Yeah, that was perfect. And sexy as hell. I looked at her curves. Mmm, definitely hot. My blood started flowing faster. I shifted to hide my dick’s eager reaction to my imagination.
“If Ryan’s as smooth as me? Sure, it could happen,” I said, as though stuff like that happened to me all the time. “Hell, I’d make it happen.”
She tapped her chin with her index finger thoughtfully. “But I write contemporary romance. So it can’t have Hollywood-esque special effects action.”
“There won’t be any special effects involved.” A real man didn’t need Hollywood to have a hot woman straddle him properly.
Her lips tightened. “Let’s block out the scene. I want to make sure. Skye said it wasn’t physically possible, but I think she’s wrong.”
“Who’s Skye?”
“My writing friend. I asked her to act it out with her husband because her house has a fence she could use to set the scene, but he’s apparently out of town on business. She said it was more likely that Ryan falls on Molly while trying to catch her, but that won’t work because it isn’t romantic. Anyway, we bet two shots of tequila at a book signing we’re going to in San Francisco, so come on.” She beckoned me closer. “I have to prove her wrong.”
The gleam in her eyes reminded me of a stubborn goat. But far be it from me to leave a woman in distress.
“Anyway, I’m going to tip over,” she said, rubbing her hands eagerly.
“Well, the couch is too low to be a wall,” I pointed out.
She straightened. “You think?” She stepped away from it and looked around. “You’re right. Now what? Is there an appropriate fence around here?”
I thought for a moment. “Got a ladder?” I asked.
“A small one. Why?”
“We can set that up and you can get to the right height and then pretend to fall.”
“Ooh, that’s smart.” She grinned. “We can even do this in the living room.”
She ran to a closet between the living room and the foyer and pulled out a ladder. It was so small that I wasn’t even sure why she’d bought it. It might be useful if she wanted to clean the ceiling fans in the living room, but given the general condition of the place, I doubted dusting them was high on her priority list.
While she set up the ladder and climbed a few steps, I placed cushions from the couch on the area where she was supposed to fall.
She ended up with her butt about six feet off the ground, which was eye level for me and kinda nice. “Is that about the right height?” I said.
“I think so. How high can a wall be?” She looked down at the cushions on the floor, then frowned a little. “I thought you said you could catch me.”
“Of course I can. But these are just in case. Backup. For me, really.” I added the last bit so she didn’t get too anxious.
Her lips pulled together. “I’m not going to break your back.”
“It’s my hands I’m worried about.” But I was actually concerned about her. There was a small chance that things might not work out the way we envisioned. I’d rather not risk her getting hurt.
“You should’ve insured your hands,” she said. “You can insure anything, you know.”
“I’ll make sure to call my agent and add my hands to the policy,” I said. “Ready?” I got into position and waited for her to signal.
“Yeah.”
I pictured how this would go and tensed up, ready to spring into action.
“You can’t half-ass it to make Skye win.”
“I don’t even know Skye. But you owe me a beer if I help you win. If you lose, I’ll settle for a kiss.” I gave her a playful grin so she could tell herself I wasn’t super serious about the kiss. I didn’t want to force it out of her…but I wanted her thinking about it.
Her tongue flicked over her lip, which heated my blood further. I really hoped she was out of beer.
“Fine,” she rasped, then cleared her throat. “Okay, here goes.”
The moment slowed as adrenaline spread through me. She started to tip over. I moved, extending my arms to catch her. Our bodies slammed into each other, which I hadn’t counted on, and my breath whooshed out. I ended up landing on the cushions on my back, then almost immediately, she fell on me, straddling my stomach, but too far above to cradle my dick. Her hands flexed on my shoulders, and all the blood in my body started to rush south. Her hair fell forward, tickling my cheeks and chin. It felt as soft as feathers and smelled like mint and lime. Her glasses sat crooked on her face. Her green eyes were wide and her pink lips were parted as she looked down at me.
I stared up at her as electrifying excitement sparked through me. Was it my imagination, or did her skin seem soft and glowing? Actually, her entire being seemed to glow, like an angel. My pulse went into overdrive as something unfamiliar lanced through me. And my lower body felt uncomfortably tight.
What the hell was with this reaction? We hadn’t even kissed.
At least she wouldn’t notice anything, since she had no reason to wriggle downward. I stayed still, waiting for her to get off. Then had an immediate fantasy triggered by her “getting off”…
She got up, pushing against my chest. Normally I’d consider it an obvious ploy to cop a feel, but Emily wasn’t looking at me that way. She just looked mildly confused as she nibbled on her lower lip. I wanted to put my finger on it to make her stop.
You just want an excuse to put a finger on her lip…maybe even accidentally push inside her mouth—
Okay, time to rein myself in before I did something really stupid. Like slide her body down then let her rock against me. I wasn’t a horny teenager, and I had more finesse than that.
“It worked,” I said, needing something to cover up the weirdly loud heartbeat in my ears.
“Yup. It did.”
She climbed off, careful not to knee me in the process.
“Thanks,” she said, then cleared her throat and slapped her cheeks a bit. They were red, but I couldn’t tell if it was from the slapping or something else. “I need to wrap up this scene before I forget…um…things. So the kitchen’s all yours.”
Without looking at me, she tossed all the cushions back on the couch and dove straight for her laptop. Which worked for me, since I didn’t want her to see that I was I-beam rigid over that little PG-rated bit of playacting. I was most certainly not disappointed that she didn’t want to lean down and brush her lips across mine. Or wriggle her body lower…
She sat in front of her computer and started typing away, keys clicking furiously, so I put away the ladder and went to the kitchen with a deliberately measured step. I took my time, so my body could calm the hell down, and my heart could find its equilibrium again. I hadn’t been with a woman in a while. My dick just wanted to spurt because it was primitive like that.
But I hadn’t reacted like this to women in skimpy bikinis in Bora Bora. Actually, I hadn’t reacted like this to any woman, period, including Caitlyn.
On the other hand, I’d never been around anybody like Emily. It must be the novelty. She was interesting and unique. And pretty. And smart. Contradictory at times, and unpredictable, too.
That was it. Nothing special.