Page 79 of Fierce-Colson

She leaned closer. “Jeans that make your ass look good and a T-shirt fitted to your body enough that your biceps are on display for me to notice.”

His laugh was low and easy, gliding over her like fingertips across velvet. “My ass. I’m trying to keep my head from spinning around to see who might stare at yours in those jeans.”

“I only care if you do,” she said, sending him a laugh that rode the edge of sexy a little too closely.

“So you planned that?”

“Planned what exactly? I always know what I’m wearing and why.”

“You’re going to make me regret having this date in public, aren’t you?” His head dropped closer to hers. “I think you just want to really test my control.”

Her smile came unhurried with just a hint of wicked with it. “You’re the one who brought witnesses.”

“It might be a rookie mistake on my part. But I didn’t want to pass up the time to see you.”

And those words right there, they were the ones that turned this from fun and flirting to considerate and the edge of serious.

That he was putting his sister first, but making space for her.

She needed them both and he showed her that without even trying.

They walked in silence for a moment, close enough that their hands brushed now and then. Not holding. Not yet. Not here either. Just enough contact to be unmistakable. The friction to build even more.

“So,” she said, “how edgy are you really feeling?”

“More than I thought. You?”

“The same. Guess that’s another thing we’ll have to work out. If you want to.”

“Oh, I want,” he whispered. “More than you did last Saturday night.”

Only one week ago, yet it felt as if it were years of building.

Of the need for a man to put his hands on her again.

At this rate she was going to melt the next time he did it.

“Are you going to flirt the whole trail? Work me up even more?”

“Don’t we both need some fun in our lives? You know, to counter babysitting duty.”

She looked ahead at the girls not even bothering to turn their heads. Thankfully, they were far enough behind their words didn’t carry, and there wasn’t anyone close by them either.

“Did you ever stop to think that they could be our kids? Not ours,” she rushed out. “But that we are old enough to have a thirteen-year-old.”

Geez, the last thing she needed was him to think she was fantasizing about their future and realized that came out completely wrong.

“Oh, I know. It’s crossed my mind. But it’s different. She came into my life later. I missed all those hard parts.”

“Are you kidding me? I think the next five years will be the hard part when they want to be an adult but are still a kid. In your line of work, you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

“I do. I’ve thought of that too. But she’s a good kid. I think a lot of why she is is through fear.”

“Fear? She doesn’t appear to fear you.”

He shook his head. “No. Fearful of being alone. The talk we had on Thursday, it just reminds me how heavy a load she had to carry.”

Her hand went for his, their fingers threading together, not caring if anyone saw them.