Page 26 of Breaking All The Rules
“Thank you,” he said around the mouthful as he sat back a little, clearly savoring the taste.
Bea barely moved; in fact, her fingers were still kind of hovering halfway between them, mesmerized by the heat in his gaze, the moist sheen of his lips, and the slick of cream at the corner of his mouth.
“You have…”
She pointed at the small white dollop, but the sentence kinda drifted away as she stared at it. Bea had never been gripped with the urge to lick food off another person’s mouth. Which, to be fair to herself, was a reasonable standard of hygiene, but maybe it was just another indicator of how lacking her life had been.
Nevertheless, here she was, needing to lick the cream off Austin’s mouth. God…her life really was spiraling out of control.
“What?” His voice was low, his gaze finding and locking with hers, his eyes hot and probing and…daring. “What do I have?” he asked as he leaned in ever so slightly.
Bea couldn’t tell if the noise bubbling around them was the rumble of the engine or the staccato beat of her heart. All she was conscious of was his heat and his intensity and the way his eyes had dropped to focus on her mouth.
God. Oh God, oh God, oh God.
And then, the sweet smell of pie and the heady effects of adrenaline still sizzling through her system joined forces, goading her to do it. To forget the past and live in the moment, just this one moment.
Kiss that cream off his mouth. Enjoy every sweet second.
And for once in her life, she forgot about being the daughter of a woman who had run away with a younger man—abandoning her kid and ruining her marriage in the process—and just did it.
Leaning swiftly in, she closed the gap between their mouths as if she’d been doing it forever instead of for the first time. Her hand slid into the back of his hair as her mouth landed on the corner of his and settled there, her tongue automatically lapping at the seal of his lips.
She heard herself sigh and a noise from the back of his throat that may have been a strangled kind of groan. But neither of them pushed to deepen the kiss. Frankly, Bea’s pulse was hammering so hard, her cardiovascular system couldn’t have taken the extra stimulation. She just sat there, holding his head in place, enjoying the soft yield of his mouth and the taste of his lips and the utter thrill of being in the moment.
She’d met Austin three days ago, and now here she was, breaking all the rules with him.
Pushing all her limits, tangling herself up with a younger man.
It was just the thought she needed to bring her back to reality, and she withdrew, sitting back in her seat. “I’m sorry.” She grimaced even as she fought the urge to go back for more. “I should not have done that.”
“Because you’re going to want to keep doing it?”
Bea laughed despite her inner turmoil. “You have a very healthy ego—anyone ever tell you that?”
“I have been told, yes.”
He grinned, completely unconcerned by the character assessment. Officer Hot ’n Tot, Bea decided, was what her grandmother called incorrigible.
“Also, and this is just a thought, I’m…putting it out there while my ego is still all puffed up. I could be that outrageously unsuitable guy you were talking about.”
Oh yeah. That he could. He was the very definition of outrageously unsuitable in ways he couldn’t even begin to fathom. Bea’s pulse fluttered, despite her brain shutting down the idea. “You want to be a check mark on someone’s shitty list?”
“Yeah. Why not?” He grinned. “Besides, maybe I have a list, too? And on my list is to be someone’s outrageously unsuitable guy?”
Good lord, he was so damn cute, she wanted to take him home and pet him. Among other things. But Bea wasn’t going to go there. “Austin…I’m very flattered that you’re flirting with me, but I don’t want to take advantage of you—”
“You should totally take advantage of me.”
Bea rolled her eyes. “Or objectify you.”
“Objectify me. I’m up for that.”
“Austin.” She shot him an impatient look even as a million ways she could objectify him battered against her brain like a ram. “I like you. But—” There was no way Bea was unloading the reasons why she wouldn’t get involved with a younger man. She’d known him three days and already told him too damn much. “I’m not here forever, you know? It’ll just make things weird between us.”
“Why would they be weird?”
She gave a half laugh. Oh, the innocence. “Trust me, they would.”
