Slow Hands

“—attraction.”
    “Speak for yourself.”
    Her pulse fluttered visibly in her throat.
    “I am incredibly attracted to you.” He knew he risked scaring her off again, but could be nothing but honest. There was no way he could allow her to go on believing he was only here because she’d bid on him at some charity event. “In case that kiss earlier didn’t clue you in, let me give it to you straight. I have wanted you since I spotted you from behind the curtains the other night at the auction.”
    For the second time since he’d known her, Jake had managed to shock Maddy speechless. She stared at him, blinking a few times, her mouth open but no sounds coming out.
    Why the hell she should be surprised, he had no idea. She had to have seen the lust in his eyes the night they met, before he’d realized she wouldn’t appreciate any kind of obvious come-ons and gotten himself under control. And the woman was sexy enough to make a ninety-year-old beg his doctor for a year’s supply of Viagra.
    Yet she seemed entirely oblivious to it.
    Color washed through her beautiful cheeks. Maddy’s lips parted as she breathed across them. Even from across the table, he could see the way her chest moved with each deep inhalation.
    His body reacted. The lazy hunger that had been flowing through his veins focused in tighter, right in his crotch. “You can’t tell me you didn’t realize it.”
    She swallowed, shaking her head. “I did. But I just assumed you were being…that you were used to making women feel like you wanted them, because, you know, I’d bid so much.” Regaining some confidence, she leaned over and accused him with one hard stare. “You haven’t looked at me that way all day today.”
    “Did you not notice that I almost tore a guy’s head off because he looked at you that way.”
    “That’s different. He was drunk and stupid and…”
    “Porcine?”
    “Exactly.”
    “I’m not a pig. I’m a gentleman.” Tension snapping between them, he leaned closer, keeping his voice low and intimate. Raking a hot glance over her, he admitted, “And a gentleman doesn’t come right out on a first date and tell a woman he wants to smother her beautiful nipples in sugar and then suck every bit of sweetness right out of her until she’s begging to be taken.”
    She gasped, but he was too far gone. Both his mouth…and his body, which was now rock-hard beneath the table.
    “And it wouldn’t have been terribly polite of me to tell you I’ve been wondering all day what color panties you have on. Whether it’s a thong, whether the curves of your ass are really as round and sweet as I think they are.”
    “Jake…”
    “Or that if I fell into your incredible breasts and smothered to death, I’d die with a smile on my face.”
    “Oh my.”
    “Or that when I touched your leg this afternoon, all I could think of was how slim your thighs are. How easily my hands would wrap around them. How amazing it would be to lift them over my shoulders, getting the best possible angle so I could plunge into you, hard, and fill you so completely you feel like you’re gonna break in half.”
    “Holy shit,” someone said.
    It wasn’t her.
    Sanity returned as he realized their waitress stood beside the table, wide-eyed, pink-cheeked. And all ears. “Wow, hot stuff, if she says no, you can have my number!”
    The young woman appeared entirely serious. Which didn’t help things, judging by the way the woman sitting across from him narrowed her eyes and clenched her arms tightly around her chest. Small wonder…he’d verbally molested her in front of witnesses. Some gentleman.
    “Jesus, Maddy…”
    “We’re finished,” she snapped, almost launching herself to her feet. She threw a fistful of cash down on the table, ignoring the waitress, who still watched them, and not sparing Jake another glance.
    She didn’t even wait for him, or look to see if he was following. Instead, without another word, she wove her way through the crowd toward the door, not looking left or right, her dark ponytail bouncing against her stiff shoulders with every step.
    Oh, God, had he ever screwed this up.
    “I’m sorry,” he mumbled to the waitress.
    Jake closed his eyes and shook his head, about as embarrassed as he’d ever been in his life. Heaven help him if his sisters—or worse, his father—ever heard about this. Talk about not treating a lady right. He’d blown it, starting with the sex talk that had been overheard, and ending