Night with Sole Regret

TAKE ME X

Amanda tackled a pair of oranges next, while he removed the greenery from the strawberries. They had enough fruit in the bowl for ten people by the time they finished and had sung the chorus of the same song at least twenty times, but Shade was reluctant to end the easy camaraderie between them and checked the fridge for fruit they might have overlooked. He didn’t get to do this kind of thing often. Especially not with a woman. He had a certain reputation to uphold, but with Amanda, he could let go and just be himself without worrying about what she thought of him. It had always been this way between them. Even when he’d been engaged and married to her sister, if he’d wanted to have a little goofy fun, he’d seek out Amanda’s easy-going companionship.

Something ice-cold blasted him in the back of the neck. He yelled and spun around only to get hit with a stream of water in the face. Brandishing the water sprayer from the island sink, Amanda laughed and sprayed him in the ear.

“s**t, that’s cold,” he protested, covering his ear with one hand and rubbing the liquid out of it.

She made a sad puppy dog face at him, her lower lip protruding in a pout. “Oh, poor baby,” she said and then squirted him at the base of his neck.

“You,” he growled, though he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face.

Laughing gleefully, Amanda dashed around the island and when the counter was between them, turned and sprayed him again.

He circled the counter at a run. She squealed and skidded out of reach, squirting water in all directions. The icy liquid caught him on the arm. Despite getting drenched, he didn’t back down, not even when he had her trapped against him and she directed a steady spray of water down both their bellies.

“That’s cold,” she squealed and released the nozzle.

Shade wrested the sprayer out of her hand. “You’re damned right it’s cold.” He held her tightly with one arm and sprayed water down her shirt. Which drew his attention to her now sopping wet breasts, transparent pale pink T-shirt and hard n*****s. His body’s reaction was instantaneous. His brain was a few seconds behind.

She yelled, “Cold, cold, cold. Jacob! Stop!”

He dropped the hose and cupped the inviting succulence of one breast in his hand. His thumb brushed the hardened n****e, and she shuddered. There wasn’t enough cold water in the Arctic Ocean to cool the hot lust flooding his groin.

Amanda needed to slap him, and soon, or he was going to do something they’d both regret. She lifted her hand and instead of delivering a stinging palm to his cheek, she pulled off his sunglasses and tossed them across the counter.

Their eyes met. He couldn’t look away. She moved closer. Or he moved closer. He wasn’t sure which. Didn’t care. All he knew was that he had to sample her lips. He’d dreamed of kissing her so many times . . . He wondered if she’d taste as sweet as she looked.

His heart thudded faster and faster as he leaned closer. He hadn’t felt this giddy since his first kiss in junior high school.

His lips were a hair’s breadth from hers when the doorbell rang and he came back to his senses.

“Sorry,” he said and jerked away.

No matter how much he wanted her, Amanda Lange was off limits.

Yeah, tell that to his d**k.

Amanda had never wished harm to a pizza delivery person before, but as Jacob stepped away and she was robbed of the heat of his hard body and the scent of his delectable flesh, she started compiling a list of tortures.

Jacob had almost kissed her. Almost. And she could still feel the weight of his hand on her breast. Oh God, she wanted the man. And for about thirty seconds, she’d thought she might actually have her wish fulfilled.

Leaning against the kitchen island for support, she watched him leave the room to answer the door. Why hadn’t she been more aggressive? She should have just grabbed him and kissed him. Made it perfectly clear that she wanted him.

As usual, her tendency to hesitate and think things through left her without the prize she craved. She needed to let loose. Get aggressive. Paw the man like a s*x-starved lioness. Yeah, right. Even if she could find the courage to throw caution aside, those kinds of tactics didn’t work with Jacob anyway.

With a sigh, Amanda reached for a towel and began to mop up the water covering the kitchen. It kept her hands occupied so she didn’t start peeling off her clothes so she could wait for him, naked, like the woman he’d ditched earlier. She wouldn’t put herself in a position to be rejected by him. Amanda had felt bad for Veronica—not that she’d wanted Big Boobs Maloney to stick around, not that she wasn’t glad that Jacob had rejected her and taken her home—but Amanda was desperate enough for the man to do something like wait for him naked in a hot tub, so she empathized with the woman.

The smell of pizza accompanied Jacob back into the kitchen. Amanda tossed the wet dishtowel in the sink and turned to face him, pretending she didn’t feel awkward by forcing a smile. “Smells great.”

Avoiding her eyes, he stared over her head as he slid the pizza box onto the still-damp island counter. He was not so good at hiding his own awkwardness. “I guess you decided against the pineapple and anchovies.”

“Yeah, I had that a couple nights ago. Thought I’d mix it up a little.”

He reached for his sunglasses, but she snatched them up before he could get his hand on them. No way was she letting him hide behind them. She didn’t care if it made him uncomfortable to look at her after he’d almost kissed her.

“No sunglasses for you tonight,” she said, stuffing them down the front of her shirt. His gaze landed on her chest and her damp T-shirt. This time when her n*****s hardened, it wasn’t from the cold. It was from the heat in his eyes.

“Um.” He jerked his head up and took a step backward. “I’ll get you something dry to put on.”

He fled the room before she could tell him she was more than happy to wear a wet shirt if it made him look at her like that. She sighed, hid his sunglasses in a random drawer and then searched the cabinets for plates. A few minutes later he returned with a bath towel and a button-down man’s flannel shirt. “I figured you were probably cold.”

Oh sure. So she was supposed to wear a big flannel shirt that covered her from neck to knee while she was forced to look at him in his skintight T-shirt that pulled against his well-defined muscles every time he moved? And he expected her not to tackle him to the floor and get her hands on every bulging inch of him? Her eyes dropped to his crotch. Yeah, she especially wanted to get her hands on that particular bulge.

“Thanks,” she managed to say.

She pulled her T-shirt off over her head and reached for the shirt he was holding in her direction. He gaped at her as if he’d never seen a chick in her bra before. As soon as she had his shirt in her possession, he spun around and faced the opposite direction.

“Amanda,” he said breathlessly, “what are you doing?”

She smiled, glad he was at least a little flustered. “Putting on your shirt so I don’t catch cold.” She buttoned it to the middle of her chest and then wriggled out of her wet shorts. She tossed them at him, and they smacked him in the back before falling to the floor. “Should I take off my panties too? They’re positively drenched.”

“No!”

She bit her lip to hold in a laugh. Why was he acting so embarrassed? Amanda imagined women threw their panties at him all the time.

“I’m decent,” she told him. Not that she wanted to be.

He took a deep breath and turned to face her, as if dreading a walk to the guillotine. His gaze slid from her feet up her bare legs and to the large, shapeless shirt that fit her like a muumuu.

“Mercy,” he said under his breath. He squeezed his eyes shut and then bent to retrieve her wet shorts and shirt. “I’ll put these in the dryer for you.” He fled the room again.

Perplexed, Amanda scratched her head. What the f**k was his deal? She wasn’t that unappealing, was she? For a few minutes she’d actually thought he was attracted to her. Now he was treating her like she had a communicable disease.