Page 17 of Flirting in Traffic

“Yeah, that’s right,” Finn replied. His handsome mouth twisted into a frown before he took another bite out of his peach, unashamedly letting the juice run down his chin again for a few seconds before he used his napkin to wipe it off. “I’ve never known a woman who runs as hot and cold as you, Kitten.”

“I

don’t know what you mean,” Esa replied airily as she watched the children splash and frolic in the fountain.

“Yes you do. You’re giving me ‘come and get me looks’ one second and throwing poison darts at me with your next glance. Do you want to be here with me or not?”

Esa’s lips fell open at his forceful question. “Yes,” she replied honestly before she had the chance to censor her answer.

“Good.” Finn paused before he resumed chewing a mouthful of peach slowly. “I apologize for that…earlier.”

Esa’s mouth fell open in amazement. “What are you talking about?”

“When I got so defensive about my job.” He set the juicy peach on top of a paper sack and wiped his hands on the grass with an impatient gesture. “My fiancée just recently left me because I decided to sell my shares in the engineering firm I’d started downtown and run the family construction business after my father died. I guess I’m still a little sore about it. Didn’t mean to take it out on you.”

Esa swallowed and set down her own peach. Something about the flat, emotionless quality of his voice made her want to reach out and touch him, comfort him. Jeez, he was fresh out of a breakup from a serious relationship with a woman who sounded like a real loser. How could she have left him during such a difficult time in his life?

And this all explained why he wasn’t interested in anything but a fun, no-strings-attached fling. Finn undoubtedly was looking for an escape from the recent-breakup-blues. Esa herself had engaged in a few similar, short-lasted euphoric affairs in her past. Sex could be a terrific balm to a scarred heart and wounded self-esteem, especially great sex.

Even though the realization that Finn was definitely unavailable in any emotional sense made Esa feel a little sad, she caught his eye and gave him a reassuring smile. “It’s okay. You don’t owe me any apologies.”

He grinned. “My mother would disagree. She drilled it in to me to apologize for my occasional rudeness.” He suddenly stood. “Come on, take off your shoes and let’s go for a wade in the water. My hands are all sticky. I want to rinse them off.”

Esa was doubtful about his order but she was grinning hugely by the time she walked into the shallow water of the fountain. “It didn’t think it would be so cold,” she told Finn between irrepressible giggles as she stood in the midst of dozens of capering children.

He paused in the action of rolling up the pant legs of his jeans and just stared at her for a second. Before she could guess what he was thinking he walked into the water with a determined expression on his face. He turned her around so that her back was pressed into his chest and forced her toward one of the two transparent fifty foot tower-fountains. Behind the glass bricks an enormous video screen scrolled through thousands of Chicagoan faces. Every five minutes or so one of the faces would purse its lips and a thick fountain of water would shoot from its mouth at the same time that sheets of water would flood down the towers.

Which, given the evidence of the shouting, jumping children that surrounded Finn and her, was about to happen at any second.

“No, Finn, it’s about to—”

The fountain gushed with water, sheets of it pounding off the glass sides of the tower and splashing onto Esa’s face.

Splashing onto Esa’s everywhere.

“Oh!” she wailed as she clenched her eyes closed and water soaked her. When the fountain stopped cascading torrents a few moments later she opened her mouth to shriek a reprimand at Finn, but he stopped her by pressing his mouth to her ear.

“Sorry. I go a little nuts when I hear you laugh.”

Her eyes went wide at that sweet, sexy comment being whispered in her ear. She inhaled his scent. She forced herself to ignore the effect that he always had on her but she wasn’t very successful.

“I-I’m soaking wet,” she moaned. As miserable as she knew she should be by her predicament, she still couldn’t seem to focus on it with Finn’s long, hard body pressed against her backside.

“I know,” he said softly as he opened one large hand over her abdomen and pressed her back into his length. Even though Esa was drenched in cold water, heat flooded her cheeks. She clenched her thighs together tightly against a growing ache between them when he encircled her ribs, cradling the undersides of her breasts on his forearm.

“You don’t know anything,” she pouted halfheartedly. “You used me to block you from the water. You’re almost completely dry. That’s not fair.”

“You want to play fair?” he asked as he transferred his mouth to her neck. Esa leaned her head over to give him better access. He moved his forearm ever-so-subtly, stroking the tender, sensitive skin of her lower breasts. Her nipples pulled tight inside her bra. She turned her head, instinctively seeking out his warm, supple lips, wanting…no, craving them against her own.

“Yes,” she managed to say when he began to place warm, beguiling kisses on her lips. “But I want you to play fair too.”

“Fine,” Finn whispered. His blue eyes gleamed as he watched her and deliberately bit her lower lip with his white front teeth. Esa groaned and squirmed against him but he held her firmly. “Then come back with me to my condo so I can finish what you never let me start last night. We’ll both feel relieved afterward. Don’t you think?”

“Yes,” Esa admitted before they came together in a quick, scorching kiss.

That’s exactly what she needed—relief from this raging fever that Finn had ignited in her body. She felt as if she’d never had much of a choice in the matter. What Finn did to her was like encountering a force of nature. Better just to let the fire blaze until it fizzled out of its own accord.

“Kitten…how come you taste so damn good?” he mumbled gruffly when he released her mouth a moment later.

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