Chapter Four

      Oh. My. God.

      He was kissing her.

      And this wasn’t a casual brush of the lips. It was immediate and full mouth-on-mouth contact. Not in a way that could be considered aggressive or pushy, just direct and sure, and there was something incredibly sexy about his self-confidence.

      In the space of a heartbeat, those masterful lips took Rachel from casually intrigued to completely aroused. About three seconds later, she decided that if levels of expertise could be assessed like in the martial arts, he was a black-belt grand master of kissing. Two seconds after that, she was incapable of forming any other coherent thoughts.

      Kissing Andrew Garrett was simply...bliss.

      He lifted a hand to cup the nape of her neck, his thumb gently brushing over the racing pulse point below her jaw. His other arm curled around her back, drawing her closer. She went willingly, eagerly. Her lips parted beneath the pressure of his, and when his tongue slipped between them, she felt the surge of heat through her veins, igniting flames of desire.

      And still he continued to kiss her, savoring the taste and texture of her mouth without pressing for anything more. His lips nibbled, his tongue teased and everything inside of her quivered with want, need. He wanted her, too—there was no mistaking the desire she tasted in his kiss—but it was tempered by patience, balanced by caution.

      Because she had her own reasons for being careful, she appreciated his restraint. But she was still disappointed when he finally lifted his mouth from hers.

      She was twenty-seven years old. She’d had boyfriends, relationships, heartbreaks. She’d shared her body and her bed with other men, but never had any other man kissed her with the focused intensity Andrew demonstrated. Even now, he kept his arm around her, as if he wasn’t quite ready to let her go.

      “I’ve been thinking about that since Valentine’s Day,” he told her.

      “Oh. Um.” The power of conversation had completely deserted her along with the ability to form coherent thoughts.

      He smiled. “Yeah, I know the feeling.”

      “I wasn’t— I’m not—” She blew out a breath. “I’m on a dating hiatus.”

      “You mentioned that.”

      “And we’re supposed to be going to the basketball game.”

      “That’s why I’m here.”

      “I’m a really big Wolfpack fan.”

      “Okay,” he agreed.

      “But now I’m thinking...that I might want to not see the game even more.”

      The glint of humor in his green eyes faded; the arm around her waist tightened. “Rachel.”

      “I’m not usually the impulsive type, and I don’t even really know you. Or maybe it’s just that sixteen months is a really long time to go without having sex. Except that I didn’t even think about it for most of that time, and all you did was kiss me, but I’m definitely thinking about it now.”

      “I’m thinking about it, too,” he admitted.

      “But we had a deal,” she reminded him.

      “We did?”

      She nodded. “You’re buying the popcorn.”

      “Popcorn. Right.” He finally released her and took a step back. “Then I guess we should be going.”

      She felt a little bit steadier as they waited for the elevator. Although there was no one else in the hall, she was confident that she had enough self-restraint to refrain from tearing his clothes off in a public place. And when the doors of the elevator closed behind them, she was sure the moment of insanity had passed.

      The blast of cold air that greeted her when they exited the building quickly cooled her heated skin. In fact, she’d only taken a few steps before she was wishing that she’d grabbed a hat and gloves. Instead, she stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jacket and tucked her chin deeper into the collar to combat the unseasonably cold weather. When her heel caught a patch of ice, she would have fallen onto her butt if Andrew hadn’t managed to catch her elbow and hold her up.

      “I was right,” he murmured.

      “About what?”

      “Your boots are more stylish than practical.”

      “I wear the practical ones every day,” she told him. “I like to dress up a little when I go out.”

      “Did I mention how nice you look?”

      “Not in so many words, but I thought the kiss might have been an indicator.”

      “I’m usually pretty good with words, but it’s been a long time since I’ve done the dating thing,” he said apologetically, as he walked around to the passenger door of his car.

      She had no complaints about his communication skills, but she didn’t dare say so in case he interpreted her response as an invitation to kiss her again. Not that she would object if he did so, she just wasn’t sure she could handle another one of his kisses right now.

      “I should have said that you look nice—beautiful, actually.”

      It wasn’t the smoothest compliment she’d ever received, but she could tell that he meant it, and despite the fact that her teeth were close to chattering, she felt her cheeks heat.

      He opened the door for her.

      She lowered herself onto the leather seat and reached for the belt. Andrew slid in behind the steering wheel and started the car, immediately turning up the temperature. Before he had pulled out of the parking lot, she could feel the warm air on her frigid feet.

      As the heat permeated the vehicle and thawed her extremities, she became aware of other things: the wide-palmed hands wrapped around the steering wheel, the breadth of his shoulders beneath his leather jacket, the strong line of his jaw darkened with just the slightest hint of stubble and the clean, masculine scent of him that filled her nostrils every time she drew a breath. She definitely wasn’t feeling cold anymore, not with all of the heat churning inside of her.

      She unfastened the top two buttons of her coat, and he automatically reached for the button to adjust the climate control. She mentally added courteous to his already-impressive list of attributes that included handsome, charming, loyal—and a fabulous kisser.

      In fact, her head was still reeling from that kiss. Ordinarily such a bold move would have put her off. But it was hard to be annoyed when every long-dormant nerve ending in her body was standing at attention and begging for more.

      “So how did you become a Wolfpack fan?” he asked her.

      “My brother played college basketball.”

      “At NC State?”

      She nodded. “Did you ever play?”

      “No, my game was football. At Duke.”

      She might have guessed football, because of those shoulders. But he was tall enough that basketball wouldn’t have been out of the question. The school, however, surprised her. “Both Holly and I went to Duke.”

      He smiled. “I think we’ve already established that I would