Page 95 of The Wildest Ride

She punched his shoulder. “You’d dare take popcorn into my bed?”

He shrugged. “Whatever it takes to get you there.”

She tried her best to look stern. “You’re shameless, you know.”

“Is it working?” he asked hopefully.

She frowned, unanchored at the same time as she knew exactly what she was supposed to be doing. “I don’t know.”

“That means yes. Popcorn?” He offered her a piece.

She opened her mouth, not intending to.

He pressed the popcorn into her mouth softly, fingertips pressing against her bottom lip along the way. She closed her mouth and the popcorn dissolved on her tongue as she stared into his eyes, losing herself almost immediately, just like she did every time he caught her in his gaze.

She leaned toward him, suddenly understanding irresistibility. Whoever he was, wherever he was, if her father had been anything like AJ in this moment, Lil realized her mother, so young and dreamy, wouldn’t have stood a chance.

The trick of comparing herself to her mother should have cooled the intense need she felt to eliminate the space between them and press her lips to AJ’s, but it didn’t.

Her levees were cracking.

She was letting them.

Something in his smile told her he knew it—and knowing that he knew only made the sensation more compelling and molten. She liked that he liked that she wanted him, that she was powerless to do anything but to lean toward him. Whatever it was inside of her that drew her to him was older and deeper than she could control and he knew it. He knew it, and like the champion he was, he played it to his advantage.

That she could read all of that in him astounded her. To know anything about another human so certainly, without words—let alone to trust it—was nothing short of miraculous.

He hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her close. On a deep inhale, he said, “You smell good. How’re you feeling?”

She smiled at his divergent thoughts. “Thank you, and good. Amazing what a hot shower can accomplish.”

“Agreed. You did great out there.”

A wicked light lit Lil’s eye. “In the challenge, or before?”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “Don’t be a pervert.”

She hit him. “I’m the pervert?”

He nuzzled his face into her neck and pressed his lips against her skin. “You were phenomenal. Your body is as out of this world as your talent and I’ve never done anything in my life remotely worthy of deserving either.”

Her breath caught, her body heated, and her skin tightened and she didn’t know if it was because of the way his words drilled into her heart, or his lips moved against her skin, or the low timbre of his voice slipping deep inside and lighting little fires everywhere.

She opened her mouth to say something clever, but was saved from revealing the fact that she’d lost her wits by the ding of the microwave.

The second bag of popcorn was done.

Heart beating like a sprinter, Lil took the coward’s way out and eased away from AJ, saying, “Popcorn’s done. Better grab it.”

She didn’t have to look at his face to know he was smiling. She heard it in the note of triumph in his voice when he drawled, “Wouldn’t want it to get cold, now would we?”

She pulled the second popcorn out of the microwave.

He’d been right. They needed two. The first one was nearly gone and they hadn’t even started the show.

She carried it back over to the table, snuggled in next to him, and decisively pressed Play. He watched her do it all with a little satisfied smirk, so she ignored him, pointedly staring at the screen as the sweeping classical music of the intro began.

Normally, she was hooked by the third bar, but this time she was finding it somewhat harder to focus. It was difficult to pay attention to the screen with AJ’s eyes running silky caresses up and down her face and neck.