Lily turned around to find Nick right behind her. He backed away, resuming a polite distance, but the air suddenly felt thick with his nearness. Lily looked up into his eyes.
“You’re welcome,” he said, returning her gaze. He was looking at her closely, tilting his head slightly. He let out a soft laugh and shook his head, and the sound caused Lily’s stomach to seize.
“We haven’t met before, have we?” he asked.
He felt a connection too? It both relieved and excited Lily at the same time.
“I don’t think so,” she said. But I feel like we have, she wanted to add. She didn’t, though, because she was worried her eagerness might scare him off. So it didn’t make much sense when she then said, “I had a dream about you.”
Nick’s eyes sparkled with curiosity. He stepped closer, almost imperceptibly. “What happened in the dream?”
“I asked you for sugar.”
Was she really admitting this to him? His closeness was clouding her ability to think straight.
“It had to be a dream because I don’t own sugar or hardly anything to cook with.” He smiled, slow and devastating. “I had a dream about you too.”
Lily blinked. “You did?” She stepped closer as well, suddenly feeling seductive and bold, and so unlike herself. “What was I doing?”
He laughed softly to himself again, like he had a secret that he wished he could share with her.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
She watched the hollow of his throat pulsate with each heartbeat. Her eyes traveled up to the small scar above his top lip, where the skin was slightly raised. She wanted to touch him there, to know where the scar had come from. She wanted to know what it would feel like to kiss him, this man who felt so familiar, yet whom she hardly knew. From the way he was looking at her, hungry and mesmerized, it was clear that he felt the same way. Her whole body instantly heated. She was dizzy, staring into Nick’s face. And he still wasn’t looking away. If anything, he’d moved closer again. He braced his arms on either side of Lily, and she pressed her lower back into the kitchen counter and bit her lip. She wondered how things had escalated between them so quickly. Then she chose to stop wondering and just go with it.
Gently, Nick brushed a stray curl behind her ear and she closed her eyes. His lips hovered above hers and she felt his cool breath fan across her mouth.
“Is it crazy that I want to kiss you?” he asked, his voice low and husky, just like in her daydream.
“No,” she whispered. And in a flash of bravado that surprised her, Lily closed the gap between them and pressed her lips to his.
The kiss was soft and tentative at first, then Nick pulled her closer, one hand cradling the side of her face and the other on her hip as he brought her flush against him.
Fireworks burst in her mind as his tongue slid into her mouth. What was she doing? She didn’t even know his last name.
Oh well, who cared! Because Fine as Hell Neighbor was kissing her with his fine-ass lips, and he was going to need a mop from the way she was straight up melting in his embrace.
She looped her arms around Nick’s neck and angled her head to deepen the kiss. Then she heard the faint sound of Tomcat’s meow, and the next thing she knew, Nick yelped and nearly jumped out of his skin. He pulled away from Lily and stared down at Tomcat, wide-eyed and wary, his chest heaving. Tomcat, who’d made his usual silent entrance, meowed and bumped his head against Lily’s leg. With a curious gaze, he looked up at Nick.
“Fuck, I forgot about your cat,” Nick whispered.
Lily was still in a daze. She gently brought her fingers to her tender bottom lip, which Nick had just lightly bit before Tomcat interrupted them. He finally pulled his attention away from Tomcat to look at Lily again, and his intent gaze made her feel like she might burst into flames. It took her brain a moment to string words together.
“Are—are you afraid of cats?” she asked, bending down and running a hand over Tomcat’s back, attempting to regain her composure.
Nick nodded, studying Tomcat. After a beat, he said, “That looks like another cat I knew.”
“I guess all calicos look similar.” She stood and scooped Tomcat into her arms. “But Tomcat is special. Only one in three thousand calicos are born male. You don’t have to be afraid of him. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
Nick visibly froze. “His name is Tomcat?”
“Yep,” Lily said. Tomcat pushed away, wriggling to get out of her embrace. She let him go and he leaped to the floor. As Lily poured food into Tomcat’s bowl, she noticed how Nick attempted to put as much space between himself and her cat as possible. Most fears people had about cats were unfounded. She wondered if he’d had a bad experience with a cat as a child.