‘No, you’re not,’ she said, laying her hand on his cheek. ‘Not really. You’re lonely and you’re hurting, just like I am.’
A small, sad smile tipped one corner of his mouth. ‘You’re not her, and I’m not him. It’s just you and me here tonight. Alice and Robinson. Is that so very bad?’
Alice shook her head, not answering him because she was finding it almost impossible to deny him or herself.
‘I’m not looking for love, and I don’t think you are either,’ he went on. ‘We’ve both been there, got the t-shirt, and had it ripped from our backs. Our cards are already on the table.’
‘That’s exactly why it’s a bad idea,’ she whispered.
‘As bad ideas go, this one feels pretty good in here.’ He tapped his chest with two fingers. ‘And your eyes tell me it feels pretty good in there too.’
He reached out and touched the same fingertips against the silken lapel of her robe, coming to rest against the pulse at the base of her throat.
‘If I kiss you, maybe we’ll know for sure if it’s good or bad,’ he murmured, his fingers drifting around her neck into her hair. There was something in the barely there touch of his hand against her skin that made her arch into him, the space between their mouths so small that one tiny movement was all it would take. Alice hadn’t kissed anyone else but Brad in years and years, and she was nine parts wildly turned on to one part absolutely terrified.
‘I’m scared,’ she breathed, her lips barely moving.
‘Don’t be,’ he whispered, and then he moved forward and covered her lips with his, and Alice found that she wasn’t. She wasn’t, because his kiss was so slow and gentle, his lips hardly moving on hers, his fingers cradling her head. Alice closed her eyes and breathed him in, and her hand curved over the warm strength of his shoulder. His body was heaven under her hands, solid and hard where his mouth was soft and sure. He reacted to her touch, gathering her closer, opening her lips with his to let his tongue slide over hers. It was the best of first kisses, the kind that melted every bone in your body and made your blood sing a chorus of hallelujahs in your veins. It happened in her mouth, her body and her heart, like a box of fireworks all exploding at once. She barely registered when he pulled her across onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her, because all she wanted was to be closer and for him not to stop. His hands skimmed down the length of her spine, making her arch and press into him, her hands in his hair pulling his mouth harder onto hers. The change in him was instantaneous; he seemed to let go of his restraint and kissed her properly, deep, open mouthed and crazy hot. Alice didn’t need to question whether or not he was turned on, she could feel the heat and the hardness of him under her ass and it made her gasp. He moaned in his throat and sank his teeth into her bottom lip as his hand cupped her breast through the thin layer of her robe. She may as well have been naked, because when his fingers closed around her nipple it felt that way.
‘I guess that answers my question of whether or not you’re naked under this,’ he said, sliding his mouth from her lips to her ear and mouthing the sensitive skin there. He wound her hair around his other hand, using it like a tether to tip her head back and expose her neck to his lips.
When he slipped his hand inside her robe and held her breast, Alice gulped down air at the intimacy of his skin touching hers. He moaned her name, kissing her slowly again now as his thumb drew equally slow circles around her nipple. It was agonisingly sexual, magic and delicious and new, so very different to the way Brad had touched her that her eyes opened and locked with his as he flattened her breast with his palm. Neither of them breathed as he massaged her skin, watching each other’s eyes as he pulled his hand back and rolled the tips of his fingers around her nipple.
It was erotic, and it moved her deeply, so much so that tears filled her eyes and crept down her cheeks. Robinson eased his hand from her robe and wiped away her tears with his thumbs, drawing her back into his chest and pressing his mouth against her forehead.
‘It’s okay to feel like this with someone else,’ he said, stroking his hand over her hair, understanding her without the need for explanation. They stayed that way for a while. He smelled so good; clean and woody and male. Alice breathed him in, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his neck, not wanting to leave but knowing she needed to.
‘I should go.’
He held her a little tighter and sighed against her hair. ‘Yeah.’
‘Thank you for kissing me,’ she smiled shakily. ‘I think I probably needed someone to do that. Someone other than him, I mean.’
‘Glad to be of service, ma’am,’ he said. ‘Consider me available if you ever need your boundaries testing some more.’
‘You’re top of my list, cowboy.’
‘You have a list?’
She liked his easy, lighthearted way. ‘I’ve just started one. You’re the only man on it so far.’
‘I kind of like being the only one on it, Alice.’
She wasn’t sure how to respond. She didn’t really want a list.
‘Come on,’ he said. ‘I’ll see you home.’
A pang of sadness surfaced when she remembered that this wasn’t her home any more.
‘You don’t need to do that.’
He stood up with her in his arms and set her down gently on her feet.
‘I know I don’t need to. I want to.’
‘I can practically see the Airstream from here,’ she said, pulling on her boots as he opened the back door.
‘Yeah, but I hear there’s bears in the woods,’ he said, grabbing a leather jacket she didn’t recognise from the coat hooks and wrapping it around her shoulders. Butter soft and battered, it had the same comforting woody, unique smell as his neck.