Carved in Stone Read Online Free Page B

now slightly shaking hands under her chin to secure the chin strap. She tilted her chin up for greater access and his gaze went directly to her unpainted mouth.
    “Just do it,” Jessica told him, her smiling gaze taunting him.
    “What?” Will asked, still sliding straps to adjust each side of the helmet.
    “Kiss me and get it over with,” Jessica told him. “I’m as curious as you are about it.”
    “How do you know I’m curious?” Will demanded, trying to decide if he liked her aggressiveness or not. She was awfully forward, almost too honest. He hadn’t even decided if he was going to kiss her yet, even if he did want to.
    “Maybe I’m not as curious as you think,” Will chastised, frowning and trying to convince himself her suggestion was too much too soon. He dropped his hands from the straps and took one step back for breathing room.
    “ Chicken ,” Jessica taunted, laughing as Will all but scowled at her.
    “You flirt this hard with all the guys you date?” Will asked, seriously frowning at her as he slipped on his jacket.
    “Only the ones I really, really want to kiss in return,” Jessica said, crossing her arms and levelly meeting his gaze.
    “Good to know,” Will told her, narrowing his gaze at her and wondering just how many guys that had been, not that he cared. He looked at Jessica’s mouth longingly one last time and pulled his own helmet over his head.
    “We’re wasting daylight,” he said to her, using a phrase his dad had used often in his youth to hurry him up. He turned and stepped over the bike. “You coming or not?”
    Disappointed he hadn’t taken her up on her dare, Jessica almost replied with a scathing comment, but in the end she decided to play nice. She wanted the bike ride. It had been twenty years and she was genuinely looking forward to it. So she bit her tongue and dropped the subject.
    She walked to the bike and swung herself onto the seat behind him. “Do you want me to hang on to you or the bike?” she asked, sliding her long legs intimately beside his hips and along his thighs, putting her crotch practically against his back. Yoga kept a woman very flexible, and as a fairly large woman, Jessica appreciated being loose in her hips. With a little effort and the right motivation, she could have flattened herself against his back but figured she had already worried him enough.
    It was all Will could do not to scoot backward into the heat of her. With Jessica wrapped around him, Will suddenly found himself fighting to breath normally. He started the bike before he answered, hoping the idle would cover the huskiness of his voice.
    His level of interest in the woman was way too advanced for a first date, Will thought. Hell, it was way too advanced for him period. He wasn’t sure yet what he even felt about dating, much less what he felt about Jessica Daniels, her long legs, or the heat at his back. It was appealing, but damn—he needed time to think about it.
    “I haven’t had a passenger on a bike with me since my sons were in high school. I guess just put your arms around me and hang on,” Will said finally, breathing a sigh when she kept her hands above his belt line. If she let them drop, he would wreck them before they got off her street.
    Doing as she was told, and feeling the firmness of his chest under her hands, Jessica thought the women of this town needed to have their libidos checked for letting this man run around alone. It was all she could do to keep her hands off the rest of him.
    Not that Will seemed to be having the same problem, which was a damn shame. If she’d been younger that disappointment might have ruined her day, but at her age it was not the end of the world.
    And as much as she hated to admit it, she’d been down this road with other men before. There could be only one reason, Jessica concluded, for Will not kissing her when she could clearly see he wanted to. It was the same reason he likely had for not dating up to now. Everett