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Cisco spoke again. “Now I’ll ask one more time. Did you drop a purse or a backpack somewhere on the way in?”
Hilly shook her head. “I’m a license and keys in the back pocket kind of girl.”
“Excellent,” he said, before bringing her to a halt at his front door.
His arms went around her, and he eased her in slowly so that their bodies eventually touched from chest to thigh. His muscles were hard against her softness, and the significant bulge in his pants fit snuggly against her belly. Hilly found herself going up on tiptoes, unbidden, to see if she could position that healthy protrusion against a spot that was a little more needy, but…
“Not yet, Hilly,” he admonished, arching away a smidge. “We’ll get to that, later,” Cisco told her softly as he lowered his head toward hers. “I hope.”
When his lips met hers, all thoughts of anything other than Cisco’s mouth flew out of her head, and with that, she turned on the recording section of her brain.
This was exactly where she wanted to be, and she didn’t want to forget a second of it.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Cisco felt the kiss all the way to his gut. He’d never experienced anything like it before.
Previous to this lip-lock with Hilly, a kiss had merely been a necessary precursor to getting a willing woman into bed; a means to an end. But not with Hilly. Cisco realized he could easily stay fused to her sweet mouth for hours, even denying himself oxygen if that’s what it took to continue. That’s how potent she was.
After feasting on her lips for an indeterminate amount of time while exploring every centimeter of her willing mouth, Cisco eventually and reluctantly drew back.
“Was that better?” he rasped in a voice he almost didn’t recognize as his own.
“Better than what?” she responded, her eyes glazed over.
Cisco couldn’t help but chuckle. And crow. He’d done that to Hilly; made her nearly incoherent with need.
He cleared his throat. “Better than the first kiss we had, which you thought might have been a mistake.”
Her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh! We did it twice,” she spit out unnecessarily.
Now Cisco became even more amused. “Your agenda indicated only one kiss today?” he questioned cheekily.
“Yes. No. Arghh.” She jerked back out of the circle of his arms.
He missed her heat instantly, but became contrite because the confusion and alarm on her face were so real.
“Hilly, it’s okay,” he soothed, attempting to bring her back from the edge of whatever precipice she was headed toward by taking an additional step away from her. “It was a wonderful kiss. A memorable kiss for me, but if you don’t want to do it again, I’ll back off.”
The offer almost made him groan, but Hilly’s comfort took precedence over the colossal attraction he one-hundred percent felt for her. Hell, he’d slap duct-tape over his lips if it would make her feel better.
“I… I’m being an idiot,” she managed. “It was…fine.”
Fine was not the adjective Cisco would have used, and by her initial response, Hilly was kidding herself. That kiss had been epic, and she had to have felt it.
Which meant he needed to ramp things down from “slow” to “a snail’s pace”. It would kill him, but…
“I agree,” he told her, fighting not to bite his tongue on the lie. “It was fine. So, now that both our curiosities have been assuaged, should we get back to being working buddies? If that’s where you see us,” he clarified.
Her eyes finally focused on him as she visibly swallowed. “Where do you see us?” she choked out.
Did he go with the truth? Yes, but maybe a muted version.
“I actually think we might have a little chemistry going on between us, so my thought is, once you feel comfortable with having me around camp, we might think about going out on a real date.”
When she went to give the rebuttal he knew was poised on her tongue, Cisco placed a gentle finger against her lips.
“If it makes you feel better delaying an outing between us until the end of the camp season because you’re feeling it might be a conflict of interest between business and pleasure, I’m okay with waiting.”