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He leaned over her without touching, his gaze on her mouth. Her heart ricocheted against her breast bone as he whispered, “I guess frustrated isn’t the right word. But there’s this girl…woman, actually, and I cannot get her out of my mind.”
Merry blushed, a small smile teasing her lips. “Oh yeah?”
“Yep. I even have a date with her tonight.”
“What are the two of you going to do?”
“I don’t know. She won’t tell me.”
“What do you want to do?” she asked softly.
“Dinner? Maybe curl up and watch another movie?”
“That’s it?” she said sharply.
Clark’s eyebrows shot up his forehead. “What?”
“Nothing.” She stepped back and bent over to grab her tote, but Clark took her hand, pulling her and her dog to him.
“Merry, if you don’t tell me what I’ve done, I can’t fix it.”
“It’s what you’re not doing.”
Clark frowned. “I don’t follow.”
“We were alone in your shop last night, and then during the movie, you didn’t…”
“I didn’t what?”
“Kiss me.”
Clark’s eyes brightened and he slipped his arms loosely around her waist. “I kissed you at the car.”
“I mean…the way you did yesterday. In the hallway.”
He leaned closer, grazing her cheek with his, his mouth resting against her ear. “You liked that?”
“I loved it,” she answered breathlessly.
“Merry…” His lips pressed against the side of her neck. Merry sighed, melting into his embrace.
“When I asked if we could take things slow, it wasn’t only because of Jace. I knew I’d hurt you and I wanted to take my time and show you how special you are to me. With Patrice, we’d fight and then make up, but I never really knew her and I lived with her for seven months. And every girl since, it was about sex, not intimacy.” He cradled the back of her head and kissed her cheek. “I didn’t want you to think that’s all I wanted from you. I plan to do it right this time, but yesterday, after you were there for Jace, I couldn’t not kiss you. And last night, it took every ounce of control not to set you up on my workbench and kiss you until you begged me to stop.”
Merry released a husky laugh. “Yeah, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that is never going to happen. I think I could kiss you all day, every day.”
“That’s why I’ve been behaving,” he murmured, trailing kisses along her jaw. “Because once I really get started kissing you, touching you…I’m not going to want to stop.”
“Well, I’m telling you there is a difference between slow and glacial, and right now I’m like the Titanic waiting for impact. So if you want to pick up the pace a bit, I promise I won’t mind.”
Before she knew it, Clark took Daisy’s leash from her, leading the dog toward his workshop. “Where are you going with her?”
Clark stopped outside the doorway with a crook of his finger. “Luring her mistress into my lair.”
Merry trailed after him, excited laughter escaping as he shut the door behind her. A pellet stove glowed orange in the corner, the air around them crackling with heat, and he dropped Daisy’s leash. Merry shrugged out of her jacket and tossed it onto the workbench behind her, anticipation pulsing through her like electrical currents. Clark’s eyes dipped to the vee of her low-cut long-sleeved top and he closed the distance.
“How does forty knots sound?” he said, lifting her onto the workbench.
“What is that?”
