Deeper Than Need (29 page)

She
should
take a little more time to think things through before she plunged headlong into this.

But that plunge was just so enticing.

He slid one hand up her spine, his fingers brushing over the skin of her neck.

But he didn’t kiss her back.

“Noah…?”

In the dying light, his eyes glittered. “You never did answer me. Dinner, Trinity?”

Her mouth had gone dry. Heart slamming away inside her chest, she settled back on her feet, eying him nervously.

“Ah…”

He curved his hand over her neck. “If I told you how long it’s been since I asked a woman out, you’d probably either laugh or just look at me like I’m crazy.” The calloused pad of his thumb rasped over her skin and that simple touch felt undeniably good. “But suffice it to say, it’s been quite a while. I want to spend more time with you … a lot more time. But if that’s not anything you’re interested in, it’s probably best that I know now.”

He leaned in and she caught her breath, but he didn’t kiss her. He just pressed his face into her hair, like he was breathing her in. It caught her off-guard and she swayed against him, reaching up to fist her other hand in his shirt.

He curved his free hand over her hip. “It’s not going to change how anything is
now
—your job, the work I’m doing on the house. But it’s a question that needs to be answered. Are we going to just ignore this or do something about it?”

He wasn’t going to just pretend like this conversation hadn’t happened, she realized.

He wanted a hard-and-fast answer.

Nerves jangled inside her, insistent and chaotic as she lifted her head, staring into those penetrating eyes. She slid her hand up his chest and rested it on his cheek. The stubble there abraded her skin, and when he turned his face and pressed a kiss to her palm her heart raced even harder.

“Part of me wants, very much, to just back away from this and think about it for a while,” she said honestly.

Closing his fingers around her wrist, he pressed his brow to hers. “Think about what? I want to be with you. You want the same thing.”

Heat shrieked through her and turned every last bit of her into lava as he sank his teeth into her lower lip. She might have collapsed if he hadn’t been holding her up, the forearm he had braced against her back solid and strong. He hadn’t really done all that much. His arm at her waist. His chest pressed to hers. The warmth of him reached out through his clothing and she caught her breath, barely able to think past the rhythm of her heart and the need that screamed through her veins.

Others had touched her far more intimately without making her ache like this.

Want the same thing.

Oh,
want
didn’t even touch it.

But she didn’t think it was really the right time or place to tell him that she wanted to rip his clothes off and have her wicked way with him, either.

“Ah … yes.” She managed to find her voice and squeeze those words out, staring at his mouth, because if she kept looking into his eyes her control was going to shatter. He stripped her bare with that gaze of his. Completely bare, and it should have terrified her, but it didn’t.

“Then what’s to think about?” he murmured, his breath ghosting across her lips as he leaned in and kissed her, light and soft.

It wasn’t enough.

But before she could catch his mouth and take it deeper, he’d pulled away.

Groaning, she pressed her brow against his chest.

“There are any number of things we should think about … any number of things
you
should think about.”

His hand fisted in the back of her shirt and she shivered, her nipples tightening to hard, aching pebbles as her breasts pressed flat against his chest. She was almost positive this was the most aroused she’d been in … maybe ever. Her skin felt two sizes too small and her breasts ached, her belly was hot and liquid and her hands itched and …

His fingers slid under the hem of her shirt, and then, as she gasped at the light contact, he pressed his mouth to the curve of her neck. “What are those things, then? Let’s start thinking about them.”

“Now?” Her head fell to the side and the idea of trying to
think
about anything was pretty laughable. All she could think about was him. Getting naked. With him. The SUV would work, she thought. If they were quiet—

You’ve lost your mind. You’re standing there thinking about getting naked in your damn car with a preacher. You’re in front of the house, while your son is running around and can come outside at any time.

Convulsively she tightened her hands in the material of Noah’s shirt.

Words failed her. Her lungs failed her—it was like she’d completely forgotten how to breathe. Her brain had definitely failed her, because she just couldn’t
think.
A car drove by and the world realigned itself as sanity came crashing back.

She went to pull away, but Noah tightened his arm around her waist, holding her in place, and when she squirmed against him, that just made the position so much more interesting. Against her belly she felt the length of his cock, burning into her like a brand, and she shuddered, a moan ripping out of her.

Dry mouthed, she swallowed and forced herself to stare at the taillights of the car instead of up at him. Looking at him was what had led to this entire situation.

“We should think about things like that,” she said, nodding to the car.

A chuckle rumbled out of him. She felt his chest moving against her breasts, and really, did she
need
that particular torture?

“What?” He glanced over his shoulder at the car’s fading taillights before looking at her. He rubbed his lips against hers and then he licked her lower lip, a slow, teasing little caress that set her nerve endings to blazing. “I’m pretty positive they won’t care if you and I decide to start dating. They wouldn’t even care if I kiss you on the street, Trinity. I promise.”

Then the arm he’d hooked around her waist tightened and his voice deepened to a rough growl as he asked, “Got anything else we should think about before you’ll say yes?”

That long, lean, powerful body of his was pressed tight to hers and she had to swallow a groan as that delicious heat settled right square in the middle of her belly.

Ignoring the wicked pleasure his touch caused, Trinity reached up and pressed her hands to his chest. “It’s not that, not exactly. It’s this … place. Everything. This town, everybody here seems to know you … do you really need the mess
I
can bring to your life?”

He pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth and then flicked his tongue against the seam of her lips, something that made her shudder, from head to toe. “Trinity, I think you are
exactly
what I need in my life.”

The intensity of his voice worried her, even as it made something in her heart start to tremble. It wasn’t just
heat—
she could almost handle the heat. She could
almost
handle the lust, and if she wasn’t already so hung up on him she might have just jumped on and ridden this crazy thing to the very end.

But this was a lot more than just heat. A lot more than just lust. That was what worried her. That was what scared her. That was what tempted her.

Because she was already so hung up on him, she wanted to make sure he realized what kind of a mess this could bring him. Lifting her hand, she pressed it to his cheek. “Noah … everybody in this town knows you … they like you. They admire you. You put me in the mix and it can cause you a whole different sort of problems.”

“So you’re worried about … what, my virtue?” His voice took on a teasing slant.

“Your virtue.” She laughed weakly. “Damn it, Noah. You’re treating this like a joke. You’re a damn preacher.”

“Again, no, I’m not. I used to be. I’m not treating it like a joke.” He stroked his hands down her arms, settled them on her hips. His thumbs stroked over her skin, and through her clothes she could feel it. Another innocent little touch that felt entirely too good. “However, even if I
was
a preacher, I have to tell you a little-known fact. Even preachers are allowed to date. I’ve seen it. With my own two eyes. I think they are even allowed to kiss. I think my dad might have even kissed my mom a
lot.
”

“You are, too, treating this like it’s a joke.” She rested her hands on his chest, flexing them, curling them into the cloth of his shirt and trying not to groan as she felt the minute trembling of his body against hers. The wall of his chest felt so warm. Solid, strong. So very, very good. “It’s a little more complicated than just your … virtue. I know you say you don’t care about people talking, but that talk will change entirely if the two of us are dating. You sure you want that mess? They’ll find out about me. About Micah’s dad. They’ll start to talk. It could hurt you.”

“If people talk, they talk. I already pointed out, it says more about them than it does about you, or me.” As he spoke, his thumb stroked across the skin just above the waistband of her jeans. “If a person’s past was going to define them for the rest of their lives, Trinity, I’d be in a lot of trouble.”

“Oh, really?” She stared up at him.

“Hmmm.” He dipped his head and rubbed his lips across hers. “You’re not the only one with a screwed-up past. We’ve all got secrets. We’ve all got ugliness behind us. I can promise you, the mess I’ve left behind me is a lot worse than yours.”

Trinity rolled her eyes. “Sure.”

He chuckled and dipped his head. Then he caught her lower lip between his, nipped it. “Now you’re the one treating this like it’s a joke. I can tell you stories that would make your eyes bug out, Trinity. I promise you. Go out with me, I’ll prove it.”

“Go out with you so you can make my eyes bug out. Wow. What a charming offer.” A laugh escaped her.

*   *   *

Noah couldn’t help it. While she was still laughing at him, he closed his mouth over hers. The need that had tormented him for so long threatened to drive him insane and all he wanted was to lose himself in her.

Spreading his hand out over the small of her back, he fisted the other in the golden silk of her hair as her laughter faded away and her mouth opened for him.

There was hunger here … and need.

It would be easy, he realized.

Too easy to get lost in her. In the sweetness of her kiss, the warm strength of her body.

She was lean and limber against him, all those curves pressed tight against him. He had to fight the urge to let his hands roam over all her, to learn every single inch, to learn her by touch, by sight, by taste. His cock pulsed against her belly and she kept moving against him. He had an overwhelming need to pin her against the nearest flat surface and just rock against her until he exploded.

Her chest moved in ragged, uneasy bursts against his own. The soft, sweet curve of her breasts pressed against him as she leaned in, wrapping her arms around his neck. The tight, hard points of her nipples scraped against him and he thought he was going to go out of his mind. A whole new sort of temptation—one he hadn’t had to deal with before. Not like this. Never like this, because he was pretty certain he hadn’t ever
wanted
like this …

All because of a kiss.

Her tongue moved against his, stroking along the curve of his lip before venturing into his mouth, and Noah felt the muscles in his legs start to tremble. On a ragged breath, he tore away from her and pressed his brow to hers.

“So. Again, I think I’ve made my case pretty clear. A date isn’t a bad idea. Does tomorrow at eight work for you?”

“Eight.” Her breath came out in a hitchy little start that drove him insane and her hands slid to his shoulders, kneading the skin there, her nails biting into his flesh in a way that drove him nuts. He wanted, needed, so much more.

Instead of giving in, he dipped his head and buried it against her neck.

“So you’ll go out with me?” he asked. Since he was there and since she smelled so very good, he rubbed his lips against her skin. Nice. Soft. She shivered when he opened his mouth and raked his teeth down her skin.

She groaned and leaned against him, baring her neck to him.

“So just to be clear, then,” he murmured. “We’re giving this a shot. Right?”

She swallowed. “Right.”

“Good. Because I really need to do this … one more time.”

“Do what…?”

“This.” He reached up and cupped her face, fingers spread wide as he angled her head back. “Just this … but just this once. Just once more.”

“Why only once?” she whispered as he slanted his mouth over hers.

“Because if I do it more than once, I think I’ll lose my mind.”

*   *   *

She’d already lost hers, she thought. The world might have shuddered under her feet.

This … this wasn’t just a kiss, she thought, dazed.

He took his time with it, tracing the line of her lips, as though he needed to learn each and every thing about her before he took the next step. Damn, oh, damn was she ready for that next step.

Her heart trembled in her chest and she pressed closer, tried to deepen the kiss, but Noah wasn’t having that. His hand dipped into her hair, twining the length around his fingers, and she groaned as he tugged her head back and held her still. Completely still, as he swept his tongue across her lower lip and finally,
finally,
pushed inside her mouth.

She opened for him, feeling herself quake.

Trinity was no stranger to seductions. She’d seduced, been seduced.

But his kisses were unlike anything she’d ever experienced, and as he took her mouth completely she thought she just might melt into a boneless puddle at his feet.

Nobody had ever kissed her like this.

Kissed her like he wanted her more than his next breath.

Kissed her like he couldn’t exist without her.

She’d been waiting to be kissed like this her entire life … and she’d never realized it until just now.

His tongue stroked over hers like he wanted to take the time to learn everything he could, in just that kiss. He didn’t take too much, didn’t push too hard, and there she was, desperate to push
him
for more, take more from him.