She turned to face him, and he saw that questions lingered in her beautiful green eyes. She seemed nervous about his reaction. “Good. It’s hard to gauge my own work. I always like it until I’m waiting to hear what someone else thinks, and then I just see the flaws.”
He moved closer to her because he hated being even a few feet away. “I’m not just being nice. It’s really good.”
She turned then, and this time as their eyes met, a jolt of awareness sizzled between them. He knew he might regret it but he also knew he couldn’t wait another moment to kiss her. To get a little bit closer to this complex, exotic woman who had turned his life upside down.
Four
Piper hadn’t intended to be here when he saw the portrait. She’d spent too many nights working on it and pouring her sexual frustration into it. Sure, she wanted Brian, but they were busy people with very different lives, and she was old enough to know that just wanting a man didn’t mean he’d ever be hers. So she’d painted him instead.
But now he was holding her in his big, muscular arms, looking like he wanted to kiss her but also hesitating, as if he didn’t want to pressure her into anything. She put her hands on the sides of his face, felt that strong jaw and the stubble that wasn’t visible as she went up on her tiptoes and brushed her lips over his.
An electric tingle went through her body and everything feminine inside of her screamed it’s about damned time. The next time her lips grazed his, he took control of the kiss. His lips moving under hers, he angled his head and his tongue swept over her lips. Gently at first, and then demanding entrance so it could probe deep inside.
He tasted minty, and as silly as it might seem, manly. Brian held her loosely, never making her feel trapped, as he deepened the kiss. She slipped her hands down the sides of his face to his neck, caressing the tendons there as she slowly moved her touch to his shoulders. Piper knew how ripped and in shape he was. Felt the strength in his shoulders and in his arms as he lifted her slightly and turned so that his back was toward the open door of his office. She tore her mouth free of his and their eyes met. She didn’t want this to end. There was something in his eyes that seemed to say the same thing.
Brian rubbed his thumb over her lips and another sensual shiver went through her all the way to her toes. Her lips felt too sensitive, full and hungry, she thought. She was hungry for more of him. More of his kisses and definitely more of him without his dress shirt on.
He sighed and stepped back from her, but not before she felt the brush of his erection against her thigh. “That nearly got out of hand.”
“Nearly,” she said softly. Knowing that she would have been very happy if it had. She was used to men who...heck, she wasn’t used to any man. Truth was, she was leery of men, having been ill-used by her fiancé back in her twenties. And, as a consequence, she kept a wall up and kept her distance.
She moved back from Brian. She only had to look at the portrait to see what she felt for him. How much she wanted things from him that she knew weren’t in the cards for her. She had no business kissing him, and not for any other reason than she was too old to have her heart broken by a ripped body and a mouth that made her forget her own name. Too old.
Too wise.
Ha.
She was supposed to be entering the wise goddess period of her life, but she felt as untried as she had felt at twenty-one. This wasn’t going to work. Hook-ups were one thing, but...whatever this was—just no. She wasn’t going to do it.
“Um, I’ve got to go.” She saw her shoulder bag on his guest chair and started walking toward it, her own sense of panic growing. Not because of Brian but because he’d done something she hadn’t expected. He’d awakened that feminine part of her that she’d shoved way down and tried to kill. And this was wrong...on so many levels. Because he sparked a desire in her for things that she knew she couldn’t have. Things that still made her want to mourn.
“I’m sorry,” he rasped. “I didn’t want to push you.”
She paused in the doorway and looked back at him. Even now it was all she could do to keep from closing the door and ripping off his shirt. Giving into the fiery passion that was coursing through her and making her hands shake.
Wise goddess.
She hoped that reminder would be enough.
“You didn’t. I pushed and I shouldn’t have. I’m not... I’m just not ready for this,” she confessed. “I’m glad you like the painting. I’ll be back with more pieces next week.”
She turned to leave but he was there, his hand on her elbow, just the brush of his fingers against her arm, slowing her down. “How do you feel about dinner?”
She looked at him over her shoulder.
“To discuss the installation? I don’t think we need to consult any more unless you don’t like the pieces.”
“I like them. I was asking you out...on a date,” he said sardonically.
She had just pretty much decided it was more than passion in her mind, but he was making everything real by asking her for a date. “We can’t date. I’m too old for you. You should find someone—”
He put his fingers over her lips and stopped her from talking. “There is no one I want like I want you, Piper. If you don’t want me, that’s one thing. But our ages aren’t a big deal. When we are together it’s honestly not even something I’ve ever thought of. Please, come to dinner.”
She looked up into his dark brown eyes and felt her will weakening. It had been just one kiss and she could control this attraction. She was a wise goddess not a sex-crazed woman. She had this under control. And, honestly, dinner sounded nice.
Better than nice. She hadn’t been on a date in a long time. Partly due to the walls she used to keep men at arm’s length, but mostly because she worked all the time.
“Okay. I’d like that. Where should I meet you?”
“How about CRU Food and Wine Bar in The Shops at Legacy?”
“8:00 p.m.?”
“Yes,” he said. She turned to leave again and this time he pulled her back into his arms and pivoted them out of the doorway. He tipped her head back, kissing her again, and this time he held nothing back. And long breathless moments later, when he finally lifted his head, she didn’t feel wise. She felt empty. Lonely. Unfulfilled. Like she’d had a taste of something she desperately craved and that made her hunger for so much more.
“See you soon.”
She walked away, wondering if she’d just taken a reckless leap into the unknown.
CRU was an upscale Texas wine bar. They’d been the first to offer over thirty wines by the glass and had vino from all over the world and at every price point. They also had a relaxed atmosphere with Napa-style foods and delicious, wood-oven pizzas.