THIRTEEN

An hour later she held up a hand for help out of the booth they’d taken over. “I can’t believe you brought me here. I’m going to end up 400 pounds because I now know about this place!”

“I’ll help you work off every one of those carbs,” he said and tugged her up and turned her around, holding her coat for her. He flipped her braid out, letting the curling end wrap around his thumb. “How come it’s all tied back today?”

Off balance with that little remark, she mumbled, “Me and my wild, Felicity hair do not mix well with windy, winter days.”

“Felicity?” he frowned.

“Sorry, the TV show from the-“

“Oh, Kerri Russell. Yeah, you do have hair like hers. She hates hers too. Personally all I ever want to do is touch it.” He traced a fingertip over the barely controlled bumps of hair that wanted to be free of their confines. Her hair was much like her personality, in fact it was all he could do not to picture it across his chest. If he wanted to walk around the damn shopping square he was going to need to put that thought aside.

“You know, Kerri Russell?”

Brought back into focus, he grinned. “Oh sure, she’s a nice girl, well, woman now. She’s been in and out of the Indie films genre enough that I run into her at the premiers and functions.”

“You do lead a different life, don’t you?”

He shrugged and turned her around to zip her coat. “A few nights out of the year, yes. When I’m touring, yes. When I’m at home, not so much.”

“Well Daddy, I can zip my own jacket, thanks.”

His eyes went dark as he ignored the onlookers in the diner and caught her mouth in a quick, if deep kiss. “There are no daddy thoughts where you’re concerned.”

She pressed her lips together as he led her out of the diner, speechless again. Frowning at his back, she came to the conclusion that he liked to do that to her. She wasn’t sure she liked it. They headed into town and Jon followed a ramp into an underground parking structure and parked. “If this doesn’t finish you off, then I’ve got another place we can go to later.”

She opened her own door this time and met him at the front of the SUV. They walked around a few quaint streets and she found a few things for her mother right away. They even found themselves picking the same thing out for each of their mothers from across a display case.

“Sounds like our Moms have the same taste,” Jon said. He looked at her and they both said, “Expensive,” and laughed.

“My mom has a weakness for pearls and diamonds.”

“My mom just discovered a deep and abiding love for pearls,” Jon said. He lifted the set and pushed them in front of her. “I didn’t realize novelists made so much.”

Bella blushed. “I got a pretty nice advance on the next book in the McKenzie Krogan series. Plus an option for three more and the okay to do a spin off series in the erotica genre.”

“Erotica?” Jon murmured with a kick of surprise. He’d noticed the sexual undertones in her book, but nothing as hot and steamy as…well, anything that had to do with erotic writing.

“It’s an old genre that is finally coming off the hidden shelves and internet sites. Women are sexual creatures. They are looking for intelligent stories that embrace that. Not every woman wants the flowery love scenes. Sometimes we even want to search the darker side of lust.” She stopped talking when his eyes darkened with interest and at the same time, a different nuance of attraction started to bloom between them. “Women have the same sex drive as men do…hell, even stronger in some women.”

“Like you?” Jon hedged.

She turned into him and tucked a bold hand into his leather jacket, letting her finger trace his wide belt buckle, “Could be.”

It was Jon’s turn to swallow audibly. “Have mercy, woman.”

She let her fingers fall away as she headed over to another display case. Jon watched her look at the men’s watches and tried to get his raging hard-on under control. The fact that there was a smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth as she slid her fingertips over the glass had him swallowing back a groan.

Just the thought of her touching his skin that way, the way she dragged her fingers up and over each dip and seam of the case forced him to look away. He was going to have a helluva time walking across the room if he didn’t stop those thoughts. “And she calls me evil,” he said under his breath.

A stylish, sleek blonde from behind the counter cut into his darker thoughts. “I’m sorry, did you say something sir?”

“Um, yeah,” he glanced at Izzy, then back to her. “I need something for a woman that I’ve just met. Something fun, but not serious.”

The woman gave him a knowing smile. “I think we can find you something like that.”

He watched her from the corner of his eye as she was waited on by another salesman. The man practically fawned all over her to show her an assortment of Movado’s. Knowing she’d be well taken care of, if a little drooled upon, he turned back to the woman. “I’m thinking earrings. Long, and funky, that would show up with wild blonde hair.”

She flipped around a half dozen pairs, but he shook his head. “No, more unusual,” he looked through the glass and stepped over one display. “Like those.”

“Excellent choice, Sir.” She lifted them out of the case and Jon nodded. “Yes, wrap those up with the second set of pearls we looked at, with the double strand.”

“Certainly.”

Jon pushed over his American Express and she discreetly took the card. Bella came to his side just as he was signing off on his purchase. “Ready to go?”

She nodded. “My brother is going to kill me for getting him a Movado, but he’s always wanted one.” She rolled her eyes. “He’s as white as white boys can get with similar blonde hair, but bone straight like my mom’s.” Smiling ruefully she went on, “But the name brands get him. And of course Catherine Zeta Jones in the billboards has nothing to do with it.”

Jon laughed. “Well, now I definitely have to meet your family.”

She slipped her hand into the crook of his arm. “Oh honey, that would be all bad for your psyche.”

“I’m willing to chance it someday.”

“Half Nordic and half Italian, it’s a helluva combo.”

“It certainly is,” he said softly and let his nose nuzzle her cheek, then to her wool covered ear just before he opened the door for her. They laughed over a few holiday windows and made their way through a few different craft minded stores as well as a small shop called The Trunk.

“What’s this?”

“It’s vintage clothing from the twenties all the way through the eighties and nineties.”

She pushed the door open and dragged him inside. T-shirts were on display all over the store, with a rack of flapper dresses next to another rack of eighties rag style dresses. Absently she lost herself in the T-shirts and blouses. Finding just the right one, she turned to him and folded the cotton so he couldn’t see the print. “I’ll be right back.”

He grabbed at the shirt. “Whatcha got there?”

She held it away, “You’ll see.”

“Modeling for me?”

“Maybe.”

His jaw clicked at the teasing glint in her dark eyes. “I’m beginning to hate that word.”

She shrugged out of her jacket and handed it to him. “I won’t make you carry my purse.”

“I appreciate you waiting for the unmanning until after we have sex, thanks.”

“Deal,” she said and ducked behind the curtained closet. She shrugged out of her layers and put on the shirt. “Oh holy hell.”

“What?” he called from outside the curtain, barely an inch away if the shadow was any indication.

She instantly started yanking it off.

“C’mon let me see.”

“No way,” she said and yanked it down as he opened the curtain. “Hey!”

He simply stopped letting the curtain drop. He’d never seen Bella without the layers, so he didn’t truly have any idea what kind of body she had. He knew what she felt like, but seeing her full breasts pushing against a faded Care Bear shirt hit him low and slow.

She tugged at the hem, conscious of the fact that the shirt was well over a size too small. “You really are a bold thing.”

The shirt stopped a full inch from the top of her jeans, showing a sweetly curved midsection with a tiny ruby flash at her belly button. “You have no idea,” he said and moved in.

Her body went haywire at his proximity and the natural naughtiness of the changing room and a man that more than filled the small room. He slid his fingers over the slice of skin that showed and she groaned when his thumb traced over her belly button ring and his nose nuzzled her neck.

“Sharing is Caring,” he said.

“Oh hell,” she groaned. That had been the idea, and while cute and teasing in her head, add that to a man with sex on his mind it went into the gutter real quick. He pushed her headband off and went right for her ear. What? Did he have a direct line that hotwired into her senses?

He sucked, flicked and tugged on her earlobe until she had to stuff down the deep and guttural groan her body wanted to release. Her hands went straight for his hair, the cinnamon colored strands sifted through her fingers, soft and thick at the nape of his neck. She could feel the zipper of his jacket through the thin material of the shirt and her nipples hardened painfully.

“I take it you’ll be buying that shirt?” came the sales ladies voice through the fog of lust.

“Definitely,” Jon called out and resumed kissing.