Operation Date Escape

stroke her cheek. “Seriously though, I’m sorry you had to deal with your ex last night.”
    “I’m not.”
    His hand stilled. “You’re not?”
    Placing her hand over his, she replied, “No. Seeing Kyle again was something I’ve worried about for a long time, wondering how I would feel. Wondering if the hurt I’d felt from his betrayal would still be there. But there was nothing.”
    “Not even a flicker of feeling?”
    “Not even a flicker,” she assured him with a warm smile. “Even when we were married, I never felt the flame of passion I feel with you.”
    He took the plate from her hands and placed it onto the ground next to his.
    He looked like a man on a mission. “Cole?”
    “Shh...” Capturing her face between his hands, he covered her mouth with his. His kiss was tender, but thorough, making her legs weak. Thankfully, she was sitting down. Standing at that moment would have been nearly impossible.
    When the kiss ended, he picked up her plate and handed it back to her with a sexy, lone-dimpled grin. “Just keeping the flame going.”
    It was more of a bonfire at that moment, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. She tried not to think about the other things she’d like Cole to be doing. Food was safe. She’d focus on that. “Thank you for bringing me to your station’s picnic today,” she said as she took another bite of her steak.
    “You know,” he said as he sat watching her, his expression still heated, “I never thought I’d be jealous of a piece of plastic.”
    She paused between bites to look up at him. “What?”
    “ Seeing that fork slide in and out of your sweet mouth and wishing it were my tongue delving into that sweetness instead.”
    The plastic fork slipped from her trembling fingers to the grassy earth below. So much for food being safe.

    “Come on,” Cole said, dumping their drinks in the grass. Then he stacked the empty cups together. His need for her was beyond painful. He wanted to hold her as he had the night they’d made love. To kiss every beautiful inch of her. To open himself up to her as he never done with any other woman. The heat of desire driving him, he pushed to his feet.
    “Where are we going?” she asked as he took the plate of barely touched picnic food from her hands and placed it under his own.
    Setting the empty cups atop the plates, he said huskily, “Some place more private.” He extended his free hand. “My house.”
    She took the offer hand, allowing him to help her to her feet. “But we haven’t finished eating.”
    He smiled as he pulled her to her feet, his gaze pinning hers. “Doll, food is not what I’m hungry for right now.”
    “That makes two of us,” she admitted with a breathy little sigh.
    His heated gaze traveled appreciatively down her slender form. Then he lowered his head to brush his lips over hers, murmuring huskily, “I want you so bad I hurt.”
    She responded to his needy admission by running the tip of her tongue teasingly along his bottom lip. “We can’t have you hurting, now can we?”
    “Oh, hell,” he said with a groan, his desire erupting like a three-alarm fire.
    Threading his fingers through hers, he led Kelsie back to the main picnic area where most of his friends and their significant others were still seated, eating and talking.
    “What are we going to tell them?” she whispered with a glance toward the picnic tables as he tossed their trash into an old wine barrel that had been turned into a makeshift garbage can.
    He followed her anxious gaze and then shrugged with a grin. “How about the truth? That we’re leaving the picnic to go back to my place to have incredibly hot sex.”
    Her head snapped around, her eyes meeting his. “Don’t even think about it.”
    He chuckled. “Oh, I’m thinking about it all right. Hot, sweaty, love every inch of you r sweet body kind-of-sex.”
    Color flooded her cheeks. “Cole...”
    She had no idea how sexy she was when she blushed like that. Before he could tell her, Stubby called out, “You two done eating already?”
    The others seated at the picnic table with him turned to look their direction.
    Cole nodded and called back, “The steaks were great, Lieutenant.”
    “Thanks,” the lieutenant replied with a nod.
    Taking Kelsie by the hand, he led her over to the table where most of his crew sat talking. Or at least they had been until Stubby had directed everyone’s attention his and Kelsie’s way. “We hate to eat and run, but we