Page 96 of The Wedding Engagement

He kept his eyes on the pad. “Yeah. I went to a life drawing class for a bit. But I have to say that sketching naked middle-aged men is byfara different experience to this.” He raised his eyes to shoot her a look of molten heat.

Glancing at where his overalls hugged his crotch, she took in the shape of something that she sincerely hoped had not been present at his life drawing class. “I can see that.”

Catching the direction of her gaze, he broke out into a slow smile, which pushed her temperature up another couple of notches.My master plan is working. I’m a frickin’ genius. Well, Brodie is anyway.

Settling into silence, apart from the soft sound of pencil on paper, she watched him sketch. As time went on it became apparent which parts of her he was drawing, because his eye movements would get kind of rapid, glancing quickly from her to the paper a few times in quick succession before settling. Then he’d draw with his lips slightly parted, a slight flush on his skin.

She grinned. “Do you feel like him offTitanic?”

He paused what he was doing to laugh. “Thatis the perfect analogy.” Smiling, he went back to the pad. “I hope that doesn’t mean I’m going to die by the end of the day.”

She shrugged. “Nah. I’d let you climb on my door.”

His smile turned wicked. “Is that a double entendre?”

Liv shook her head. “It’s a poor one if so.” The corner of her mouth twitched. “But the sentiment is appreciated. If you know what I mean.”

“Aha.” He pointed his pencil. “Thatone was definitely an innuendo.”

She grinned. “Don’t point that pencil at me.”

“Aw, man.” He laughed. “Don’t use a pencil innuendo. I’ll get an inferiority complex.”

She arched an eyebrow. “You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

He shot her a grin, holding her gaze for a few seconds before he shifted his eyes over her body. The smile slipped and for a moment he looked as if he was about to get up and come over. But then he ran a hand over his hair and went back to drawing.

Dammit, how long did a sketch take anyway?

She settled back, trying to bide her time. Though she had to admit she hadn’t anticipated he’d hold out this long. The ache between her legs was beginning to feel uncomfortable.

Eventually, he leaned back, tossing the pencil onto his desk. “Okay. That’s about as much as I can manage with a raging hard-on.”

She broke down laughing, with relief more than anything that he’d finally voiced that he was turned-on. She lifted the throw from the couch against her front. “Let’s see it.”

He gave her a heated look. “The sketch or the hard-on?”

Her pulse throbbed in her veins, sending a bolt of desire down into her core. “Hmm. Sketch first, please.”

He leaned to pass it over.

“Nope,” she said, raising her eyebrows at him. “You bring it here.”

He immediately got to his feet and nearly tripped over them in his hurry to close the few steps between them. She shifted her feet down to the floor, still holding the throw over her front, and he sat close beside her so their sides were touching.

Arran passed her the sketch, and her intention to have a token glance went out the window, her heart swelling. “Wow, you’ve made me look beautiful.”

The way he’d shaded the dark and the light gave her this kind of ethereal quality, gazing into the distance as if she were finding solutions to the universe’s unanswerable questions.

He lifted a hand to her cheek. “I didn’tmakeyou look beautiful. You just are.”

Her breath caught as the honey tone of his eyes glowed with reverence. She studied him for a few seconds. “What’re you thinking?”

His gaze skidded downward. “That I’m really glad I bought a throw with a very open weave.”

The corner of her mouth tugged up and she lifted a hand to stroke his face. He held her gaze a couple of seconds longer, then gently pulled the throw from where she was grasping it against her chest. He shifted it down her breasts, then let it fall to the floorbefore leaning in to kiss her neck. “You taste so good,” he told her, gently biting her skin and making her shiver.

The softness of his lips and the graze of his stubble made her skin tingle with sensitivity, and each time he shifted his mouth lower, the new patch of skin was even more sensitive than the previous. By the time his lips touched her breasts, the sensation was exquisite, making her nipples harden and peak before he even took them into his mouth.

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