Page 211 of Screwged for Christmas

He sent her a bemused look and nodded. “Did you memorize everything you could about this place?”

“Oh. Um.” She plucked off her glasses and he stopped her before she could pull them completely free.

“Don’t. They make you look sexy.”

She froze with her hand mid-air. “Right.”

“A sexy Christmas angel,” he dragged out as she complied with pushing the frames back into place.

“Excuse me?” Her gaze danced over his as she worked the ends of her sweater as if she needed something in her hands to keep from reaching out and touching him.

Like an invisible force pushing at his back, everything in him drove him forward, and it took every last ounce of control to keep his feet nailed to the small spot of carpet. But he could easily lean in. Caress her with a kiss along her neck.

As if she sensed his internal war, Ivy edged out of where he had her pinned and rounded the counter to a safe distance. Or what she perceived as safe anyway. “I don’t usually, you know, wear them. In class, they become more of a hassle than anything. I can’t seem to keep up with them and then my supervisor loves to find anything I do wrong as an example for everyone else’s learning opportunity.”

He continued to regard her from a safe distance. “She must be a jealous old hag.”

Ivy turned and rose on her tiptoes to retrieve a couple of mugs from the cabinet. The movement inched up the hem of her sweater over the perfect globes of her round, sexy ass and tight stretchy pair of pants she wore molded to her every delectable curve. He groaned but disguised it as a cough.

He brought his gaze up just as she turned. But didn’t hide the fact he watched her every move. Some things couldn’t be hidden and he didn’t pride himself on being a liar.

She shivered delicately, the reaction so minute only an astute person would pick up the change in her stance. The way her heart rate fluttered along the pulse point in her neck and her pupils dilated. She arched her brow but continued on as though she didn’t notice anything. The sweet blush that dusted her cheeks told him otherwise.

Damon grunted something following her weird train of conversation about berries, but couldn’t take his eyes off the way she rubbed the pad of her finger over the rim of the mugs.

She dipped her head and the glasses slipped just slightly but enough to bring every librarian and school teacher fantasy he had rushing to mind.

“And did you know that Alaska is home to three million lakes.” She looked at some book on the counter.

Damon cocked a grin, but not that she saw with her attention on the pages. What a peculiar woman. Zahara said her sister was a little nerdy, more so than herself as a linguist teacher, but he never imagined nerdy would be so damn edible. “Do you do that a lot?” he asked, taking his mug from her hands, careful not to touch her finger.

He’d watched her at the bar last night talking with everybody that approached her with gentle ease and a book sticking out of her back pocket. He’d been curious about it then but forgot to ask when the night kicked into overdrive and beer slinging took precedence.

He drew near and mentally shoved down the fire that torched his insides the closer he came.

“What?” she shrugged sheepishly flipping page after page propped on one foot as she sipped at her coffee. “Facts intrigue me.”

He chuckled. “This explains a lot. How long have you had this?” He tapped the cover with “Everything You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know About Alaska” printed on the front.

“A couple of weeks.” She shrugged and snatched the already well-worn book from his hands before tucking it away in a drawer by the refrigerator. The small kitchenette didn’t offer much in the way of anything elegant and fancy but it did okay in the day to day needs of sustenance.

“Come. Take a seat and I’ll whip us up some eggs and bacon.”

Her nose scrunched. “Sorry. Not really a scrambled eggs kinda girl. And bacon makes me sick.”

What? He turned, already pulling out pots and pans from under the counter and mentally taking stock on what he needed to grab from his apartment. Or he could take her over there. “Tell me you are lying. Those are words that have caused wars. I’m sure of it. You’re kidding?”

The green of her eyes darkened, and he immediately regretted teasing her as she shook her head. “Not even in the slightest.” She bit at her lip before she continued. “It was the last food my dad made us girls.” Her face shut down.

She didn’t offer more and he didn’t push. But still, something deep down drove him to want more from her, know more of what made his curious med student tick. But one thing his past taught him was patience, and he had that in spades.

He rounded the counter and took the coffee mug from her hand and set his down beside hers.

He was faced with two options. Kiss away the sadness dulling her eyes which would lead down a path of his taking more than just a kiss from her.

Or…

He tipped her chin up, dark circles under her eyes. They stole away the kind woman he met yesterday and that was a crime in and of itself.

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