He knocked on the door again and she nearly jumped out of her skin. “Tatiana? Are you okay? I heard the lock. Are you too weak to open the door? Do I need to call 911?”
Although it might serve her right for lying, she didn’t need him to call 911. She did the only thing she knew to do under the circumstances. She opened the door…and hoped she didn’t live to regret it.
Chapter 8
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“You know, you could give a guy a complex. I told Elle I’d drop off your Secret Santa gift,” Cole admitted stepping into her apartment. At work she was the cool snark. At dinner she was engaging. And more than once he’d imagined her naked or nearly naked. But this was a version of Tatiana Allen he’d never imagined. In her boxers and tank top with thick socks and a pink robe, her hair pinned up with a giant clip, she looked cute. Adorably sexy.
“You really shouldn’t have.”
“Well, it’s a lousy time to be sick.” Except she didn’t look very sick to him. In fact, right now he’d peg her for looking extremely guilty. He hefted the bag in his right hand. “I stopped by Lemwitz Deli and picked you up some chicken soup. Mrs. Lemwitz makes it fresh every day, including her own noodles. Nothing’s better than chicken soup when you’re sick.”
“Thanks. Thanks a lot. I’ll just take these and you can be on your way. I don’t want to tie up your time.”
Hmm. She looked a little flushed, but he didn’t see any watery eyes, red nose or signs of a cough. And her voice didn’t sound scratchy. Not to mention that she was trying to hustle him out of there faster than a two-bit pimp.
“I’ve got plenty of time. Remember, I was planning to spend my evening with you anyway. So I’ll just put these in the kitchen. I’m not going anywhere until I’m sure you’re okay.” More like until he was sure she’d faked being sick, which seemed increasingly likely. “You sit down and I’ll warm up a bowl of chicken soup.”
He stepped around her and into what was obviously the kitchen. She followed behind him. “You don’t listen very well. I don’t need to be taken care of.”
“You obviously don’t listen well either since you’re not sitting on the couch like a good girl waiting on me to nurse you back to health.”
“I don’t need to be nursed. I’m feeling better. Do you ever listen?”
“Huh?” He laughed at her flash of irritation. “I do listen, but sometimes my other senses distract me. Like my sense of sight, which happens frequently when I’m around you. By the way, you look adorably sexy in that outfit and not nearly as intimidating as you do at the office.”
“There’s nothing adorable about me in general. And as for sexy in this outfit, you obviously think I’ve developed a brain flu if I’m buying that.”
Cole laughed and shrugged. “It really doesn’t matter whether you buy it or not as long as it’s what I think.”
“You’re infuriating.”
“Am I?” He brushed the back of his hand down the length of her neck. “Hmm. No fever.” He bent his head and breathed in the scent of her skin, her heat. “Well, you’re enchanting even when you’re at your snarkiest.”
“You’re sick.”
“Very possibly. I’m feeling rather lightheaded now.” He nuzzled the length of her neck.
“I might be contagious,” Tatiana protested but didn’t pull away. Instead she wrapped her arms around his neck.
“I’m sure you are and I’m sure I’ve already got a pretty bad case. I’ve got a theory.”
“I can tell by your voice it’s going to be something gnat-brained.”
“Maybe I have a masochistic streak, because I love it when you talk like that.” Her fingers in his hair, against his neck, caused heat to sizzle through him. “I think you bagged work today because you’ve got the same thing I’ve got.”
“Mere supposition on your part.” She leaned back and looked at him, but didn’t let him go. Desire rolled off her in waves. They were so right together. Her eyes sparkled with wickedness, but he didn’t miss the caution lurking in them as well. “What do you have?”
He knew what he had. What he wanted. Caution be damned. “I’m besotted, infatuated, tied up in knots over you. It’s as if I’ve walked by the same bakery every day for almost a year wanting the pastry in the window, but the shop’s always closed. And the more I pass it, the more I want it. It whets my appetite until nothing else appeals and all I can think about is sampling that pastry that I can’t have.”
“That sounds obsessive.”
“Hmm. It is. Obsessive.Disquieting.”
“You don’t need me to tell you that chances are the pastry won’t live up to expectation.”
“I beg to differ. I’ve just had a sample of the pastry and found it even more addictive than I thought.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” she said.
She wouldn’t be Tatiana if she didn’t argue with him.
“It makes perfect sense. Are you really sick?”
She quirked that sexy mouth and pretended to consider his question. “I believe I am. I believe I’ve come down with a bad case of infatuation.” She smoothed her hands over his chest. “I thought if I stayed home today I’d get over it soon enough.”
He slid his hands beneath her T-shirt and cupped the fullness of her breasts. They fit perfectly in his hands, but then, that was no surprise because he now knew she was the perfect woman for him. “I’ve got just the cure.” He brushed his thumbs over her nipples and they sprang to attention, which in turn brought him to full attention.
She pressed her breasts against him and pressed her thighs against his erection. She licked a path from his neck to his ear and nipped the lobe, the sensation arrowing straight to his arousal.
“I’m thinking it’s more of a vaccination,” she murmured into his ear while she pulled his shirt out of his pants.
“Look at it this way-either way we’ll be cured. But the first thing we need to do is get you to bed.”
Tatiana fell onto the bed and Cole followed. They’d lost their clothes on the short trip from her den to her bedroom and a rush of sexual energy shot through her at the slide of his bare skin and heat against hers.
He drove her into the mattress, the comforter cool against the back of her while she was burning up from the inside out.
He scattered kisses down her neck, wreaking havoc to her central nervous system. “That day in Melvin’s office-”
Her laugh came out breathless. “When you were in la-la land-”
“No la-la land. I was thinking about this.” He flicked his tongue against her nipple and she arched up off the bed at the jolt that ran through her.
“Really? You were thinking about licking my nipples until I couldn’t stand it any longer and had my evil way with you?”
“Technically, I was thinking about how you’d taste…” He slid down her body, trailing kisses down her belly followed by an occasional lick. Oh, she liked where she thought this was heading. She opened her legs farther and he obligingly ventured farther, his cheek, with its faint stubble, scraping against her thigh. “Everywhere.” He dipped his tongue into her slick channel. Sensation rocked her and she fisted her hand in the coverlet and moaned aloud.
“Delicious appetizer.”
On a bad day, when Cole grinned it was spine-tingling wicked, but this was a good day and he’d never been sexier than now when he flashed her an I’m-going-to-eat-you-up hot look from between her thighs.
“Far be it from me to interrupt your dining pleasure but it seems unfair that my plate’s empty.”
She slid to the edge of the bed and pulled a flavored condom from her night stand. Changing direction, careful not to kick him, she brought his masculine thighs, flat belly and hard cock into mouth-watering proximity. She sheathed him, then nibbled her way along his thigh, inhaling his heady scent. Surprise flashed in his eyes only to be replaced by the glitter of hot sexual arousal. He rolled to his side to face her and wrapped his big masculine hand around her thigh, continuing his nuzzling between her legs.