Page 45 of Even If the Sky is Falling
She leaned forward. “Oh yeah?”
Merriment danced in his eyes as he looked her over. Shea’s face heated up from the Stoli and his intense appraisal. His gaze lingered on her neckline, sending waves of warmth down her belly. If he kept looking at her like that for too long, her panties would disintegrate. “I get the occasional customer looking for this novel or that, which is easy to hunt down. But every week, I get the same beautiful woman in my store, looking for some history book I never have. I’m beginning to wonder if she has very niche reading tastes or if she’s ordering hard-to-find books on purpose.”
The amusement that played on his smile was just as sexy as his other smiles, sending a wave of arousal throughout her body. Shea no longer wanted to give him a comforting touch; she wanted to settle onto his lap and give him a long, heated kiss. But she also wanted to mind her manners. Just because she was in a bunker didn’t mean she got to act a fool. She’d made it this far, but what if this was just a lusty bunker haze? If they were lucky enough to return to the surface, could they continue?
She took a deep breath and searched her mind for something intelligent to say while he watched her with those dark sable-colored eyes. “Um...”
Nick
Nick had hoped she didn’t mind a little verbal teasing, because he quite liked seeing her blush. It made him wonder if other teasing was on the table. Did she like her earlobes nibbled on? Was she into scratchy beard kisses along the length of her neck? How would she respond to his fingers and lips dipping farther below?
Never before had he wanted to learn more about a woman.
After years of being on the road and living out of a suitcase, a proper relationship with another person seemed nearly impossible. He had believed his instinct for romance had long disappeared after being a loner. And now, Nick was starved for the intimacy Shea offered under these extreme circumstances. He enjoyed her attention, but he struggled to keep his excitement in check. He still had doubts that he could be the kind of guy who could measure up to her. A guy who had only learned he had to pay property taxes a few months ago...
She pressed her lips together as her eyes darted to her lap. “Um...”
“I’m teasing,” he said, trying to release her from any building anxiety.
“No! I know, I just...well, I guess I wasn’t as subtle as I thought. You’re very—” she gestured at him, her hand moving up and down “—and I’m terrible at saying what’s on my mind. So, yeah, books.”
“Let’s just start with the basics,” he said, shifting in his seat, moving a smidge closer to her. “You like ordering books from me?”
“Love it,” she breathed, leaning against the back of the couch.
“And you love the Cold War?”
“Definitely.” Shea nodded.
“Why?”
She shrugged. “I suppose it started with my dad. He watched all kinds of WWII movies and television shows. But I fell in love with the postwar stuff. TheMission Impossibleseries, the Jack Ryan movies of the ’90s, and everything in between. My dad and I share all that stuff.”
“Why not study history then?” Nick asked.
“I’m really a literature person. I love teaching students about stories, and I’m incredibly lucky to do it. But I love this other part of my life too, and some things are worth keeping to myself.”
“Well, I thank you for sharing the Cold War with me.”
Shea grinned. “I have?”
Maybe it was the vodka, maybe it was the cozy concrete structure they were stuck in, but he wanted to share all of his feelings from the past year. Losing his grandfather and gaining this gift was an abrupt change for Nick to deal with, and he often felt like he was still trying to catch up. “I’ve learned a lot from your books,” he admitted. “I read through some of them before I gave them to you, and they helped me with this bunker.”
Her face was like the sun shining after a cloudy day. Her smile beamed radiance in their dim setting and made him want to return the favor. “You’re serious?” she asked.
He nodded. “I didn’t know what I was going to do with this space, but I think those books gave me some historical context to deal with a new version of my life. If I’m going to be stuck here, in one place...why not make a game out of it?”
Shea raised a brow as she looked him over. “A game?”
Nick gestured behind him to the kitchenette. “Okay, so this probably sounds mad corny, but while I was getting my food together, I imagined I was caught by the Russians on the Finnish border,” he chuckled, feeling a little embarrassed. “I forget which book—”
“The Winter War,” she finished. “When the Soviets bombed Helsinki in 1939.”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
She stared at him with dreamy eyes before murmuring, “That’s so hot.”
Nick raised a brow at the shift in her energy. Shea was now leaning forward, hanging on his every word. Her dark brown eyes glazed with...lust? Or was it vodka? He leaned forward in an unconscious response. “I went to Helsinki once,” he said, attempting to impress her with another exotic locale.
