“No problem, since we’ve agreed this isn’t a date-it’s just one little dinner.”

“Right.” She skimmed her foot beneath his pant leg, brushing her toes over his sock until she encountered warm, firm skin. “Now that you know all about my crazy family, what about yours?”

The way his eyes smoldered made her feel as if she’d stepped into a furnace. “My folks are great. Very little nitpicking and tumult. Like you, I like peace. My job is stressful enough-I’m lucky I don’t have any extra because of my family.”

“Very lucky. Is your dad a firefighter?”

“Nope. Schoolteacher. So are my mom and brother. Right in Ocean Harbor Beach, where I was born and raised. I might have followed that path except the summer I was fourteen I worked on my uncle’s ranch in Wyoming.”

“Where you learned your cowboy wisdom.”

“Right. There was a drought that year and a brush fire broke out on some back acres. It quickly spread, and if not for the fast work of the firefighters, my uncle might have lost everything. Watching those guys work…the die was cast right then and there. Made me the rebel who broke with the tradition in my family.”

“Well, not completely-you’re still a teacher.”

“True. I guess it’s in the blood. Still…” He raised his wineglass. “Here’s to rebellion.”

She touched her glass to his. Then slipped her toes from beneath his pant leg to shimmy her foot along the top of his thigh. “Right. To doing things we probably shouldn’t.”

He briefly closed his eyes. When he opened them, the fire in their depths scorched her. There was no doubt he wanted her. And God help her, she wanted him. More than she’d expected to. Certainly more than she wanted to. But no way she was willing to stop now. She shifted her foot to slowly caress his inner thigh, stopping just short of touching him where she was most tempted to touch.

“You’re driving me crazy,” he said in a strained voice.

“Just like you did to me. Want me to stop?”

“Hell, no.”

“Good.” She enjoyed another taste of her salad, chewing slowly, still stroking him, watching him watch her. After she swallowed, she asked, “So what do you like to do when you’re not fighting fires or teaching classes?”

“Take beautiful florists to dinner.”

“Thank you. Besides that.”

“Surf. Swim. Hike. Kayak. Fish. Kick back and watch TV. Take beautiful florists to dinner.”

She shifted her foot a hair higher on his leg. “You said that last one already.”

“Did I? I’m afraid I’m…distracted. But at any rate, it bears repeating.” He cleared his throat and took another bite of his salad. “So, what else do you like to do besides arrange flowers and play a wicked game of footsie?”

She smiled. “Swim. Run. Hike. Read. Cook. Play tennis. Fix up old cars.”

“Fix up old cars? Seriously?”

She nodded. “Something I inherited from my dad who’s an automotive genius. I drive a ’64 Mustang convertible that I rebuilt. Took me six years to do it, but I love that car.”

He leaned forward. “That’s my dream car.”

She glided her foot a bit higher, until it just brushed his groin. He sucked in a sharp breath. “Maybe you’d like me to take you for a ride.”

With his eyes burning into hers, he set down his fork, reached beneath the table, and lightly clasped her foot. Then he shifted a little lower in his chair and pressed her instep against his erection. “There’s no maybe about it.”

Oh, my. Whoever had nicknamed this man Elf didn’t know what the hell they were talking about.

“The question is,” he said in a low, husky voice, “are we still talking about cars?”

“What if I said we weren’t?”

He rolled his hips slightly forward, a gesture that set up an insistent throb between her legs and made her yearn to touch that lovely hard, male flesh with more than her foot. “I’d say you’d been peeking at my Christmas list.” Then he did something exquisite with his hands on her arch that brought a gasp of pleasure to her lips.

“Ohhh…that feels…hmmmmm. If you don’t stop that in about three or four hours, I’m going to get really angry.”

“Did you just give me permission to touch you for the next three or four hours? It sounds like you’ve been peeking at my Christmas list again.”

“I thought only children made Christmas lists.”

“Clearly not, as I have one. And you’re all over it. And there’s nothing childish about it.”

Good God, Toni was ready to slither to the floor. She loved having her feet rubbed and he had very talented hands. Hands that she wanted on more than her feet. As quickly as possible. Summoning the remnants of her wilted strength, she slid her foot from his grasp and slipped it back into her shoe.

“You didn’t like?” he asked.

She pushed back her hair from her overheated face. “Oh, I liked. But if you kept doing whatever glorious thing you were doing to my foot, I was going to have an orgasm.”

His eyes darkened. He pushed aside his forgotten salad and reached for her hand. “I wouldn’t have minded that one bit. Seems to me that when you reach boil…well, that’s a bad time to turn down the heat.”

A breathless laugh escaped her as his fingers entwined with hers. “I think Santa needs to know that you’re naughty.”

He gave her a slow smile that melted what was left of her spine. “And that you’re nice. And that I really like you.”

The unsettling realization hit her that she liked him, too. Which she hadn’t counted on. And wasn’t particularly happy about. In an effort to lighten up a moment that suddenly felt way too serious, she said, “You don’t know me.”

“Aside from the obvious fact that you’re gorgeous, I’ve managed to pick up quite a bit over the last three months during my visits to your shop. I know you’re creative, talented, independent, smart, hardworking and have the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen. And now I know a lot more than I did an hour ago. And I like everything I’ve seen. And heard.” He drew her hand to his mouth and touched his tongue to the center of her palm. “And touched.”

“You want to go to bed with me.”

“True. But that’s a statement you could safely make to any breathing guy on the planet.” He reached out his other hand and traced his fingers gently over her cheek. “But-I also want to get to know you.”

It took all her willpower not to lean into his hand and purr like a kitten. Her mind was warning her to slow down, reminding her that as charming as he was, he was a firefighter and she wanted no part of that ever again. That, except for tonight, she had no time to devote to getting to know him. But her heart and her body were screaming at her that for the purposes of sex, his occupation didn’t matter, and to move full steam ahead. And those screams quickly drowned out everything else.

“What if I said I’m only interested in sex?” she asked.

She expected him to agree instantly, but instead he studied her through very serious eyes. Finally he replied, “I sure as hell wouldn’t turn you down, but I think we’d both be missing out. I know we’ll be great together in bed-I think maybe we could be great together out of it, as well. For the purposes of full disclosure-I’d like to find out.”

Given his honesty, she couldn’t give him less than the truth in return. “For the purposes of full disclosure-as much as I appreciate that, I’m not looking for a boyfriend. I’m not looking for anything past tonight.”

His gaze searched hers. “I’ll take tonight.” He traced the outline of her lips with a single fingertip. “But be warned-I’m going to do my damnedest to change your mind.”

A sensation that felt alarmingly like eager anticipation rippled through her. “I won’t change my mind.” And she meant it. She’d take this night to douse the fire he’d lit in her, but that was it. No point in prolonging something that couldn’t lead anywhere.

“Well, in that case, I don’t want to waste any time. What would you say if I suggested we get our meal to go?”

Toni captured his hand and gently bit the end of his finger. “I’d say how fast can you get the waiter over here?”

6

THE SIX MINUTES and forty-two seconds-not that Brad was counting-it required to take care of the bill and get their meals to go were an exercise in torture. He would have been perfectly happy just to leave the gift card and some cash to cover their wine and tip and forget the meal-he was starving, but not for anything packed in a container. The only thing that kept him from grabbing Toni’s hand and dragging her out of the restaurant immediately was the fact that he knew they’d soon be working up an appetite. And since his fridge was pretty bare, and he wasn’t much of a cook under the best of circumstances, better they have some decent food available later.

Now, clutching the bag filled with to-go containers in one hand, and his other hand holding hers, he led the way through the crowded restaurant to the exit, trying to curb the edgy impatience clawing at him. Even though he’d barely touched her, hadn’t even kissed her, he already felt like a powder keg with a lighted torch waving over it-one instant away from detonation. His house was only fifteen minutes away. He’d waited three months to kiss her. He could wait another fifteen minutes.

The instant they were outside, however, he realized he wasn’t going to make it another fifteen seconds. Walking so fast he was almost jogging, he rounded the corner of the brick building and drew her into the deep shadows. Dropped the bag. Then pulled her into his arms.

“Can’t wait,” he said in a harsh whisper, barely realizing he said the words out loud.

“Thank God,” she whispered back, winding her arms around his neck.

With his heart rapping against his ribs, he lowered his head. Her lips parted and she rose on her toes, meeting his mouth with an urgency that matched his. He’d meant this to be a soft, exploring kiss, but the instant their lips touched, the powder keg exploded. In a heartbeat, the kiss turned fierce. Demanding. Deeply intimate. Their tongues met, and with a groan, he stepped back several paces until his shoulders hit the brick wall. He spread his legs and, curved one splayed hand over the luscious swell of her ass, urging her tighter against him, while his other hand plunged into her soft mass of curls to hold her head.

She tasted…perfect. Felt…perfect. She squirmed against him, a full-body caress, all her feminine softness touching all his male hardness, and he swore he was going to lose his mind. His control teetered dangerously close to the edge and she wasn’t doing a damn thing to keep it from plunging into oblivion. She fisted her hands in his hair, dragging his head lower and opened her mouth wider. With a growl he sank deeper into their kiss, dancing his tongue against hers with a rhythm that blatantly imitated the act his body was screaming to share with hers. Right here. Right now. He rolled his hips, pressing his erection against the juncture of her thighs, and she responded by rubbing herself against him.

A bit of sanity somehow managed to pierce the stranglehold of lust gripping him, warning him he needed to stop this madness-right now-while he still could. He wanted her naked. Hot. Wet. Under him. Over him. And this sure as hell wasn’t the place.

With an effort that nearly killed him, he broke off their kiss and raised his head. Her lips remained parted and she was breathing as heavily as he.

Damn. He’d known sparks would fly between them, but this…this was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. His legs felt like rubber and his hands were unsteady. She looked up at him through glittering, half-closed eyes.

After licking her lips, a gesture that had him gritting his teeth, she whispered, “Whoa. That was…”

“Yeah. I know.” He dropped a hard, quick kiss against her mouth. “We need to get out of here. Now.”

She ran her tongue along his bottom lip and he groaned. “Agreed. And I think maybe you’d better not kiss me again until-”

“We’re somewhere we can’t get arrested?”

“Exactly. How far away do you live?”

He forced himself to set her away from him then pushed off the wall. Grabbing her hand, he scooped up the bag of food and started out at a rapid pace toward the parking lot. “Fifteen minutes.” Fifteen interminable minutes.

“I’m only five. So I vote for my place.”

“Done.” He glanced at her and his jaw tightened at the sight of her beautifully messed curls and swollen lips. “But even five’s going to be hard.”

Her gaze flicked to his tented pants. “Very hard.”

So damn hard, walking was uncomfortable. “If you keep looking at me like that, we won’t make it out of the parking lot, possible arrest or not. Where are you parked?”