He grinned at her. “Your secret’s safe with me.” He got up quickly and headed for the fridge. “I forgot drinks. What do you want?”
She bit into her bottom lip. She should say water or even iced tea, but what she wanted was-
“Beer?” McCrae was holding up a couple of bottles in one hand. “I’ve got Dos Equis and Modelo and...”
“Modelo is great,” she grinned at him. She was in the perfect mood for Modelo.
He opened the bottles and brought them over to the table.
She took a long, slow sip as soon as he placed it in her hand and leaned one arm on the top of the coffee table. “I really needed that.” Then she looked at the table, smiling even more. “And this...”
McCrae leaned closer to her, almost nose to nose. “And me?”
“Yes,” she breathed. “And you.”
The chips, with the queso, the chicken and tortillas, everything was gone in what felt like moments.
She was hungry.
Every bite took the edge off of her frustration.
Their quick and easy conversation had her laughing in moments, and McCrae was smiling along with her.
He even fed her a few choice bites of chicken from his fingers, leaving her feeling full and satisfied in so many ways.
When he leaned over with a bite of the cake on a fork she wanted to wave him off. Sweets were dangerous for her.
She liked them too much.
But with McCrae holding out the fork, smiling at her with a kind of childlike anticipation, what else could she do?
She leaned forward and took the bite.
The taste...
She closed her eyes to savor the flavor of the cake.
“Good, right?”
She opened her eyes in almost a dreamlike state. “You know... I’ve never liked red velvet before... but this-”
Noelle’s thoughts disappeared as McCrae reached out and wiped the pad of his thumb across her lip.
His smile was slow, and the look in his eyes made her shiver. “You... ah, have some frosting on your lip.”
McCrae lifted his thumb away but before he could move his hand, she opened her mouth and wrapped her lips around the tip of his thumb.
She wasn’t used to being forward like that.
It was... new.
And it had everything to do with McCrae.
Before, she’d been thepassiveperson in her relationship with-
She shook herself inside her head, focusing on the moment.
Focusing on McCrae.