Page 58 of RomeAntically Challenged
He waved a hand in surrender. “Won’t happen again. I promise. Now, I think we should seal this deal with a kiss.”
“If you want to kiss someone, any one of those ladies at the bar would say yes. Go ask one of them.”
His gaze trailed down to her lips. “Seems I’m more of a one-woman kind of man lately. Plus I love it when you get all opinionated.”
“I’m not in an arguing mood.”
He leaned in. “What kind of mood are you in?”
“Are you flirting with me? Because that’s not in the roommate agreement.”
“What roommate agreement? You haven’t said yes. Are you saying yes?”
“IfI do, we’ll have a roommate agreement drawn up and it will state ‘No Kissing’ right at the top.”
“We’ll need to be clear,” he said. “No kissing you? Or you can’t kiss me? I’m unsure how I feel about that. It’s not really fair if you can kiss me but I can’t kiss you.”
“I’m already regretting this.” She put her face in her hands. “Don’t you ever stop?”
“Not until I get what I want.”
“That’s all it is for guys like you.”
“What do you meanguys like me?” He rested an elbow on the counter, then his cheek on his hands, leaning in as if all ears.
“If this went one flirt longer than you wanted it to go, you’d burn rubber out of here.”
“Try me.”
“I want to get married and have two kids by the time I’m thirty-five.”
“And that’s the problem with women like you.” He tapped the tip of her nose with his pointer finger—twice. “The second a guy doesn’t click off enough boxes in the Potential Husband category, you rule him out.”
“I am not like that,” she argued, but she so was like that and they both knew it. “And you’d never stay in one spot long enough to find out.”
“I don’t know, Goldilocks. Maybe I’ve just been searching for the right bed.” He leaned down and rested his lips against the shell of her ear. “Think about it.”
Chapter 15
Emmitt didn’t have to be an arson investigator to know that if you played with enough fire, eventually someone would get burned.
As he sat on the other side of the bar, watching Annie and her friends, he decided that was reason enough for him to pack up his things and move onto the boat with Levi. The other reason was that barely legal blue number Annie had going on.
Short, sleek, and tied in place by two thin straps that disappeared over her shoulders, only to crisscross all the way down her back—from the curve of her neck to the gentle curve right above her panty line. Thong, he believed, a gut call he’d made while carrying her across the room.
There hadn’t been much between his hand and her back because of the open nature of the dress. It must have been a bitch to get into. Getting out of it would be a whole other story.
A single tug of the string and the whole thing would come apart.
Then there was her body, slight and delicate with a waist his hands could span all the way around, and they did. While some might think her demure or fragile, Emmitt knew better.
What Annie had going on was a steely grace that was as rare as it was lethal. The main reason Emmitt had stationed himself on the opposite side of the bar, where a group of guys he often hung with were shooting the shit. Not that he was tracking the conversation—he was too busy watching his roomie nursing a pink cocktail.
If she wound up like her friends, who were swigging their drinks as if they were punch, she might need help. And never one to leave a lady in need, he would offer. He was good with complicated dresses. He was real helpful that way.
Tonight, she’d worn her black layered hair sleek and straight, the glossy strands hitting right below her chin and inching shorter in the back, exposing her elegant neck.
There was something erotic about seeing the back of a woman’s neck. It was as if he were getting a peek at something that should be covered. Viewing a silky patch of skin he’d love to gently bite.
