His straightened in his seat and turned his head to look through the window. When his gaze latched onto her, he jumped. Jaden took a step back when he opened the car door and got out. His gaze never left her, staring at her intently.
Jaden swallowed. He really was a big guy. Next to all those muscles and his much greater height, she felt really small. She had to crane her neck to look him in the face.
“Ah, sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you. I was just admiring your car, and then when I saw you smacking your forehead on the steering wheel I…”
She let her words fall away. He didn’t say anything, but continued to stare at her as he had both times she’d seen him in the store—with hunger blazing in his blue eyes. Her body of course reacted as it had before. An ache started to beat inside her pussy and wetness pooled. Every time she saw him, her libido kicked into high gear. She had to stop it or she’d end up not only being horny, but frustrated as well. He may have kissed her, but that didn’t mean he would do anything beyond that.
He still had yet to say anything, Jaden really started to feel uncomfortable. She cleared her throat and shifted her gaze to her feet. “Like I said, I’m sorry. I’ll leave you alone now.” She’d begun to turn to continue on her way when his hand shot out and his fingers wrapped around her wrist.
“Wait,” he said. The husky tone of his voice sent a thrill through Jaden’s body straight to her pussy. “Don’t go. Are you just getting off work?”
She turned back around to face him. “Yes.” A shiver of awareness zipped through her when his thumb stroked the inside of her wrist.
“I guess you wouldn’t have eaten dinner yet. Would you like to go somewhere with me to eat?”
She blinked. “You want to take me out for a meal?” Jaden had to ask just to make sure she’d heard him right. He couldn’t possibly want to take her out on a date. Could he?
“Yes. We could go back to your place first so you can change.” He then stiffened and said “Shit. What the fuck am I doing?” so quietly under his breath she almost missed it.
Jaden yanked free of his grasp and slowly backed away. “Look, it’s okay. I’ll just be on my way. I don’t want to miss my bus.” She’d only taken a few steps when he captured her wrist again.
“Jaden, don’t go. I…I’m having a hard time…just forget what I said.”
“How do you know my name?” He glanced down at her chest, and Jaden followed his gaze to her name tag pinned there. “Oh,” she said with a blush. “Right.”
She looked up when he caressed a finger across her cheek. “Your cheeks turn a nice shade of pink when you blush,” he said with a smile.
Of course that made her blush even more. “Ah, thanks.”
“Since I don’t have a tag, I’ll tell you my name. I’m Leif.”
Even his name was sexy. Jaden didn’t think there wasn’t anything about Leif that didn’t scream sex. She pulled on her wrist, but he kept his fingers wrapped around it. “I really should go before I miss my bus. The next one won’t come for another half hour.”
“Forget the bus,” he said as he started to pull her toward the passenger side of his car. “I’ll drive you, then we can go out for dinner.”
Jaden yanked a few more times on her wrist, but it didn’t do any good. She found herself standing near the passenger door while Leif opened it. “It’s really not necessary.
I’m sure you’d rather be doing something else besides driving me home.” Like going out on a date with a gorgeous model who matches you in looks.
Leif’s answer was to pull her up against his wide chest and lower his mouth to hers.
He kissed her hungrily, his tongue spearing into her mouth, before he lifted his head. His voice even huskier than it had been, he said, “It really is necessary, and there is nothing I’d rather do than be with you right here, right now.”
Jaden forgot to breathe. By the time she remembered to, Leif had gotten her into the passenger seat. He put the seat belt around her and the back of his hand brushed one of her breasts as he moved to click it into place. She sucked in a breath at the contact. Her nipples tightened even more, the taut peaks brushing against her shirt.
Unable to find her voice, she silently watched Leif shut her door and walk around the front of the car. He folded his large frame into the driver’s side, and he started the car.
She closed her eyes. This had to be a dream. This couldn’t really be happening. She wasn’t sitting in a fancy sports car owned by a guy who was hotter than sin and about to let him drive her home. She counted to five and opened her eyes again. She found Leif watching her with a bemused look on his face. Oh, my god. It really was happening.
He gave her a lopsided grin. “So where to?”
He watched Jaden squirm in her seat. Watching her reactions to him seemed to attract him all the more. She was a mixture of uncertainty and shyness. So unlike the usual women he dated, she was like a breath of fresh air.
When his aimless drive had ended with him parked in the grocery store parking lot, Leif had sat there in disbelief for a few minutes. No matter how hard he tried to stay away from Jaden, he subconsciously always ended up doing the opposite. She drew him like a lode stone, and he couldn’t fight the pull.
Frustrated, he thought to knock some sense into himself by bashing his forehead on the steering wheel. At the rate he was going, he’d end up cracking the damn thing. But when someone knocked on his window and he saw it was Jaden, everything he told himself about staying away from her flew out the window. He was out of the car in no time at all and staring at her with all the pent-up longing he was trying so hard to bury.
Asking her out for dinner had slipped off his tongue before his brain could catch up with it. Knowing he wasn’t going to be able to just walk away without spending some time with Jaden, Leif had decided to roll with it. Maybe if he got to know her better, he’d be able to appease his mating urge enough to let him leave her unclaimed after the meal.
Leif smiled and heard Jaden’s breath catch. “We can sit here all night if you want, but I’d much rather take you some place nicer than the inside of my car.”
Jaden blushed again. “Oh. Sorry.” She then rattled off an address.
He started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. “Do you like Italian? I know of a place that has the best Italian food.”
“Anything is fine. I’m easy.”
“You’re easy, huh?” he said with a grin. “I’ll have to remember that.” He was then rewarded with the pinkening of Jaden’s cheeks once more when he glanced in her direction.
“I…I didn’t mean I’m easy, easy,” she stammered. “I meant when it comes to food I’m easy. I’m not picky.”
He chuckled. “Relax, Jaden. I’m just having a bit of fun with you. I knew what you meant.”
“Oh.”
When the silence grew between them, Leif asked, “Have you been working at the grocery store for long?”
“For about a year now.”
“Do you like it?” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her shrug.
“It’s a job.”
“So in other words, not really.”
“It’s better than some jobs I’ve had. That’s about all I can say about it.” She then pointed toward the windshield. “There’s my place. The second driveway on the left.”
Leif pulled into the drive of small bungalow. It wasn’t much to look at, and the neighborhood was an older one. To be polite, he said, “Nice house.”
“It’s all right, I guess. It isn’t mine. I rent the basement from the older couple who own it and live upstairs.”
Jaden got out of the car before Leif could get to her side. She led him to a side door, unlocked it and stepped inside. He followed her in and down a flight of stairs and through another door to a small basement that had been converted into a bachelor-type apartment.