Lost in Her (9 page)

“Aye, cherub, I’d love to.” He led her back to the table. “Sit here and prepare to enjoy my amazing culinary skills.” The plate of untouched cheese and crackers was taken away. “You up for the whole experience? If you ordered our meal in an Irish pub, you’d get laughed out of the place if you drank anything but a good Ireland-brewed beer. I have wine, though, if you’d prefer.”

“Oh no, I’m not going to get laughed out of here before I get my dinner. Whatever it is, it smells divine.” And it did, so much so that her mouth watered. It seemed her choice of beer to drink pleased him because he grinned. Two frosted mugs were whisked from the freezer, and then the beer was expertly poured into them.

“To my new girlfriend and magic nights,” he said, standing near her as he raised his mug.

Charlie tapped her glass against his, while furtively squeezing her thighs together because of the way he looked at her, as if he wanted her for dinner. “I’m good with both of those,” she said, wishing she were cleverer with comebacks. Sometime later, probably around two when she was in her bed and unable to sleep, she would think of the perfect thing she should have said.

“And I’m definitely good with your being good.” He set down his glass and put his hands on the table, then lowered his mouth to within an inch of hers. “Actually, I’d be even better with us both being bad.” Not giving her a chance to answer, he covered her lips with his just as a buzzer went off. “Damn,” he muttered.

She sat back and worked on catching her breath when he left her to turn off the timer. He put on oven mitts, then opened the oven door. “What is it?” she asked, when he set a baking dish between their plates, pleased that her voice was only a little shaky.

“Shepherd’s pie. The real Irish kind.” After dishing a healthy amount onto her plate, he sat back and watched her expectantly.

“Oh. My. God,” she said after swallowing a forkful. “This is amazing, Ryan.”

He took a bite. “Mmm, not bad. Not bad at all.”

“You can make this for me anytime you want.” The pleased smile he gave her sent little flutters through her. As they ate, the conversation centered around the rabbit and how he had showed up one day on Ryan’s doorstep.

“I have to go out of town in a week, and I’m not sure what to
do with him. Maybe I can find a vet I can board him with,” he said.

“Oh, where you going?” And just like that his face blanked. Weird.

“I can’t say.” He stood and gathered their empty plates, set them in
the sink, and ran water over them. Turning, he leaned back against
the
counter. “I should have made something up, said I was going home
to Boston or something. But I promised I would never lie to you.”

Although he didn’t owe her any explanation, she appreciated that he hadn’t tried to lie, but he’d certainly sparked her curiosity. “Exactly what do you do?”

He seemed to consider the question for a few seconds. “I work for K2 Special Services.”

That told her nothing. “Never heard of them. What do they do?”

Again, he took his time answering. “Lots of stuff. We work with companies, helping them secure their computers against hackers. We teach drivers for CEOs how to keep their bosses safe when they’re in a car.”

“Defensive driving?”

“Defensive and offensive, and how to know which needs to be done when. Ah, let’s see, we help companies through the legalities of doing business overseas.”

Nothing there that would prevent him from telling her where he was going. That meant the company must do secret stuff.

“Does K2 also take jobs from the government, say, like the CIA or maybe agencies I’ve never even heard of?” Wow, he was good at blanking his face, but that alone was a tell. She waved a hand in the air. “No, don’t tell me ’cause then you’d have to kill me, right?”

“And that would be a damn shame, especially since we haven’t had phone sex yet.”

Charlie burst into laughter. “Sheesh, Hot Guy, I thought you’d forget about that.” He’d kicked off his shoes when he came back from collecting his posters, and standing there barefooted, wearing jeans and a white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, he was just downright sexy.

“Not gonna forget.”

She wiggled her fingers. “No ring.”

“I already told you I had that covered.” He reached into his pocket, and then held out his fisted hand. “Come here, cherub.”

Was he kidding? The whole ring thing had just been a joke between them, hadn’t it?

CHAPTER NINE

T
he surprise on Charlie’s face delighted Ryan. He raised a brow when she just sat there gaping at him. “You’re going to have to come to me if you want it.” Would she? Although the whole ring thing had begun as a game between them, somehow it had come to mean something to him. What, he wasn’t sure, and why he—a man of twenty-eight—wanted to go steady, he also didn’t know. All he knew was that he liked her, and didn’t want her seeing anyone else.

Was she seeing someone else? He’d never asked. They really hadn’t known each other long enough to commit to any kind of a relationship, but the idea of sharing her made him want to hurt someone.

Yes!
Barely refraining from making a victory fist, Ryan smiled when she came to him.

“Hello, girlfriend,” he said when she stopped in front of him. She was a sexy little thing, and he also barely refrained from scooping her up and carrying her to his bedroom, where he would strip off her clothes and do wicked things to her body. Another thing he refrained from doing was blatantly reaching down and adjusting himself in an attempt to find more room in his pants.

“So this is real then?”

He trailed his knuckles down a baby-soft cheek. “Do you want it to be?” She chewed on her bottom lip, drawing his attention to them. They were full lips. Kissable lips. That much he already knew.

Finally, she gave a little shrug. “Why not?”

“You’re such a romantic, Charlie,” he said, grinning when she narrowed her eyes. “Stand still.” He slipped the chain around her neck. He’d bought a long one so that she could keep the ring tucked inside her clothes if she preferred.

She picked it up and studied it. “This really is your class ring, isn’t it?”

“Yep.”

Blue-gray eyes lifted and met his. “Does this mean you won’t be dating anyone but me?”

“Yes, that’s what it means, and no one but me for you, right?”

“Right,” she said, and surprised him by tugging him back to his chair, then straddling him.

“If I’d known I’d get this reaction, I would’ve given that to you as soon as you walked in the door.”

“I guess we’ll just have to make up for lost time.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

Ryan clamped down on his need to take over, letting her explore his mouth. Her tongue scraped over his, and he loved the taste of her. Suddenly, she sucked his bottom lip into her mouth. Total turn-on.

Sitting on a hard kitchen chair wasn’t where he wanted to be though. He stood with her still wrapped around him, and on his way out of the room, he reached over to the coffeepot and flipped it on. Ryan wasn’t even sure she had noticed that they were on the move as she had her face buried in his neck and was licking his skin as if he were a lollypop.

“Coffee?” she murmured.

Okay, she was somewhat aware of her surroundings. “Yeah. Gonna make you a coffee and Baileys.”

“With whipped cream?”

“Uh-huh.” He fell onto the sofa with Charlie still glued to him.

“I love whipped cream.”

All kinds of visions popped into his head, all of them X-rated. “Then next time, I’ll buy the store out.”

Her pelvis rested on his erection, and if she didn’t stop moving, he was going to flip them both over and claim her as his. “Charlene, I’m one breath away from losing control here. I don’t think either of us is ready for that.” Had those words really come from his mouth?

She stilled, her eyebrows furrowing as she studied him. “I thought . . . I guess I thought this was what you wanted.”

Ryan didn’t know what he wanted. Not true. He did know. Her. Right then. Right there on his couch. “Believe me, it is.”

“But?”

“What you just said is the
but
.” He hadn’t realized it until she’d said it, but it was the reason for the big stop sign flashing in his head. “You guess this is what I want, and I won’t even attempt to deny it. But you have to want it, too, just as bad.”

Troubled eyes stared back at him. “I do. It’s just that . . .”

He waited, not willing to let her off the hook. He wanted to know her, to know her secrets and her dreams. Their relationship—whatever it was exactly—had started strangely from the beginning. They’d almost had a one-night affair, and he thought she had been more than willing for her own reasons, yet, he believed she had never done anything like that before. Why had she been willing to sleep with him when she hadn’t known him, but hesitant after agreeing to be his girlfriend?

Her gaze lowered to his chest, and she sat back onto his knees. “I don’t know how to explain this.”

“Just say what you’re thinking, Charlie.”

“Can we have that coffee now?”

Ryan sputtered a laugh. “That’s what you were thinking? Maybe I’m not as good at kissing as I thought I was.”

Wide eyes lifted to his. “Are you kidding me? I’ve kissed tons of guys and trust me, not one of them was as good at it as you.”

“Tons?” Just how many men had she kissed to think in terms of tons?

Her cheeks turned pink. “Sheesh. I didn’t mean to tell you that.”

She tried to push away, and he wrapped his hands around her waist, holding her still. “Well, you did, and now that that cat’s out of the bag, you’ve got my curiosity in high gear. How many is
tons
?”

It didn’t really matter to him if she’d kissed a thousand guys as long as she didn’t kiss any man but him while they were together. The sense, though, that she needed to get something off her chest drove him to probe deeper.

“I knew I was going to screw this up,” she said. “I mean, you can have any woman you want.” She waved a hand in the air as if there were women surrounding them for him to choose from. “Why would you want me?”

What minefield had he stepped onto? The safest thing to do when that happened was to backtrack on the exact footsteps that got you in that fix, but just maybe Charlie was worth the danger of going forward. No way to know until he made it out the other side or something went
boom
. But he was a man who thrived on danger, so he pressed onward.

“Tell you what. You get your thoughts together while I make us that coffee. Then we’re going to have a nice long talk. Before we’re done, I’m going to tell you exactly why I like you. Okay?”

The nod she gave him was halfhearted, telling him she would probably rather be anywhere else about then. He lifted her onto the sofa next to him, then brushed his lips over hers. “Be right back.”

Coffee made with a little extra Baileys to hopefully relax them both for what he suspected was a heavy conversation about to happen, Ryan paused before picking up the cups from the counter. His living room and kitchen were one big room, with a half wall separating the spaces, allowing him to see Charlie. Curled up in the corner of the sofa, she studiously examined her fingernails.

Why would she think she wasn’t desirable? Although she was petite, she had a perfect body for her size. The short, blonde hair that curled around her head fascinated him, and he wanted to play with it, wanted to know if the curls would bounce back into place if he tugged on them. Between the hair and her blue-gray eyes, she really did remind him of a cherub.

That she was a stunt plane pilot performing death-defying tricks about blew his mind. Meeting her on the street, if asked what she did, that would be the last thing he would have guessed. He honestly couldn’t wait to introduce her to his teammates, then watch their reactions when he told them she flew a stunt plane in air shows.

The woman was damn hot, but apparently had no clue. Why was that? He picked up the cups and returned to the living room. “Here you go,” he said, handing her one.

“Thanks.” She grinned. “Wow, that’s a lot of whipped cream piled up on there.”

He sat beside her. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but you did say you loved the stuff.”

“I do.”

She stuck out her pink tongue and licked up the top of the cream. Ryan stifled a groan. “You’re killing me, cherub.”

The woman who had no clue of her effect on him peered up at him. “Is that good?”

“Jesus, Charlie, who screwed with your mind?” Some asshole had to have done a number on her if she had to ask. That had to be the answer to what puzzled him about her insecurities. If the man was still bothering her, he wouldn’t be for long.

Instead of answering, she wrapped her fingers around the spoon he had put in the cup and stirred the whipped cream into the coffee. “This is so good.”

He tapped his cup against hers. “To secrets revealed. Tell me yours, Charlie.”

Like a sailor in a bar after four months at sea, she tipped up the cup and practically chugged the contents. When she finished, a whipped-cream mustache lined her upper lip. He swiped his thumb over her mouth, tidying her up.

“Tell me about the tons of men you kissed.”

Wary eyes searched his. “Why do you want to know?”

“Because you brought it up, so I think it’s something you want to tell me. Remember, I said I’d tell you why I like you?” She nodded. “If you want to know, start talking.”

“You drive a hard bargain, Hot Guy.” With a drawn-out sigh, she set her cup on the table, then laid her head back on the sofa and closed her eyes. “In high school, I let any guy kiss me who wanted to. I was what the boys called a tease. I’d make out with them, but I’d never put out.”

“Why was that?” He resisted putting his hand over the thumbs she furiously twirled around each other.

Yeah, why was that? Charlie thought back to her high school days and analyzed her behavior from an older, wiser perspective. She had been an insecure, overweight, stupid teen, trying to figure out how to be as cool as Ashley. When her stepsister had first entered her life, Charlie had been in awe. Ashley was everything Charlie wasn’t. Beautiful, popular, and the boys liked her.

Charlie had wanted the boys to like her, too, but she hadn’t known how to go about getting that from them other than to let them kiss her. The stupid girl she had been had thought she would find a boyfriend that way. A boy who would look at her like a dozen or so boys looked at Ashley. All she had actually accomplished was the claim to kissing more than her fair share of boys who wouldn’t even acknowledge her the next time they saw her. Remembering those days now, she was embarrassed for the girl she had been, but she refused to make excuses.

Wondering how Ryan had gotten her to talk about a time in her life she’d rather forget, Charlie opened her eyes and saw only interest in Ryan’s green ones. When she had admitted to Aaron that she had kissed several boys during her high school years, he hadn’t been as forgiving.

“Which? The tons of kisses or never putting out?” She thought she would rather eat three green peppers in a row—the food she hated most—than have a conversation about her teenage years. How had Ryan even picked up on the careless comment she had tossed out? The man was entirely too perceptive, something she would have to remember.

He curled his fingers over the thumbs she hadn’t realized she was twirling around each other. “Just because you kissed boys didn’t mean you had to put out. If they thought otherwise, that was their bad, not yours. Do you want to tell me about that time in your life?”

If she wasn’t careful, she could fall in love with her Hot Guy. “Yeah, I do.” Which was a surprise because it was a time she’d tried hard to forget. “Long story short, I was a fat, geeky kid with a beautiful, popular stepsister. All the boys liked her, but she was a snob and only hung out with the”—she made air quotes—
“
‘in crowd.
’
I dunno, I guess in my warped, insecure mind, I thought letting boys kiss me proved they liked me. That maybe I was popular like Ashley.”

“Did they? Like you, I mean?” he asked, and by the softness in his eyes, she understood that he already knew the answer.

“No. A boy I might’ve made out with the night before under the bleachers would walk right by me the next day and not even see me.”

He pressed his palm against hers, and held up their joined hands. “Look how small yours is compared to mine.”

Hers was half the size of his, and as warmth seeped into her skin from his heat, a sudden longing to have the right to hold his hand anytime made her feel like crying. He might claim she was his girlfriend, but it was only a game to him, and games always ended with someone losing. From prior experience, that would be her.

She put her free hand over her face and groaned. “This is so embarrassing.”

“Come here, Charlene.”

Peeking through her fingers, she asked, “Why?”

A grin that seemed totally wicked curved his lips. “Because I want to make out with my new girlfriend.”

“You gonna pretend you don’t know me tomorrow?”

“Silly girl. I’ll be proud to know you tomorrow and the day after that.”

Oh, okay then. “No more talking?”

“Not unless you still want to know why I like you, then I’ll have to talk, won’t I?” He patted his legs.

Relieved he wasn’t going to persist with his questions, she climbed onto his lap, facing him. “So?” she asked. His oddly colored eyes flicked over her, the heat in them making every nerve in her body tingle. The man had a killer smile, one that made her feel it was meant just for her.
Dangerous thinking, there, Charlie.
He might speak the truth when he claimed he wasn’t a player, but she had no doubt he could sneak his way into her heart with little effort. She had best keep her guard up.