“Uh-huh.” Danika rolled her eyes and cut the long loaf of French bread in half lengthwise, holding it down gingerly with her casted hand.
Thankfully, Sam was too distracted by Mac and Sara to notice.
“Mac did not just watch Sara leave the room. Not the way you mean,” Sam insisted.
“The way
you
mean, right? You’re the one that explained it the other night,” she reminded him, sliding a stick of butter from the box on the counter and unwrapping it.
Sam just frowned in response.
“I’ll bet he ogled her before she left too,” she said with a grin.
“No way.”
“I’m sure he’s not thinking about her now, either,” Danika added, spreading butter over the surface of the bread.
Sam scowled at her, then at the door Mac had gone through. “He’s like ten years older than her.”
“So?”
“He’s known her since she was twelve.”
138
Just Like That
“So?”
“He’s more like a big brother than…”
“Than what?” Danika tried to fake a look of innocence.
She didn’t think it worked.
“Never mind,” Sam muttered.
“I think that there’s more there than—”
“No, there isn’t.”
“It’s very possible that Mac wants to—”
“Shut up, Danika.”
She turned to stare at him. “Did you just tell me to shut up?”
“Yes. I don’t want to talk about my sister being anything other than a little sister. To
anyone
.” She couldn’t believe he’d told her to shut up. If he could be childish, so could she. She scooped up a square of butter on the end of her knife and flicked it at him, hitting the front of his shirt.
He looked down at the butter, then up at her. “Danika.” She concentrated on the bread in front of her. “Yeah?”
“Did you just throw butter on me?”
“Yep.”
“Because I told you to shut up?’
“Yep.”
“And if I told you to shut up again?”
“I’d do it again.”
“And what if I did this?”
The next thing she knew, the butter was smeared down the side of her face from ear to chin.
She stared up at him, mouth open. “I can’t believe you just did that!” She grabbed the rest of the stick and smashed it against his cheek.
“You’re in for it now,” he said, quietly. He reached for another stick of butter.
She was in huge trouble. She had nowhere to go. Not that Sam wasn’t bigger and faster than her anyway. Still, she found herself fighting the urge to laugh. He hadn’t even wiped his face, but stood there looking at her, butter on his cheek, nose and half his mouth.
“You can run, but you can’t hide,” he growled.
She started to laugh, and backed away faster. “You can’t throw butter. It will get all over everything and the make the floor slippery.”
He clearly didn’t care. He advanced on her, a gleam in his eye.
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Erin Nicholas
Danika tried ducking, grabbing a dishtowel and holding it up when Sam continued toward her. She tossed an entire, still-wrapped stick at him, but it bounced of his chest and Sam stepped on it and kept coming with a devious smile on his face.
She backed up until her back was against the wall.
“Now you’re in trouble.”
“You started it,” she protested, around her giggles.
“You buttered me first.”
“It was better than throwing the other thing I had close.”
“Bread?”
“The knife.”
He was one step away from her now and her back was to the wall. She knew she couldn’t escape.
“There’s only one way out of this,” he told her, holding the butter up.
“I’m not scared of butter, Sam.” She tried to look nonchalant.
“No, but you’re scared of letting me win.”
“You sure about that?”
“Oh, I’m sure that you like to be in control, which means having the last word and never saying quit.” She tipped her head and thought about that. How did he know that? “How can you be so sure?”
“A woman who learns all the things you’ve learned so she doesn’t have to ask for help is a woman who fights to the death.”
“It’s butter,” she pointed out. “Harmless.”
“But when I drop this butter down the back of your shirt, it means I win.”
“Your face is covered!” she exclaimed, unable to contain her smile. “How will we be able to tell who won?”
He moved in until the toes of his shoes touched hers. “You and I will know. That’s all that matters. I had the upper hand. You had to surrender.”
She struggled to breathe deep as he watched. She didn’t know how he knew that it would bug her to give up even a little power, but he was right. “I’ll never surrender.”
“Oh, you will,” he vowed, lifting a hand to cup her cheek.
It was clear to her that he was no longer talking about the butter fight.
“In fact,” he said huskily, running his thumb along her jaw, “you’ll beg in the end.” She lifted a hand to his face, smoothing his hair back. “I’ll be the one begging, huh?”
“Oh, honey, I’m not above begging,” he said. “But I’ll insist on your submission.” She saw Kevin come into the kitchen behind Sam. Sam, however, was so intent on her that he didn’t notice his friend’s arrival. Kevin gave her a wink and she concentrated on not smiling as he pointed to the final unused stick of butter that remained on the counter next to the bread.
140
Just Like That
“Submission?”
“Complete. Absolute. Unwavering,” Sam said, close enough that she could smell the butter on his skin.
Then her mouth slowly curled into a cunning smile. “Talk about the wrong word choice,” she murmured.
“Wh…”
A moment later he clearly felt the greasy, mushy sensation of something being dropped down the back of his shirt and sliding along his back.
“Submit to that, my friend.” Kevin patted him on the back, smashing the butter and spreading it out under his shirt.
“Kevin. Of all the people I thought I could trust…” Sam started.
“What is going on in here?”
Jessica stood in the doorway to the kitchen staring at her brother and her hostess both with butter on their faces.
“Isn’t that just like Sam?” Ben asked from behind her. “Bring other people in to do the floor, someone else to do the cooking, while he gets slippery with a hot girl.”
“Hot?” Jessica asked, looking up at him.
“You know what I mean,” he said, smiling at her, unconcerned.
“Yeah, you mean, ‘she’s cute but nothing like you, babe’.” Jessica slipped her arm around his waist and pulled him close, giving Danika a wink when their eyes met.
“I was just— What happened in here?” Sara came up short in the doorway. “Is that
butter
?” She’d noticed the smashed stick on the floor.
“Sam,” Jessica said simply.
Sara found her brother and nodded with a smile. “Oh.”
Danika frowned. Oh? What did that mean? As if it was a given that Sam would be making a mess, or goofing off, or whatever it was they thought he was doing.
Sam turned and grabbed a paper towel from her roll and wiped his face, but said nothing to his sisters.
She stepped around him to face Jessica, Sara and Ben. Yes, they were Sam’s family, but she didn’t like that they were assuming Sam was messing around instead of working when clearly the guys had come in and taken over. And she didn’t like that Sam was accepting their unfair criticism. “What was that supposed to mean?” Danika asked.
Kevin carefully stepped around Sam and behind Danika, obviously wanting to be out of the line of fire.
Jessica frowned. “What?”
“
I
started the fight, not Sam,” Danika told her.
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Erin Nicholas
Jessica looked from her to Sam, then back and shrugged. “I just assumed…”
“Exactly.” Danika could feel that her cheeks were pink, flushed from the play and now from irritation.
“Danika, don’t,” Sam said through gritted teeth. He tried grabbing her wrist, but she shook him off.
“Why did you assume it was Sam?”
Sam took a huge step, putting him in front of Danika, facing her. “Don’t.”
“No.” She scowled at him. She pushed around him and faced Jessica again. “You don’t give him enough credit. You expect the worst, so you see the worst.”
“Sam’s a great guy,” Jessica said, drawing herself up tall. “I love him very much.” Sam put his hands around Danika’s upper arms and pulled her closer to him, her back against his chest. “Don’t do this. I’m okay,” he said against her hair.
“I know that,” she said. “This is for
them.
”
“
No,
” he said firmly. “It’s fine…”
“He
is
a great guy who cares so much about you that he doesn’t want to let you down,” she said to Jessica. “So he never
lets
you see him take things seriously.” Jessica folded her arms. “I—”
“Never mind.”
Sam cut Jessica off. He turned Danika abruptly, lifted her and covered her mouth with his. He wrapped one arm around her waist, pinning her against him, the other held her head where he wanted it. He kissed her for several long seconds. In front of everyone. Long and deep.
When he lifted his head, he pinned her with a serious gaze. “Don’t say anything else.”
“But, I—”
He kissed her again. When he pulled back, he frowned at her. “Not another word.” She opened her mouth. Then shut it, pressed her lips together and nodded.
He started walking forward, with her still against him, her feet swinging a few inches from the floor.
“See you all later.”
When they’d gone halfway across the living room—the only room currently unoccupied—Danika whispered, “Can I talk now?”
“Are you going to challenge either of my sisters to a duel?” She rested her forehead against his shoulder, loving the feel of him carrying her even while she acknowledged that it wasn’t very liberated of her. “No.”
“Are you going to defend my honor to anyone else?”
She chuckled. “No.”
“Then yes, you can talk.” He let her slide down his body until her feet touched the carpet.
Wow, she wouldn’t mind doing that again.
“Okay. What are you doing?”
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Just Like That
“Taking you someplace where I can kiss you the way I
really
want to.”
“I thought you were doing that to keep me from upsetting your sister.” She wiggled against him just because it felt good.
He groaned softly and that made her feel even better.
143
Chapter Nine
Sam knew that he should let her think that the kiss had only been to occupy her mouth so she would quit talking. He should let them all think that. But he was still reeling from hearing Danika defend him. To Jessica, no less. It made him want to kiss her even more.
He looked down at her. “I don’t remember the last time someone stuck up for me.” She frowned. “Why not? You’re a good guy. You have lots of friends.”
“I do,” he agreed. “But I’m also good at not letting things bug me, so they never feel the need to defend me.”
“It didn’t bug you that they thought you messed up the kitchen?”
“No,” he said honestly.
“But it should.”
He looked at her, trying to figure out what was behind those three words. “Why?”
“You’re okay with them assuming the worst of you because it’s easier. But that’s crap, Sam. You’re worth more than that.”
He had no idea what to say to her. Again. That had happened a lot in the few days he’d known her.
Among his many talents was the ability to talk to any woman. Yes, a lot of it was B.S. but he was never at a loss for words.
Just then he felt a chunk of butter slide down his back to the waistband of his jeans. He shuddered involuntarily and must have grimaced.
“What?” she asked.
“I, um…need to de-butter myself.” It also beautifully changed the subject.
She looked up at him and a slow, sexy smile stretched her lips. “I’ll help.” He didn’t know what she had planned exactly, but he would do anything for that smile.
She put her good hand on the bottom of his T-shirt and swiftly pulled it up, baring his stomach. He lifted his arms, helping to slide it the rest of the way off even as he said, “We can’t do this right here.”
“Why not?”
“Someone might come out here.”
“Yeah, they might.”
Just Like That
He groaned as she tossed his shirt to one side and ran her hands over his chest. “We’ll need water to get the butter off.” Though he was imagining all kinds of wonderful reasons that skin, butter, he and Danika could go together.
“There’s water in the bathroom. And a lock on the door,” she suggested.
The look in her eyes made him groan again. She wanted this as much as he did. The realization was enough to make his already aching erection pulse in anticipation.
He should either kick everyone out or take her to his apartment. He’d imagined her in his bed often enough. But something in him rebelled at the idea. And he knew what it was.
He’d taken a lot of women to his apartment and his bed. Danika was different. He wanted sex with her to be different. Untainted. Special.
Lord, he had it bad.
She took his hand and headed for the bathroom. They had to pass Dooley, who was finishing up the trim work around the new piece of linoleum. He looked up.
“If no one knocks on that door for the next thirty minutes, at least, I’ll buy you cheeseburgers every Friday for a month.” Sam pointed at the bathroom door as he spoke.
“Fries too?”
“Absolutely.”
“You got it.” Dooley bent his head back over his work, as if the request was so routine it barely registered.
“Throw in milkshakes too. It will be worth it,” Danika whispered as they slipped the rest of the way down the hall undetected.
She smiled up at him and he didn’t care about who else was in the duplex, the melted butter on his back, or that he was going to miss out on the steaks. He wanted her. Now. Against the wall.