Rock Me All Night by Katherine Garbera Page B

deliberately sat close to the door to keep some space between them.
    â€œMen did it for a long time. It’s our turn.” Though she didn’t really have a scorecard that she kept in the battle of the sexes. She suspected Jack didn’t either.
    â€œSo will you be cruising that mile for men? Is that why Ty moved you?”
    â€œPartly. I also challenged my listeners to help me find Mr. Right.”
    â€œWhat am I, chopped liver?”
    She knew he meant it lightly but she couldn’t treat it or him that way. She did want him.
    â€œNot chopped liver. I can’t decide what you are, Jack.”
    He dropped his arm around her shoulder and tugged her closer to him, pulling her into the shelter of his body. She knew that it made no sense, but the last of her chill faded when she was tucked up against him. This was her fantasy moment. She wanted to curl up against him. Let his warmth wrap around her body while his scent and his voice wrapped around her other senses.
    â€œYou look scared. I’m not going to pounce.” He reached out and twirled a strand of her hair aroundhis finger. Men always did that. Her curly ringlets seemed a temptation few could resist.
    â€œI’m not afraid.” Because the time for hedging had passed, and she knew without a doubt that she wasn’t leaving tonight until they’d made a decision to go forward and pursue the attraction between them.
    â€œThen what is it?” he asked. He tugged a few more strands into his hand so that her hair was wrapped around his fingers.
    â€œPromise not to laugh?” she asked. Why did it matter? Her brother Duke always said she worried too much what others thought. But then, he was a six-foot-four linebacker and she wasn’t.
    â€œYes,” he said, his voice dropping an octave. “I’d never laugh at you, Lauren.”
    Jack made her feel good. She put her soup mug on the floorboard. She wrapped her arms around her waist and looked up at him. “I just have this image in my head of me and you.”
    â€œNaked?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows. “Because that doesn’t make me want to laugh, sweetheart. That makes me want to howl hot damn. ”
    She shook her head. It would be so easy to let herself get distracted. To keep this thing between them light and fun. But then in six months she’d be alone again. Don’t forget that.
    â€œNo. Though I like that one, too. This one is…well…”
    He sighed. His free arm snaked around her waistand he lifted her onto his lap. And she was where she wanted to be. The hand in her hair pushed her head down onto his shoulder. And dammit, his shoulder felt as if it were made to cushion her head. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply.
    â€œTell me, Lauren. Trust me with your secrets. I’ll keep them safe.”
    She wrapped her one arm around his waist and closed her eyes. “This is it. My image was this. You holding me close.”
    â€œAnything else?”
    â€œWell…”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI love your voice. In my dream you were reading to me.”
    â€œWhat was I reading?”
    â€œShakespeare sonnets.”
    â€œWoman, do I look like a sonnet kind of guy?”
    â€œIt was a fantasy,” she said, wriggling to get off his lap.
    He held her still, tipping her chin up with his free hand and then kissing her deeply, thoroughly. Making this fantasy more real than she’d ever imagined it could be.
    He lifted his head after a long moment, and Lauren saw something in his eyes that spoke to her heart.
    â€œI was never a huge fan of Shakespeare, but I do know a few lines from Marlowe’s ‘Helen of Troy.’”
    She leaned her head on his shoulder and listenedto his voice. It rumbled in his chest. This was just about perfect. The evening, the voice. She felt as if she’d found that secret thing she’d been searching for.
    â€œWas this the face that launched a thousand