“I did.”
“Do you feel better?”
“Sort of. I had weird dreams.”
“What kind of dreams?”
“I was chasing you through a fire, trying to rescue you.”
“You won’t have to rescue me. I can take care of myself. I promise you don’t have to worry about me.”
“And yet…”
“It’s kinda nice that you worry about me. That means you like me.”
“Of course I like you. Why would I be in your house and your bed if I didn’t like you?”
“Just checking.”
“I can’t believe you’re still wondering about that.”
“So we’re on the same page?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Are we?”
“If you want this, you and me, then yes, we’re on the same page.”
“And that’s what you really want? When you could have anyone—”
He pounced, kissing the words right off her lips, wiping her brain clear of any thought that wasn’t about more of him. “Any questions?” he asked much later.
Amanda emerged from the kiss to realize her arms were around him and he was more or less on top of her. “Um, no. No questions.”
“Good.”
“No, wait. I do have one question.”
“What’s that?”
“I told you how I want to shake things up.”
“What about it?”
“It’s okay if you’d rather put this on pause until I figure things out.”
“The fire at the inn taught me something, too.” He ran his fingers through her hair. “Right now is all there really is. We can make plans for the future, but my Gramps likes to say that plans have a way of making fools of us.”
“I like that. It’s so true.”
“I understand where you’re at and what I’m getting into. I want to help you get what you want, whatever that might turn out to be.”
“You’re very sweet.”
He scoffed at that dreaded word. “Nah.”
“Yeah.”
“No.” He kissed her again, softer this time, giving her tenderness rather than the heated passion of last night’s kisses. “All I know is that I’ve wanted you, desperately, from the first time I ever laid eyes on you.”
“Because I blew your mind talking about sex toys the way others talk about Tupperware?”
“No,” he said, grinning. “But that didn’t hurt anything. It was you. All you. You were so sexy and confident and pretty. So very pretty.”
“I’m not confident, Landon. It may seem that way, but I’m really not.”
“I say you are.”
“I like the way I look to you.”
“I like the way you look to me, too.” He waggled his brows, proving he really was too adorable for words. “I like you. I’ve never wanted to go all in with anyone before. Not like this. You aren’t going to let me down, are you?”
“I’m going to try not to.”
“Tell me what you want.” He dropped his head to her pillow, his hand on her face. “Tell me what you want so I can help you get it.”
“I want adventure and meaningful work that I enjoy and love and good sex and babies and a real life.” The words were out of her mouth before she took even a second to decide whether she should say such things to this particular man.
“Sweetheart, you’ve come to the right place for all of that.”
“Have I?”
“Absolutely.” He smoothed his thumb over her cheek as he seemed to devour her with his eyes. “I have a confession to make.”
“What’s that?” she asked, automatically wary of the many sins Landon Abbott might potentially confess to her.
“I read your notebook the other night.”
Her mind raced as she tried to remember the things she’d written. “Oh, um, well…”
“I saw that one of your goals is to have an orgasm with a man.”
Amanda groaned and covered her face with her hands. “You did not see that.”
“I did.” He tugged on her hand. “Come out and face the music.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Oh, come on. Don’t be silly. How can I help you achieve your goal if you won’t look at me?”
“I’ll be moving out later today so I never have to look at you again.”
Landon laughed and threw a heavy arm around her middle to keep her from getting out of the bed.
Mortified, she tried to scoot out from under his arm, but he wasn’t having it. Instead, he held her tighter and kissed her cheek and neck. “How do you want it? Fingers? Tongue? Cock? You can have any or all of the above.”
“I’m dying.”
“How can the sex toy girl be embarrassed so easily?”
“This is different. That’s work. This is...”
“This is the real life you want so badly, so don’t die before we see to your goals.” His lips were persistent on her neck while he cupped her breast and teased her nipple.
Another thought occurred to her that made her go tense all over.
“What?”
“This isn’t why you suddenly brought me flowers or wanted to go out with me last night, is it? Because you want to be the man who, you know…”
“Makes you come?”
“Landon!”
“No,” he said, shaking with silent laughter. “I wanted to go out with you again long before I read your very interesting list of goals. I was trying to give you space to recover after the fire, but the whole time, I was waiting for you to feel better so I could do this.” He kissed her neck as he pinched her nipple between his fingers.
She gasped in shock when she suddenly felt his lips on her bare nipple and realized that while she’d been hiding, he’d been lifting her shirt to gain access.
She buried her hands in his hair, and he glanced up at her.
“You’re back.”
“Don’t look at me.”
“But I love to look at you.” The tricky devil continued to move her T-shirt up until she moved to take it off. “Mmm, so pretty.” His heated gaze traveled over her bare breasts.
Her impulse was to cover herself, but he anticipated that, pinning her arms over her head. “Is this okay?” He bent his head to lick and suck her other nipple.
“Yeah,” she said on a gasp. She’d done this with other guys. Of course she had. So why was it so different when he did it? Why did it feel like every nerve ending in her body was attached to the nipple he was soothing with his tongue and warm, gentle pulls of his lips?
He kept it up, moving from one side to the other and back again, until she was about to come from that alone.
She pressed against him, trying to find relief for the pressure building between her legs.
He glanced up at her as her nipples tingled from the attention he’d given them. “Shall we continue toward your goal?”
Amanda looked at his handsome face and took only a second to think about it before she nodded. She was still embarrassed that he’d seen her list, but what did that matter when Landon Abbott seemed determined to make one of her most pressing goals come true?