Читать книгу Sizzle - Katherine Garbera - Страница 10

A HOT WOMAN IN HIS LAP wasn’t what he’d anticipated tonight but to be honest there was nothing he wanted more. He was high on the exhilaration of the dish he’d created. He felt as if everything inside of him had been pushing toward this interlude. He didn’t have all the answers he’d been seeking but thanks in part to Staci he’d found a few of them.

Sliding his arms up and down her back, she shifted to accommodate him, her hands still framing his face. Her fingers were delicate and cool against his beard-stubbled chin; he rubbed his face against her hands breaking the contact with her mouth.

She exhaled a long drawn out sigh as she shifted her weight to settle back on her ankles.

“What am I going to do with you?” she asked.

But he could tell she wasn’t really expecting an answer from him. It was more of a question that he’d bet she wasn’t even aware she’d muttered out loud. He smoothed his hands over her back, she felt so ethereal in his arms. Like the fairies his little sister collected when they’d been children. Staci didn’t belong in this world, yet there was something very real about her.

He felt like the wrong move would send her skittering back into the house and into a permanent retreat.

He wasn’t much for being tentative. It went against his hot-blooded Cajun nature. But he was willing to do what was necessary to keep Staci here tonight. He needed her. He wasn’t sure how or why but he knew that she’d inspired him tonight and he wanted to keep that energy going.

“Kiss me again,” he said as the breeze off the Pacific stirred around them.

She tipped her head to the side. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

“Hell, yes, I’m a guy after all.”

She smiled at him but the expression didn’t reach her eyes and he sensed there was a feeling of sadness in her. He remembered the boy she’d mentioned who’d believed he’d been in love with her.

Remy wanted to know more about Staci. He needed to, yet at the same time he recognized that if he was going to win, and prove to himself what needed proving, he couldn’t let her be the first one to make him back down from a challenge.

Yet that very action was impossible. There had been other women in his life but none of them had ever inspired him to cook the way he had tonight. There was no denying it. He could only hope that he’d be able to control his need for Staci. He knew that men who played with fire did get burned.

“But you’d also like it because we’re competitors and you saw the way that you threw me in the kitchen tonight,” she said.

He didn’t have to feign surprise. He genuinely had no idea that their embrace had rattled her. But now that he did, he filed that information away for later. “No, I didn’t.”

“Truly?” she asked, tracing her fingers along his five o’clock shadow.

He closed his eyes and tipped his head to the side enjoying her touch as sensation spread throughout his body. His blood seemed to flow heavier in his veins before pooling between his legs. His erection hardened and he almost canted his hips forward.

“Yes. I was inspired by our kiss. There was something so hot in that embrace with you I thought I’d explode right there in Chef Ramone’s kitchen but then I channeled it into the dish … I’ve never done that before. I always cook from a place of history. Dishes made the way they’ve always been made.”

“Why?” she asked, running her hands down his neck and over his shoulders and warmth started to flow through him. Not unlike what he’d felt earlier in Ramone’s kitchen. This woman—Staci—made him feel things that he knew would complement their situation. He should put her from his lap and walk away … but he knew he wasn’t going to do that.

He took her wrist and drew her hand lower, rubbing it over his chest and pectorals. Her hands were small and petite as she was. Staci called to the wildness in his soul and he was powerless to ignore it. He wanted her, but more than that, he wanted to be the man who chased the shadows from her eyes.

She stretched her fingers out and then he felt the bite of her nails through the fabric of his shirt.

He reached around her, she was as hot as the spiciest pepper in his garden and one taste was simply not enough.

He held her hips, bringing her down into contact with his erection. She sighed. The sound of his name on her lips made him shudder. He liked it. He wanted to hear it again when she was breathy and on the cusp of pleasure.

He thrust up against her as her fingers continued to caress him. How he wanted this woman.

Tonight, with only the moon and the sea as his witnesses, he felt free to give in to his desires. He needed to claim her—his muse. He tangled one hand in her short hair and drew her mouth back to his. Her kisses were addictive and he was hungry for more of them. He rubbed his lips over hers until her mouth parted and he slipped his tongue inside her mouth. He was desperate to find that elusive taste that had so intrigued him earlier.