Page 80 of A Shot at Love
Jesus, Gemma, shut up!
She clamped her mouth closed, mortified by her nerves. Turning back to the stove, she tossed in a few slices of the bread she’d already soaked. She hadn’t even known Ky’d moved until she felt the air surrounding her shift and heat. When his lips brushed her ear—not a kiss, but almost—she startled.
His hand settled on her lower back. In that quiet, low and pelvis clenching voice he said, “First a sleepover and now breakfast. I’m feeling pretty grateful on both counts. And French toast, to boot.”
When he chuckled and squeezed her waist she almost dropped the spatula.
She turned to him, an acerbic retort on her lips and simply forgot what she wanted to say when he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. The spatula hit the counter, freeing both her hands, which flew immediately around his neck and clutched.
He deepened the kiss, parting her lips with his tongue and then pillaging. When her knees started to shake he simply pushed her back until she hit the counter, never once breaking the kiss. His leg insinuated itself between her thighs, rubbing along her mound and her body shook all the way to her unshod toes.
Her worried thoughts of a few moments ago dissipated with each insistent lap and nip of his mouth. How could she have ever thought she could play it cool with him after last night? One look, one kiss, one swipe of his body against hers and she was lost.
Good Lord, the man had a mouth created for kissing.
His lips left hers to slide along her cheek, behind her ear, along her neck.
“Gemma?” He sucked her ear lobe between his teeth and gently bit down.
Her entire body hummed with arousal. “Hmmmm?”
“You smell like cinnamon and sugar.” He licked her chin and crossed to her other side. “And you taste like…heaven.”
Gemma tilted her head back and closed her eyes, giving herself up to the feel of his mouth caressing her body. She was starting to rethink her whole morning after avoidance. If this was what waited for her after a sleepover, well, why would she ever evade it?
“Baby, something’s burning.” Ky’s mouth found the sweet spot at her collar and licked.
“Hmmm. It’s me.”
Oh, Christ! Did she really say that out loud?
A warm, deep chuckle blew into her ear as he squeezed her butt between his hands. “In addition to you,” he said.
Gemma’s eyes flew open. “My toast.” She pushed against the solid concrete wall of his chest and turned. The bread she’d placed in the pan was sizzling.
“Shit! Shit! Shit!” She grabbed the fallen spatula and turned each blackened piece over, the smoky smell of burning bread filling the air.
“These are toast. Literally.” She threw them into the sink and ran cool water over them.
When he laughed behind her, she turned and glared at him. “You shouldn’t distract a girl like that when she’s cooking.” The smoke detector shrilled on a second later, exploding into the room. Gemma dropped the pan into the sink and yelped. “Oh, great!”
Rick bolted into the kitchen from the door leading out to the garage a heartbeat later. He was sopping wet, sweat cascading down his entire body. A Glock poised in his hand, his gaze bounced from Gemma to Ky and then to the smoke wafting up from the sink.
Without a word, he slid his gun into the back waistband of his sweatpants and disappeared into the pantry. The smoke alarm quieted.
When he came back into the kitchen, his eyes found Gemma. With his hands fisted at his waist, a half twist to his lips, he said, “I am so busting you to Kandy.”
“Traitor,” Gemma mumbled. “It wasn’t my fault.” She slid her gaze to Ky. “I got…sidetracked.”
She felt her face heat when he glanced from her to Ky, his eyebrows lifting, and then his jaw tightening. The fisted hands at his waist dropped to his sides, clenching and unclenching. A vein pulsed at his temple as he took a step forward. The look he threw Ky was part anger, part warning, and all seriously pissed alpha-male.
Knowing how his mind worked, how he considered her more sister than friend, and having seen for herself what he was capable of when mad, Gemma crossed the small expanse of the kitchen and stood between the two men, using her body as a barrier.
