She spun around to leave, but he caught her arm. The feel of his fingers on her skin made her shiver. "I didn't say I wouldn't. I just need to warm up a little."
Even if her feet had caught fire, she couldn't have moved.
"I can't just lunge and bite." His thumb stroked her arm. "It's not in my nature." Goose bumps quivered over her skin as he lifted his hand and trailed a finger over the curve of her neck.
Her voice developed a really annoying rasp. "It's all right. Go ahead and lunge."
"I'm a professional athlete." His words were a seductive caress as he traced a lazy S to the base of her throat. "Lack of a proper warm-up leads to injuries."
"That's the point, isn't it? An… injury?"
He didn't reply, and she stopped breathing as his mouth came closer. She felt a shock when his lips brushed the corner of hers.
He hadn't even made a direct hit, but her bones melted. She heard a soft, indecipherable sound and realized it had come from her, the easiest woman on planet earth.
He pulled her against him, a gentle movement, but the contact sizzled. Hard bone and warm flesh. She wanted all of his mouth, and she turned her head to find it, but he altered course. Instead of giving her the kiss she yearned for, he touched the opposite corner of her mouth.
Her blood pounded. His lips trailed from her jaw to her neck. Then he got ready to do exactly as she'd asked.
I've changed my mind! Please don't bite!
He didn't. He played at her throat until her breathing came fast and shallow. She hated him for teasing her, but couldn't make herself push away. And then he put an end to the game and kissed her for real.
The world spun, and everything turned upside down. His arms cradled her as if she really belonged inside them. She didn't know whose lips parted first, but their tongues touched.
It was a kiss made in lonely dreams. A kiss that took its time. A kiss that felt so right she couldn't remember all the reasons it was wrong.
His hand plowed through her hair, and those hard hips pressed against hers. She felt what she'd done to him and loved it. Her breast tingled as he covered it with his palm.
He yelped and snatched his hand away. "Damn it!"
She sprang back and instinctively checked to see if her breast had grown teeth. But it wasn't her breast.
He glared down at Roo, whose sharp, canine nails were digging into his leg. "Go away, mutt!"
Reality crashed back in on her. Just what did she think she was doing playing kissy-face with Mr. I'm Too Sexy? And she couldn't even blame him for letting things get out of hand because she was the one who'd started it.
"Stop it, Roo." Shaken, she pulled the dog away.
"Don't you ever trim the Klingon's toenails?"
"He wasn't attacking you. He just wanted to play."
"Yeah? Well, so did I!"
A long silence quivered between them.
She wanted him to be the first to look away, but he didn't, so she looked right back. It was unnerving. While she felt like hiding under the bed, he seemed perfectly willing to stand there all evening and think things over. The breast he'd touched still felt warm.
"This is getting complicated," he finally said.
She was messing with the NFL, so she ignored her rubbery legs. "Not for me. You're an okay kisser, by the way. So many athletes gnaw."
The corners of his eyes crinkled. "You just keep fighting, Daphne. Now, are we going to get dinner, or should we get back to work on that hickey you want so bad?"
"Forget the hickey. Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease."
"And sometimes bunny ladies turn into chickens."
She wasn't going to win this game, so she stuck her nose in the air like the rich heiress she wasn't, then grabbed the red tablecloth and swirled it around her shoulders.
The North Woods décor made the dining room of the Wind Lake Inn feel like an old hunting lodge. Indian-blanket-print curtains hung at the long, narrow windows, and the rustic walls displayed a collection of snowshoes and antique animal traps, along with the mounted heads of deer and elk. Molly focused on the birchbark canoe hanging from the rafters instead of those staring glass eyes.
Kevin was getting good at reading her mind, and he nodded toward the dead animals. "There used to be this restaurant in New York that specialized in exotic game-kangaroo, tiger, elephant steaks. One time some friends took me there for lionburgers."
"That's revolting! What kind of sick person would eat Simba?"
He chuckled and returned to his trout. "Not me. I had hash browns and pecan pie instead."
"You're messing with me. Stop it."
His eyes took a few lazy tango steps over her body. "You didn't mind earlier."
She toyed with the stem of her wineglass. "It was the alcohol."
"It was the sex we're not having."
She opened her mouth to cut him off at the knees, but he cut her off first. "Save your breath, Daph. It's time you faced a few important facts. Number one, we're married. Number two, we're living under the same roof-"
"Not by my choice."
"And number three, we're both celibate at the moment."
"You can't be celibate for a moment. It's a long-term lifestyle. Believe me, I know." She hadn't meant to say the last part out loud. Or maybe she had. She speared a carrot coin she didn't want to eat.
He set down his fork to study her more closely. "You're kidding, aren't you?"
"Of course I'm kidding." She gobbled up the carrot. "Did you think I was serious?"
He rubbed his chin. "You aren't kidding."
"Do you see the waiter? I think I'm ready for dessert."
"Care to elaborate?"
"No."
He bided his time.
She riddled with another piece of carrot, then shrugged. "I've got issues."
"So does Time magazine. Stop hedging."
"First tell me where you think this conversation is going."
"You know where. Straight to the bedroom."
"Bedrooms," she emphasized, wishing he didn't look so grim about it. "His and hers. And it has to stay that way."
"A couple of days ago I'd have agreed with you. But both of us know that if it hadn't been for Godzilla's toenails, we'd be naked right now."
She shivered. "You don't know that for a fact."
"Listen, Molly, the newspaper ad doesn't come out until next Thursday. Today's only Saturday. It'll take another couple of days for interviews. Then another day or so to train whoever I hire. That's a lot of nights."
She'd wimped around long enough, and she abandoned all pretense of eating. "Kevin, I don't do casual sex."
"Now, that's weird. I seem to remember a night last February…"
"I had a crush on you, all right? A stupid crush that got out of hand."
"A crush?" He leaned back in the chair, beginning to enjoy himself. "What are you, twelve?"
"Stop being a jerk."
"So you had a crush on me?"
His crooked smile looked exactly like Benny's when he thought he had Daphne right where he wanted her. The bunny didn't like it, and neither did Molly.
"I had crushes on you and Alan Greenspan both at the same time. I can't imagine what I was thinking of. Although the crush I had on Greenspan was a lot worse. Thank God I didn't run into him with that sexy briefcase."
He ignored that bit of folderol. "Interesting that Daphne seems to have a crush on Benny, too."
"She does not! He's horrible to her."
"Maybe if she'd put out, he'd be nicer."
"That's more disgusting than me and Charlotte Long!" She needed to sidetrack this conversation. "You can get sex anywhere, but we have a friendship, and that's more important."
"A friendship?"
She nodded.
"Yeah, I guess we do. Maybe that's what makes this exciting. I've never had sex with a friend before."
"It's nothing more than a fascination with the forbidden."
"I don't see why it's forbidden to you." He frowned. "I have a lot more to lose."