Then she thought of her vow to Kathy. Sure, it’d mostly been bravado, but still, she wanted to taste him. To feel his tongue on hers. To experience, at least one more time, hot and sexy Caleb kisses. She pressed her lips together, remembering. Then she squared her shoulders and gave him an arch look.
“Actually, most of Black Oak is thanking me daily for the effect I’ve had on their sex lives,” she told him, lifting her chin.
His laughter trailed off, his smile slowly fading as a weird look came into his eyes. A chilly sort of calculation that made Pandora, for the first time since he’d swaggered into her store four days ago, want to pull away from him.
He looked dangerous. And just a little scary.
“You don’t say? Half the town, hmm? And why’s that?”
“Aphrodisiacs, of course.”
His gaze didn’t change.
She shivered, this time letting herself duck under his arm and move away from the ladder. She needed some distance so she could reengage her brain. She made a show of petting Paulie, who was draped over a chair like a black, silky blanket. With a couple of feet between them, she watched Caleb turn, his leather-clad arms crossed over his chest as he leaned casually against the ladder.
“Aphrodisiacs?” he asked, his words as drawn out as his frown. “Like drugs?”
“What?” She yelped so loudly the mellowest cat in the world gave her a kitty frown before leaping in disapproval to the floor. Seriously shocked, Pandora gaped for a second before shaking her head. “No. Of course not. We’re holistic here at Moonspun Dreams. The store, and my family, believes in herbal remedies. We even sell charts on acupressure pain relief instead of aspirin.”
He kept staring as if he was measuring each word carefully. He didn’t look happy, though. Pandora frowned. What? Was he looking for some kind of drug? She took in his long, shaggy hair, the hard look on his face and the black hoop piercing his ear. Her gaze skimmed over his beat-up leather jacket and the faded black T-shirt, down to the frayed hem of his jeans and his scuffed biker boots.
Sexy as hell? Check.
Bad boy personified? Double check.
A drug user?
She’d heard myriad rumors about those bad Black boys. They were wild and untamed, they were trouble through and through. But she’d never heard even a whisper about drugs.
Her eyes skimmed that deliciously broad chest again, his muscles defined beneath the soft-looking fabric of his shirt. She looked into his vivid gold eyes, noting that they were shuttered but clear.
He looked as if he could and would beat anyone up, was hell on wheels and was way out of her league. But he didn’t look like a druggie.
Of course, she had lousy man skills and was body-language illiterate, so what did she know? What she couldn’t afford, though, was to be mixed up with a guy who played fast and loose with the law. Never again.
Suddenly as irritated with herself for wanting to cry as much as she was with Caleb for putting himself on the off-limits list, she scowled.
“If you’re interested in drugs, you need to look somewhere else,” she said in a chilly tone, wrapping her arms around herself to ward off the disappointment. She wished she hadn’t scared away the comfort of the cat.
Caleb didn’t say a word. He just arched a brow and continued to study her with those intense eyes of his. After a few seconds, she wanted to scream at him to say something. Anything. Or better yet, to leave. She couldn’t pout properly with him there, staring.
“I didn’t say I was interested in drugs,” he finally said, stepping closer, invading her thinking space yet again.
“You-”
“No,” he interrupted. “I said I’d heard you were the lady to talk to about hotting up my sex life.”
Pandora bit her lip, mentally replaying their discussion. Had she jumped to conclusions? Was she so awkward at this flirtation thing that she’d misinterpreted a gorgeous man hitting on her?
Caleb reached out, rubbing the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip. Pandora barely held back her whimper as her entire body melted into a puddle of goo.
“I hate to see you damage such a pretty mouth,” he murmured.
Nope. No misinterpreting that move. She didn’t need a dictionary to define his meaning. Nerves simmered low in her belly. She wanted nothing more than to reciprocate the move. But as she’d told Caleb, and despite her teasing with Kathy, she wasn’t in the market for a relationship.
Then again, Caleb Black wasn’t a relationship kind of guy.
He was, however, a hot, sexy, have-a-wild-time and give-thanks-afterward kind of guy.
She didn’t know if it was the freedom she felt in accepting that her only goal in being with him was to enjoy the ride.
Or maybe it was the sphere of calcite she’d taken to carrying in her pocket, hoping it’d help with her self- esteem.
Whatever it was, it was giving her a sense of purpose, a sense of self-confidence, that she welcomed with open arms.
She was so ready to give herself the best Christmas present ever. A guilt-free pleasurefest that she’d enjoy in decadent delight for as long as it lasted.
As far as gifts went, it beat the hell out of a new pair of slippers.
So when he rubbed her lip a second time, Pandora forced herself to dive out of the safety zone. She took a deep breath, then touched, just barely, the tip of her tongue to his thumb.
His eyes narrowed like golden lasers, then he grinned. A slow, wicked curve of his lips that set off warning bells in Pandora’s head.
She was playing with fire.
After one last brush of his thumb across her oversensitized lip, his fingers caressed a gentle trail over her cheek, along her jaw, then down her throat. It was like being touched by a cloud, his fingers were so soft, so barely there.
Pandora stopped herself from whimpering.
“Is that why you came in here?” she asked breathlessly as his fingers worked their magic along her throat. A slide up, then down, sending tingles through her body. “Because you wanted to ask about aphrodisiacs?”
“Yes,” he said, stepping closer. So close she could feel the heat of his body wrapping around her like a warm blanket of lust. “And no.”
“Which?”
“Both.”
His hand curved behind her neck, fingers tangling in her hair as he pulled her closer. Her head rested in his huge palm as she stared up into his eyes. He looked amused, but his dilated pupils and the tension in his jaw told her he was just as turned on as she was.
At least, that’s how she was reading him.
Nerves, huge and frantic, scrambled in her stomach. But she had to know. Finding out how he would respond to her was worth the risk of rejection.
Pandora took that last step, closing the distance between them. Pretending her fingers weren’t trembling, she pressed her hands against the cool leather covering Caleb’s biceps. Even through the thick fabric, she could feel his muscles bunch tight.
“I wish you weren’t wearing this jacket,” she said, her words so low even she could barely hear them. But he heard. He gave her a long look that made her nipples harden, shrugged off the leather and tossed it on the counter.
Paulie instantly padded over and curled himself into a puddle on the discarded jacket, his black fur blending perfectly with the leather. Caleb grinned before turning his gaze back to Pandora. “Anything else?”
The mouthwatering sight of his arms, the muscles round and hard beneath the long sleeves of his T-shirt, made her want to wish he’d take that off, too.
But it was his amused reaction to her pet that sent her over the edge.
“I want a kiss,” she told him. “A real one.”
