Hard to Handle

cage like a troupe of Riverdancers.

He didn’t mean to speak so seductively. She must have imagined it. Like she imagined the hand that looked a lot like hers fisting the front of his shirt. Like she imagined the voice that sounded like a huskier version of her own, saying, There was one more thing.

Only it wasn’t her imagination.

Sadie’s out-of-body experience ended the moment she pressed her lips against Aiden’s for a very solid, full-on lip smash of a kiss. It was a little longer than the peck she’d given him at Rick’s party. And a lot more needy. She pulled back and flattened her hand against his solid chest, her stomach flopping like a dying fish.

With a clumsy smile she hoped would disguise her rattling nerves, she said, “Thanks for driving.” She’d taken one step toward the finish line—the glowing red EXIT sign over the front door—when Aiden caught her wrist.

“No, no, no,” he said as he brought her to stand before him again. “That was not an acceptable good-night kiss.”

Embarrassed, Sadie blurted out the first thing that popped into her head. “Why not? What was wrong with it?”

He clasped on to her other wrist and tugged her close, so close her thighs bumped his. “Wrong is such a harsh word.”

Sadie heard herself snort-laugh, not because it was funny but because her nerves were rattling like a game of Boggle. “Like you can do better?” she asked, her voice weak and edgy.

His grin was slow, sliding into place as he held her eyes. “Definitely.”

He released her wrists and skimmed his palms down her sides to the flare of her hips. His hot palms burned through her jeans as he bent and gripped the backs of her thighs. She sucked in a breath of anticipation at what might come next.

“Up,” he breathed into her ear.

He lifted her and Sadie let out a yelp of surprise and gripped his neck for support. Aiden deposited her on top of the counter. She pulled her arms from his neck and attempted to put them at her sides. She bumped the cash register with one wrist and the credit card machine with the other before giving up and holding them in front of her awkwardly.

Aiden’s lips twisted in amusement. “Like you haven’t kissed me before,” he teased, moving her hands back to his neck.

“That was a long time ago,” she said quietly, heart pounding.

With her arms locked around him, their faces inches apart, there was nowhere to look but into his eyes. Eyes erased of the trace of humor they’d held earlier, replaced by a deep, dark want she knew reflected in her own. Aiden wrapped one of her ankles around his waist, then the other, and tugged her until her butt was at the edge of the countertop. His big body settled between her legs. She crossed her feet around him, her breasts brushing against the front of his shirt, her body humming with excitement.

“Now, let’s see if we can remember how this goes,” Aiden said.

Lust plugged her throat, rendered her speechless. She nodded.

Aiden clutched her hips, kept his eyes on hers as he came nearer and nearer to her lips, his pace purposefully slow. When he finally dipped his head and touched her lips, a moan of approval sounded low in Sadie’s throat.

This was no peck on the lips, no, no. Aiden was taking his sweet time, his speed downright leisurely, the pull of his lips hypnotizing. Sadie was pliant beneath him. She easily matched his rhythm, savoring the faint taste of beer lingering on his lips.

Oh yes, she remembered this. She remembered him. The heat of his mouth, his full but firm bottom lip. The tiny bit of hair beneath it was new, and she enjoyed that, too. Enjoyed the prickling sensation against her chin as he slanted his mouth over hers and deepened the kiss.

He teased her lips with his tongue and Sadie gave in, all too willing to open to his exploration. He swept his tongue in her mouth and out again. Then in, then out, the mind-numbing tempo sending her hormones over the edge like lemmings.

If the heat between their mouths didn’t make her orgasm where she sat, the feel of his wide hands might. He slid them from her hips to her ribs, his thumbs brushing her bare skin just under the hem of her shirt. She waited for the counter beneath her to reduce to ash. For the first time since the last time she’d kissed Aiden, she found herself not wanting to stop. She wanted him to keep going—to run those wide, slightly rough palms of his under her shirt and cup her full, sensitive breasts.

She needed him closer. Wanted to kiss him until their teeth clashed and his stubble caused a rough rash on her jaw. She reached for his hair, to grab the length of it and haul him down to her like she used to. She encountered prickly growth at the back of his neck instead. She’d forgotten he cut it. And she whimpered.

Actually whimpered.

Aiden smiled so wide her next kiss landed on his teeth. “It’ll grow back,” he said against her mouth, then finished her off with one final full-lipped kiss before sweeping her hands away from his neck. He brushed her fingers with the pads of his thumbs, his breathing far more even than hers. Sadie’s chest rose and fell in a stuttering rhythm, like she’d just run a mile. Underwater.

“I can tell by your face you’re not impressed.” Aiden sighed.

Sadie felt her mouth drop open. Her entire body hummed like a speaker blaring too much bass, and he thought she felt…nothing?

He gave her a brief wink to show he was kidding. “Although…” He ran a thumb over her cheek. She felt heat bloom on her cheekbones. “Maybe I didn’t fail entirely.”

He stepped away from her, taking his warm, hard body with him. He held her hands and helped her down, only letting her go when she was steady on her feet. Well, as steady as she was going to get after a grade-A lip lock.

He swiped a finger and thumb over his mouth. His delicious, juicy apple of a mouth, Sadie thought, pressing her fingertips to her own lips.

“I should go.” Sadie backed toward the door, unsteady, her knees Jell-O, her emotions tumbling like lottery balls.

Aiden followed, matching her every jiggly, backward step with a solid, forward one of his own. “If I knew you’d miss my hair so much, I wouldn’t have cut it.”

Remembering the needy sound that emitted from her throat sent a fresh blast of heat to her cheeks. “I don’t.”

“Oh, I think you do,” he said, advancing.

Sadie reached the door and grasped the handle behind her. Aiden stood over her and she instinctively flattened her back to the glass and waited for him to kiss her again. She was so sure he would, it startled her when he reached over her head and flicked the lock instead.

“You’re free to go.” He backed away from her an inch, giving her room to breathe. Room she didn’t want. An easy smile decorated his face. “Unless you want me to drive you home,” he offered. “And tuck you in.”

What was frightening was that Sadie paused for a millisecond to consider his offer. Before her skin went up in a blaze caused directly by the idea of this man in her bed, she shut down the fantasy. If she kept this up, she’d have to stop, drop, and roll to get her hormones under control.

“No,” she said a little too loudly—letting them both know how edgy she was—“I’m good.”

She turned the handle and nearly fell out the door, catching herself in a skip-walk. She continued briskly to her car without glancing over her shoulder, twisting the key in the ignition and hazarding a look in the rearview mirror. She was so sure she’d see Aiden’s face peering back at her through the glass, she was surprised to find the window blank and dark.

Sadie was tired of being surprised; tired of being off-kilter. She jerked the wheel, stepped on the gas, and headed home.

Chapter 8