You said kissing,” he reminded her.

“Excuse me, then. Maybe I read you wrong,” she said.

“You didn’t,” he admitted. Against his better judgment, she had him fantasizing about what it would be like to pull her into his arms and bring his mouth down on hers. Not a soft kiss, but one with all that pent-up passion—part lust, part resentment. To take what he wanted and stop feeling.

“Before you got here, I decided to stop being a douchebag and make amends. Somehow sex with you seems like a complication.”

She reached up and pulled her hair into her hands as if she wanted to put it up. But then she shook her head, letting the curls fall free around her shoulders. Her face was slightly flushed and she chewed her lower lip, drawing his eyes to her mouth. The very thing he was trying not to dwell on.

Those lips.

He groaned. Sex wasn’t emotional for him. Instead he used it when he needed a release. His own history prevented him from sleeping with anyone he might have an actual connection with. Just watching the impact of that on his father made him afraid to risk having a serious relationship with a woman. Fucked-up, right? But there it was. And no matter how much he wanted to deny it...