Impossible by Laurel Curtis Page B

notice.”
    His eyebrows raised in question, he waited for me to respond, but there was an underlying pain on his face, like he was truly afraid of the answer.
    “We saw Debbie last night. A discussion was had. End of story.”
    Shaking his head slightly, he focused on the part of this conversation that he was comfortable with. “Two nights in a row of you bein’ shoved down Debbie’s throat? I bet she loved that.”
    “I’ve had people look at me with kinder faces.”
    That caught his attention, so he turned to me and gave me his complete focus as he asked, “She say anything to you?”
    His face was hard, not toward me, but as though he would be exceptionally upset if she had given me real problems.
    I shook my head and waved him off with my hand. “No, she just looked at me. Really, it wasn’t a big deal at all.”
    He grinned again, the tension fully sliding out of his body, and murmured, “You scared her two nights ago. Funny.”
    Tipping my head slightly to the side, I questioned, “How is that funny?”
    “I’ve been trying to get Debbie off of my case for a while now, but one statement from you, and she’s resigned herself to just givin’ looks. I owe you one, Banty baby.”
    I rolled my eyes at the same time that I fake-grumbled, “Fine. I’ll give you this one, but don’t expect me to become your personal ‘Get Rid of Skanks I’ve Slept With That I’m Ready To Scrape Off’ service.”
    With a shrug of one shoulder, he immediately responded, “Okay.”
    With skepticism tainting my face, I asked, “Okay?”
    Collecting his features into a serious arrangement, he muttered breezily, “Yeah, if you’re gonna do it, we’ll have to come up with a better name for it. ‘Get Rid of Skanks I’ve Slept With That I’m Ready To Scrape Off’ is way too long.”
    Wait. “That’s not what I meant.”
    “Maybe we’ll just call you ‘The Exterminator’. Getting rid of unwanted pests and all.”
    My signature scowl returned, and I retorted, “These ‘pests’ were invited.”
    “Yeah, well, that’s why you’re there. Invitation rescinded.” He reached out and grabbed my shirt, yanking it right out of my hands on the word “rescinded”.
    I held out my hand, silently demanding my shirt back. “You sound an awful lot like an asshole right now.”
    “Yeah. But you like it, right?”
    Shitdizzle. I did. I liked it. So help me, but he was one of those endearing assholes. The ones you loved to hate and hated to love, all at the same time.
    When I didn’t say anything negative in response to his question, his gaze turned serious, heated even. Being that I was currently topless, I noticed it even more.
    As a shiver ran down my spine, he gathered my shirt in his hands, working it so that he had the neck hole opened, and then held it out to indicate he wanted to put it on me.
    Ducking my head, I inclined in his direction and gave into his whim of dressing me, slowly putting my arms back through the sleeves when my head cleared the crew neck collar.
    He stayed in my space, only a few inches away, and whispered softly, “If I didn’t put that on you, this would have gone further than you’re ready for.”
    “What would have gone-”
    Before I could finish my question, he leaned forward and touched his lips to mine. The moment his soft lips met mine, I felt the electricity run through my entire body. It seemed appropriate since this was the equivalent of shocking me back to life after years of no sexual activity whatsoever, but it was still a surprise.
    My eyes fell closed, and the world around me faded completely away. The way he moved his lips over mine, with so much reverence that I thought I might collapse, made me tingle and sway gently. I was completely in the fog he created when his tongue moved smoothly from his mouth to mine, the tip just barely caressing the tip of mine before retreating. My hands moved automatically to the tan, smooth skin of his back, and my fingertips flexed at the