“Cool,” she whispered.
“Honey, tell me you see the absurdity of me callin’ you tomorrow, which is today, incidentally, askin’ you to a movie, only so after the movie I can maneuver you to my house, then my bed, when I’m right here in your house with your bed upstairs?”
Her eyes rounded and she again stopped breathing.
Fuck yeah, he wanted to kiss her.
“Well, I can see the absurdity of you calling me when we can make plans for a movie right now,” she allowed.
Goddamned ridiculous.
And cute.
Fuck it, he was just going to kiss her.
So he did.
It was a repeat of the one before. Hot. Wet. She slid her fingers in his hair and pressed her warm, sweet, soft body to his, opened herself up and gave him everything.
He fought back the near overwhelming urge to drop her to the floor and take her in her foyer when what she said penetrated.
He ended the kiss, slid his lips to the skin under her ear and felt the soft puffs of her quick breaths against his neck.
“I’m sensing you wanna slow this down,” he noted, his voice rough.
“We’ve only had one date,” she replied softly. Then, quieter. “I’m not that that type of girl.”
She wasn’t. Hanna Boudreaux absolutely wasn’t that type of girl.
Fuck.
His reward.
He lifted his head and looked down at her to see her face soft, eyes bright and heated, lips swollen.
Fantastic.
“Movie. Tomorrow night. You pick. Text me,” he stated.
“I don’t have your number,” she told him.
“Where’s your phone? I’ll program it in,” he offered.
“It’s upstairs.” She made to move, mumbling, “I’ll get it.”
Raid locked his arms around her and her eyes shot back to his.
“Unh-unh.” He shook his head. “Already watched you run up those stairs in a sexy dress and heels tonight. Not gonna watch you do it in your sweet pajamas. Only so much a man can take.”
“Oh,” she breathed.
Fuck.
His reward.
“I’ll be here, six o’clock. Pick a movie that works with that time, but I wanna take you out to eat before so plan accordingly.”
“Okay,” she agreed.
“We need to go earlier, call Rachelle at her café. She can give you my number.”
“Okay,” she repeated.
“Now, I gotta go.”
She licked her lips and again said, “Okay.”
Raid made a move, but her arms tightened around him.
Then, suddenly, she dipped her chin and planted her forehead in his chest.
“I know you think I’m an idiot and this is ridiculous and I understand why you were angry I didn’t discuss things with you when I overheard you talking. But I heard you say I was clueless and you were going to end this tonight. I obviously mistook what you said, but what you said didn’t sound good,” she explained in a hesitant, hushed voice.
He pulled her closer and dropped his lips to the top of her hair.
Finally, he got it.
She hadn’t heard it all.
Not even most of it.
Just the part she could misinterpret.
“You missed the part when my partner was givin’ me shit about my new babe takin’ my mind off the job, how I needed to get my head back in the game and how you were distracting me from doing that.”
“Oh,” she whispered into his chest, her arms around him going even tighter. She dropped her head back and he lifted his up to catch her eyes. “I should have told you I overheard. Let you explain. I’m sorry.”
Straight up apology.
It took balls to do shit like that, even for sweet, cute, shy women.
His f**king reward.
“It’s done, baby,” he told her.
Hanna nodded, then again tipped her chin down and planted her forehead in his chest.
“Do you think I’m a crazy, creepy stalker lady, hanging at Rachelle’s just to see you walk in?”
“Absolutely not,” he replied immediately, his voice steely, and her head jerked back so her eyes could scan his face to ascertain the veracity of his words.
He let his expression do the talking because he didn’t think her crush was crazy or creepy.
It was like everything about her, sweet and cute.
He just wished like f**k he’d been paying more attention, so instead of spending the next however long it took coaxing her into his bed she’d already be there.
Finally, she said, “I think I actually believe you.”
Raid smiled. “Good, ‘cause I’m not lyin’.”
Hanna’s body melted into his and she gave him a smile back.
Fuck, he had to get out of there.
“Now let me go unless you want me to stay,” he ordered.
He was gratified at the lengthy hesitation before she let him go.
He leaned in, kissed her forehead and moved to the door.
He had it open when something occurred to him and he turned back.
“You thought you were ending this earlier,” he noted. She tipped her head to the side, but then righted it and nodded. “So why did you give me the afghan?”
Her brows drew together in confusion, he sensed not at his question, but at her actions. Then she laid it out honestly.
“I don’t know. Maybe I was being my usual idiot and wanted to give you something to remember me. Maybe, even with what I thought you were doing, I knew you were a partial good guy, what with offering to take care of Grams’s yard and all, and I wanted to give something back. The only thing I had to give. Something that would keep you warm. But really, I don’t know. I just…” she shrugged, “did it.”
“Glad you did, honey,” he replied.
“Me too,” she said.
He gave her a grin. Hers was shy, but she returned it.
“Lock this after me,” he commanded.
Hanna nodded and he jerked up his chin.
Then he walked out the door, closing it behind him. He was on the steps when he heard it lock.
Raid sat in his Jeep and didn’t pull away until the downstairs lights were off and he saw her shadow moving behind the filmy curtains of her bedroom.
He drove to his place. He tagged the afghan and walked up the side stairs, unlocked his door and moved in.
He pulled off his clothes, yanked the comforter off his mattress, untied the satin ribbons around the afghan and threw it out on his bed.
Then he climbed under it.
He’d been right when he first touched it.
She’d been right when she said it would keep him warm.