His Girl Next Door: The Army Ranger's Return / New York's Finest Rebel / The Girl from Honeysuckle Farm

“More wine?”

Jessica internally shrugged off her fears and eliminated all thoughts of Ryan’s earlier words.

This was about having fun. Enjoying herself with a handsome soldier who would be back with his unit before the year was out.

“Please,” she said recklessly, holding up her glass.

Ryan tipped the bottle of red and filled her glass to the halfway mark.

She took a long, slow sip, and leaned across the table toward him. “Tell me all about the guys you serve with. I want to know what it’ll be like for you going back to them.”

Jessica twirled her fingers around the long stem of her glass as Ryan sat back, his body relaxed against the chair.

“I don’t know how exciting a story it is,” he protested.

She shook her head, laughing as he grimaced. “You’re not getting off that easily, and we’ve got all night.”

“So gelato, huh?”

Ryan laughed. He seemed to do a lot of that around her.

“Believe me, when you’re hot and sticky in the desert, thinking about gelato is like torture.”

“And now you finally get to indulge.”

He passed her the waffle cone before reaching back for his own. They were only a few blocks from where the car was parked, close enough to walk.

“Good?”

“Mmmmm.”

Jessica was too busy swirling her tongue around the Italian ice cream to answer. She just kept making the noise in her throat to indicate how tasty it was.

Ryan gulped and tried to focus on his own dessert. But dragging his eyes from her mouth, from her tongue and the way her eyes were dancing as she watched what she was eating …

She looked up.

Whoops. Caught out like a dog trying to sneak a leg of lamb from the kitchen bench.

He watched in fascination as this time her throat worked slowly, swallowing, running her tongue over her lips then letting her hand drop lower as if she’d forgotten the gelato completely.

Ryan wanted to look away. He tried, he really did. But he found his body moving instead, toward her. The look in her eyes tormented and taunted him, pulled him into her web. He had to fight not to drop his cone to the ground.

Ryan could hear his own breathing, and he could hear hers, too. It was as if there was nothing else in the world around them, like they were the only two people on the street, in this moment.

He raised his arm, high enough to reach out and touch her face, and wiped the tiniest bit of ice cream from Jessica’s mouth. Maybe he had imagined it, maybe he’d gently wiped away nothing. Maybe he just wanted an excuse to get closer to her, to be pulled toward her like a magnet to metal.

His arm ached, he felt a dull throb as he held it up, but he didn’t care. He’d felt worse, and she was worth it. Touching her was worth any lick of pain, no matter how bad.

“Thanks,” she whispered, eyes flickering low then higher again.

Ryan stood there. He gave her the chance to walk away, to move back so their bodies weren’t so close. When she didn’t he closed in, stepped forward and leaned toward her. She was tall but not as tall as him, the top of her head just higher than his chin.

“Jess,” he murmured.

She nodded.

He pushed her arm down slightly, so she had to move her cone away from her body. It allowed him to get closer. Their chests were close, hovering, but not pressed together.

Ryan dipped his head, waited in case she wanted to move away. But she didn’t.

Jessica raised her chin, inclined it up toward him.

He took a deep breath, looked at her mouth, couldn’t pull his eyes away, then dropped his mouth to hers. Gently, ever so gently, he brushed his lips across Jessica’s.

She tasted sweet, intoxicating. Gelato mixed with the warmth of a woman who wasn’t sure, who wasn’t used to being kissed in the street on a first date.

Ryan couldn’t pull away, couldn’t force his feet back. Instead he pressed their bodies that little bit closer, and touched his lips to hers again, more firmly this time.

Jessica couldn’t breathe. She was finding it hard enough staying upright, let alone making her lungs work.

His lips fell on hers again, brushing, teasing, tasting. She couldn’t help the tiny moan that escaped her mouth. Ryan’s lips were soft yet strong, gentle yet firm, and it was turning her body into jelly.

He slowly pulled his lips away, raised his head high enough to look into her eyes.

“Hey,” he whispered.

“Hey,” she managed to reply.

They stood like that, bodies pressed together, neither ready to back away.

Ryan cleared his throat.

“I think your gelato’s dripping down my arm.”

“Oh!” Jessica jumped back and worked to clean up her cone, to stop the drips.

“Napkin?”

She nodded.

He walked back over to the ice cream vendor and retrieved a handful of paper napkins.

They wiped at their cones and started to eat them again, standing like a pair of teenagers who had no idea what to say to one another after their first kiss.

Jessica’s body was singing, talking to her like a record on repeat. Telling her how good that had felt.

She’d just been kissed like she’d never been kissed before in her life. Her body was tingling, her skin on fire, alive. And her lips were tender from the thorough way his lips had danced over hers.