“Vinyl?” I asked.
“Yeah. It’s more durable and easier to clean, better for in here.”
“Have you decided on countertops?” There were no counters or lower cabinets at all. He’d built the upper ones from scratch, then finished them with a lovely, mellow stain. Rob used half of the garage as his workshop, but really, he should have a separate building. If he started getting orders from our venture, like I hoped, then I’d suggest it.
“Do you want to see?” He was adorably eager to show me.
“Definitely.”
He got his phone and flipped through to a picture he must’ve taken in a showroom somewhere. The pattern was earth tones, varying brown, caramel and dark chocolate. “Looks like granite, but easier to care for and more durable.”
“I like it. I bet it’ll be beautiful.”
“I’m holding off on buying it until I get the cabinets finished. You want to stay for dinner? I just need to shower and sweep up the dust.”
“You shower, I’ll take care of it.”
“I can’t let you clean my kitchen.” By his expression, you’d think I had suggested something truly scandalous.
“You can if you expect me to eat here.”
“Fine.” Rob drew me close in a tender gesture.
I breathed in his warm, delicious scent: cut wood, touch of clean sweat, along with the freshness of his soap. My eyes drifted closed. It wasn’t in him to hurry this, and I stretched up to savor the heat of his mouth. His restrained longing flavored it with a sort of tempered urgency, his lips firm and knowing as he deepened the kiss. Already, he knew I liked it when he nibbled my lower lip, when he teased with his tongue and cupped my ass to pull me up against him. My pulse trebled, and it took all my composure not to grab him when he eased back and rested his cheek against the top of my head.
“Wow,” I whispered.
“There will be more of that after dinner. You know, it gets a little harder to let go of you every time I have to do it.”
“You’re just showering, not moving to China,” I teased.
He raised his head, taking hold of my shoulders with a wicked gleam in his blue eyes. “Any chance you’re feeling dirty?”
“Only always.”
I giggled as he pounced and princess-carried me up the stairs. “Wait, I’m supposed to be sweeping the kitchen.”
“Yeah, that’s a hard choice—naked girl in the shower with me or fully dressed downstairs. Sometimes I wonder about your life choices.”
“If you get me naked, I might not care about dinner,” I warned.
“I already don’t.”
Rob started the water, and I stripped out of my clothes, then I got to watch him get naked. Working construction year after year, along with his side projects, gave him a body that made me drool. It was even hotter that his muscles came from actual work, not gym equipment, along with the rough hands that felt so good when he touched me. From broad shoulders to chest to abs, he was mouth-watering. Maybe I should be ashamed of objectifying him, but from his expression, he was doing the same thing to me.
“You are so gorgeous,” he murmured.
His shower wasn’t necessarily designed for two people, but we made it work. Washing up definitely qualified as foreplay, as I melted thoroughly, running soapy hands all over his body. What started out playful turned serious pretty fast. Rob didn’t even let me wash my hair before he turned off the water.
“Are we done?”
“In here, we are.”
“I suspect you of having nefarious intentions.”
“I intend to make love to you.”
“Cosigned.”
We kissed down the hall, still shower-wet, dripping on the floors. The air was cold on my back, but with Rob plastered to my front, I didn’t care. His hands were everywhere. More kissing, endless shivers of it, his mouth, my tongue, his teeth, his hands on my ass, hauling me closer, so his cock burned against my belly.
Rob tumbled me to the bed, tangling our legs together. With a wicked grin, he rolled me beneath him. “So many things I could do to you...”
“Make a list,” I suggested, breathless.
I expected him to get down to it, but he went back to kissing, caressing my sides in long, lazy strokes. There was a new dimension to his touch, an intimacy I’d never known with anyone else. Fear prickled to life, white noise interrupting the pleasure. Before long, Rob noticed, and he rolled to the side, a frown knitting his brows together.
“You’re not into it?”
This was going to sound so stupid. “No, well, yes, but—”
“What?”
“It felt different.”
“Not as good?” I groaned, covering my face with both hands. He pulled them away and pressed a kiss to each palm. “Talk to me.”
There was no way I could explain the difference between fucking and making love out loud, but I knew when I felt it. Yet if I brought up the L word, he might feel pressured to say it, and I wasn’t ready to say it back. My breath came in a nervous shudder as a shiver went through me, not the good kind, the about-to-melt-down-for-no-reason kind. Sometimes I hated my brain and would happily trade it for a beard of bees.
“I can’t,” I managed.
“Did I do something wrong? Hurt you? Has someone...hurt you?” By the clench of Rob’s jaw, if the answer was yes, he’d put on pants and go kill that somebody.
“No, no and no.” I scooted toward him and put my face in his chest, willing myself to calm down before this escalated.
“Come here, beautiful.” The gentleness of his voice, paired with his strong arms, nearly unraveled me. “Just tell me what you want. If the answer is this, that’s fine. We can lay here.”
For a few minutes, I matched my breathing to his, and the worry scaled back. The fact that Rob cared enough about me to change how he touched me? That was a good thing. We didn’t have to be in a hurry to define this or slap a label on it. Rob was silent and patient, just running his hands through my hair like that was all he wanted in the world.
“Okay, I’m better now. But seriously, how does this not piss you off?”
Like most of my questions, he took this one seriously. Most guys would be like, It does, I still want to bang you. Rob eventually said in a thoughtful tone, “I don’t understand why you freeze up, but...that’s not new. I’m used to not getting things. So you just have to tell me what to do, and if you can’t, then I’ll wait until you can.”