Delores Fossen - Truly, Madly, Briefly

She chuckled softly. “Weird things like this always happen to me.”

That wasn’t hard to believe. Bobbie definitely had a Calamity Jane, I Love Lucy thing going on. Still, this had to be a first. “You’ve caught your navel ring on a man’s jeans before?”

“No, but once when I was a teenager, I got my braces caught on some deep-pile carpeting. Don’t ask for details.” She put the flashlight aside and flattened her hand on his chest. “Lean back just a little, and let me see if I can do something about this. Hmmm.”

Bobbie stared down at the bodily connection.

Aidan was still aroused and hoped like the devil she wouldn’t notice. Of course, only blindness, paralysis or virginal naiveté could have prevented her from noticing something like that.

“It’s the Austrian crystal on the earring that’s actually caught,” she continued. “I think I can—”

When she didn’t finish her sentence, Aidan glanced at her. Except it didn’t stay a glance. Their gazes connected—and turned into a full-fledged stare.

“You wear boxers,” she mumbled. But then her eyes widened to the size of turkey platters. “Ohmigosh. I didn’t mean to look. Or to say that out loud.”

He knew the feeling.

“I mean, it’s no big deal,” she babbled. “It’s just there’s a poll making the rounds. Most people in town thought you were into briefs.”

“There’s a poll about my choice of underwear?” Aidan asked.

She nodded and swallowed rather noisily. “Last I heard, most people figured you for a Naughty Guy.”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh.” She blushed. “That’s one of Boxers or Briefs’ products. Item 451A. A classy traditional-cut faux silk brief in nontraditional colors. It has an ad slogan that I’d rather not mention if you don’t mind.”

Aidan couldn’t help it. He had to smile. So did Bobbie, eventually.

Man, did she ever smile.

This was not good. Bobbie looked centerfold-sexy with that smile and her hair tumbling around her face. Her mouth was slightly damp, too.

Mercy, he couldn’t be thinking about kissing her. He just couldn’t be. This Twango-whatever idea, the one he didn’t want, was all for show. A faux relationship with faux kisses and faux feelings.

Too bad the heat stirring in his body didn’t feel so frickin’ faux.

It felt like a blazing inferno.

Aidan shook his head, hoping to clear it. It didn’t work. Nothing cleared, especially the sudden, urgent ache he had brewing below the waist.

Ah, heck.

He didn’t want that part of his body to get in on this. His mouth was already thinking things that were way out of line, but those thoughts were G-rated compared to all the stupid ideas that brainless part of him could suggest.

“Uh, Bobbie.” He’d just tell her to slap him, to make it a good hard one so it’d knock some sense into him.

“Yes?”

But she didn’t ask it like a question. It sounded more like an invitation. Of course, that was the opinion of that brainless part of him below the waist. Aidan could pretty much discount any interpretation it came up with.

He felt his head lower. Tried like the devil to stop it. Couldn’t. His eyes were already trained on her mouth. On her sweet, warm mouth.

Aidan couldn’t remember ever wanting a mouth this much. It was stupid to want it. Wrong. And reckless. Heck, after his earlier experience with her, it might even be hazardous to his health.

His head still dipped lower.

He decided to hope for a miracle because that was the only thing that stood a chance of stopping him now.

Apparently, he was about to kiss Bobbie Fay Callahan. And he was about a hundred percent certain that there’d be nothing faux about it.

The Ace: Catalog Item 522. For the man who loves to soar into action. Fly high with this sturdy thong with patent-pending “ejection-seat” breakaway sides. Guaranteed no sagging. Available in Stealth Black, Fighter Jet Silver and Ruby Rocket Red.

SHE WAS ABOUT to kiss Aidan O’Shea. Bobbie was too fuzzy-headed to think of why she shouldn’t be doing that. At the moment, it seemed right. It felt right, too. Of course, with him this close, making love with him on the kitchen table suddenly seemed right.

“Uh,” she got out.

She should stop this. This would complicate things that were already too complicated. However, with his mouth only a fraction of an inch away, all Bobbie could manage was another “Uh.”

“Uh,” he repeated.

So, they were both past the point of even simple coherent speech. It didn’t matter. She didn’t want to talk anyway. She wanted him to kiss her until her eyelashes curled to tight little coils.

His eyelids lowered. Bobbie’s automatically did the same. She angled her head. Mercy. This would be good. She just knew it. A man who looked like Aidan could certainly send a woman jetting straight to the stars.

“Say, what’s going on here?” someone asked.

The soaring and jetting came to an abrupt halt, and instead Bobbie did a crash-and-burn. Mainly because it wasn’t soaring-inducer, Aidan, who was doing the asking. Even in her passion-induced stupor, Bobbie figured that out.

Their visitor was her best friend, Crystal, and her presence was both a blessing and a curse. Bobbie apparently wouldn’t get that eyelash-curling kiss after all, but freedom from a navel-ring attachment was only moments away.

The other downside to this situation was that unless Bobbie could convince her friend that absolutely nothing carnal was going on, then for the next six years or so, Crystal would torment her with questions about this incident.

Aidan tried to step back from her, but Bobbie caught onto his shoulders before he could do that. No sense injuring herself at this point.

“Crystal,” Bobbie said as calmly as she could. “What are you doing here?”

“I closed the salon early and thought I’d drop by and snag some leftovers for dinner. The front door was unlocked so I let myself in.”

As usual. Crystal’s self-invitations didn’t normally bother Bobbie. In fact, she usually welcomed them. But then, she’d never been caught in a near lip-lock with a cute deputy either. “You scared the life out of us.”

Crystal shook her head. “Mmmm. You sure that’s all I did? Because I think I might have interrupted something here.”

But Crystal dismissed it with the flippant wave of her hand. “Hey, what am I saying? This is you—Bobbie Callahan. Senior citizens without access to Viagra see more action than you do.” She picked an apple out of a wicker basket, levered herself onto the counter and started to munch. “So, what’s really going on?”

“Nothing, really. My navel ring got caught on his jeans,” Bobbie explained. “We’re having a little trouble untangling ourselves.”

Crystal stopped in mid-bite. “How’d that happen?”

“You don’t want to know,” Aidan mumbled.

Bobbie quietly agreed. “Crystal, could you just get us loose and stop asking all these questions?”

Crystal shook her head again, sending the heap of tiny tangerine-colored curls bouncing. “The idea of putting my hand on the front of his pants doesn’t appeal to me. Well, maybe it does a little, because he is on the hot side.” And with a chunk of apple still in her mouth, she winked and grinned at him. “But I wouldn’t feel right doing that since he’s sorta yours. I mean, you did win him in the lottery and all. That’d be like cheating if—”

“Crystal!” Bobbie said through clenched teeth. “Get us loose now.”

“All right. All right. Don’t go all crazy on me. I’ll get your big sharp chef’s knife from the drawer—”

“No!” Aidan yelled. “No scissors or knives. It’s time to put an end to this.” He reached between them and used his thumbnail to saw the threads off the navel ring. After a few seconds, he had them free.