Page 20 of A Brush with Love
Having no firsthand experience at actual romance, just awkward dates and lackluster sex, this was a guess. But, if it was anything like whatever the hell was unfolding in her kitchen, romance felt like drowning.
Dan’s gaze flashed with hunger, but it disappeared quickly. He moved them toward the kitchen doorway, maneuvering the tight space with smooth steps. She felt his chest rise and fall with each inhale, almost meeting hers.
Shaky and overwhelmed, Harper squeezed her eyes shut. Anxiety screamed for it to end, while another fragment of her mind begged for more.
Dan’s body gravitated closer.
Closer.
So close that if either of them breathed, they would touch.
His hand skimmed from the base of her spine to lightly grip at the side of her hip, and heat followed the path, settling low in her belly.
For a single moment, he squeezed her tightly against him, his fingers pressing fire into her hip.
Then his hand dropped.
And he shifted away.
“I see what you’re trying to do, Horowitz, but I’m sorry to say, I’m impenetrable to your tricks of seduction.”
Harper’s head jerked back, and she stepped away from him, banging into the countertop behind her. His dark and playful eyes skimmed over her.
“What?— No. Stop it. I’m changing the song.” She groped blindly for her phone, but he dropped his hand on top of hers.
“I’m sorry, Harper. I’m just not that kind of guy.” He traced a gentle circle across the back of her hand.
“Wait, what?”
His wicked eyes bore into hers for a second longer before he moved out of the kitchen and into the hall, tugging her behind him.
“It’s a personal rule, really,” he said over his shoulder.
“What is?”
Reaching her front door, he turned to face her. His lips were pressed into a crooked line, halfway between a laugh and a sad frown.
“I don’t put out on the first date. Need to know you’ll still respect me in the morning.” He tapped her on the nose with hisindex finger. “We’ll reevaluate on our third date, but I have a good feeling,” he said with a wink. Her mouth went slack.
“Are you high?” she managed to splutter out.
“Now I’ll get out of here before we both do something we’ll regret. I can’t imagine it’s easy to keep your hands off me,” he said, offering a sympathetic shrug. His wicked mouth twitched with a grin.
She gaped at him. “What the hell are you talking about?” she managed to ask.
His face softened. “I’m teasing you,” he said, using the pad of his thumb to smooth the furrows between her brows. “Thank you for the best night I’ve had since starting school.”
His voice was sincere and the words reverberated through Harper’s chest. He stepped back and Harper blinked at him.
“See you around, Harper,” he said in a husky voice.
He bent and brushed his lips over her cheek. The light touch released a fire hose of adrenaline and lust, drowning every nerve ending in her body. He opened the door and stepped out, giving her one more glimpse of his elated grin, before closing it behind him.
She stood there for several minutes, replaying the scene over and over in her head. She slumped forward and dropped her forehead to the door, a small smile breaking across her lips as a new thought played on loop.
He’d called it a date.
CHAPTER 9
