She laughed lightly and then whispered sexily, “these lips are yours alone.”

“Not helping,” I groaned.

She chuckled and then sighed, “You think we need to give this more time? Is that why you stopped …”

I nodded, and gave her my own soft, sweet kiss. I rested my hands on her hips and said quietly, “Yes, but not much more time, Harley. I didn’t mean to lead you on, by starting things just now. I just couldn’t help myself, being around you all day …”

She shook her head, and snaked her arms around my neck.

“You’re exactly the type my dad warned me against,” she teased me back, with a light laugh. “Heart-stopping looks, tease me unremittingly, and then leave me hanging, unable to commit…”

I squeezed her waist with both hands that were resting lightly on her hips. “Not fair,”

I growled. “You know that that’s not what’s happening here…”

She smiled at me and then gave me a soft, tender kiss, licking my lower lip first before moving her warm lips over mine. She pulled back before I could deepen the kiss.

“I know, baby,” she said softly. “You’re not purposely leaving me hanging, and you are wholeheartedly committed to this. If anything, you’ve been the most considerate lover I’ve ever had.”

“Not yet your lover,” I corrected her with a smile. Just a technicality, at this point.

“No,” she agreed slowly with a smirk. She cocked her head to one side, “Remember that story you told me earlier, about how your grandmother used to read poems to you, and made you memorize some of them with her?”

I wrinkled my eyebrows, half-smiling but puzzled about what she was alluding to. And then, incongruously, I yawned.

“Uh oh,” she said with a light laugh. “Someone’s still fighting her jetlag?”

I squeezed my eyes and shook my head quickly from side-to-side, endeavoring to wake myself up.

“I had a little bit more to drink than I could handle in my condition, I think,” I said ruefully.

She stepped back and extended her arm forward slightly, palms open. I smiled and handed her the key fob.

“Looks like you’re driving us home again, beautiful,” I said.

“Think that’s why I had coffee, straight, while you savored that cognac,” she answered, laughing a bit.