“I only keep the ones I like. I have a rule that if I don’t read a book within a year of buying it, I donate it.”
She laughed. “If I had that rule, I wouldn’t have any books left.” Placing the book in her hand back onto the shelf, she continued looking before taking out another one. “Lady Chatterley’s Lover, huh? I have read this one.”
Gavin felt a blush on his cheeks, and then wanted to blush for blushing. “It’s a good book,” he said in a hoarse voice.
Kat shrugged. “I don’t know. I wasn’t much for the guy—what’s his name? Mellors?—mansplaining all over the place. Telling Connie how she should orgasm and everything.”
Gavin coughed on the wine he was drinking, and Kat good-naturedly hit him on the back. He waved her away, and she just laughed. “That’s not exactly how I read the book,” he replied, “but why am I not surprised by you saying something like that?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She put her hands on her hips, although the smile on her face belied her irritation.
“Just that you’re so…” He struggled to find the right word. “Forthright. You aren’t afraid to say what you mean.”
“You mean I’m too opinionated and should keep it to myself.”
He shook his head. “The opposite. I wish more people were like you. Hell, I wish I were more like you. I think too much about what other people think about me.”
She didn’t say anything, simply sipping her wine thoughtfully. He gazed at her profile, taking in the slope of her nose, her full lips, the dimples in her cheeks. Her skin shimmered in the low light, and he remembered touching her that night in the parking lot. How she’d been soft as silk and tasted like strawberries.
“I think that’s the first time someone’s said they wanted to be like me,” she admitted. “Most of my life, people have told me that I shouldn’t be so opinionated. Flamboyant. Talkative. I never to get to just be a woman who has things to say and maybe isn’t quiet about it.” She shrugged, flicking her gaze to him. “But now I’m just talking about nothing.”
“Nothing you could say would mean nothing to me,” he admitted.
She smiled. “Even though that made no sense, I’m going to say thank you anyway.”
He bowed, which just made her laugh. Had he ever heard her laugh before? It was a sound he could listen to all day, every day.
He didn’t know if was the quiet of the apartment, or how she looked standing next to him, or if it was just a quirk of fate that he could not control, but as she turned toward him, he said in a voice he barely recognized, “I’m going to kiss you.”
Her eyes widened. She wasn’t laughing now, for which he was patently grateful. But to his surprise, she wrapped her arms around his neck and said, “Oh thank God,” before she ended up kissing him.
It was like a match to a wick. They inflamed each other, and Gavin pulled her close so that their bodies aligned, her softness to his hardness. She was taller than Teagan was, and he had to admit, it was nice not to get a crick in his neck from kissing. All thoughts of his ex-wife fluttered away, though, when she slicked her tongue inside his mouth. He groaned, his hand sliding down her back to cup her ass. He felt her inhalation of breath.
The kiss lengthened, became something neither of them expected. It was sweet and desperate, all tongues and teeth, soft moans and groans filling the space between them. He wanted to touch her everywhere, and his hands didn’t stay in one spot for long. Her ass, her back, her shoulders, her arms. He wanted to strip her bare and revel in her body.
Kat was no passive partner. She kissed him with equal fervor, and when he felt her hands sliding up under his shirt, he practically jumped out of his skin with want. Yes, touch me, feel me, he thought frantically. Gliding her fingers up his abdomen, she circled his belly button before going higher. She flicked one of his flat nipples, and for that, he nipped at her plush bottom lip.
He’d grown so hard it was almost painful. He wished she’d delve lower, take him in hand, and stroke his cock until he came. As if she read his mind, her other hand teased around the waistband of his jeans.
“Jesus, Kat,” he groaned against her mouth.
She just toyed with him, only dancing her fingertips across his skin. She dipped a finger near the button of his jeans, and he almost lost all of his self-control.
“I’d make a joke about you being happy to see me, but that seems kind of unfair right now,” she whispered.
He grasped that roving hand and pressed it against his hard cock. She gasped, and he leaned in to kiss her as she fondled him through his jeans.
About to beg her to put her bare hand on him, he stroked the line of her neck when he heard a door creak open. He barely registered the sound, but Kat came to her senses more quickly than he did. She jumped away from him just as Emma came into the living room.
The three of them stared at each other in silence. Gavin tried to control his breathing and turned away so his arousal wouldn’t be visible, and he could see Kat trying to put herself together as well. Emma simply blinked at them before walking into the kitchen. Gavin heard her turn on the faucet before she walked back to her room, water glass in hand.
He let out a breath. Kat snorted, and he glared at her.
“I think that’s the sign for me to go.” She smoothed her clothes, although she looked barely wrinkled. Whereas Gavin felt like he’d been sent through the wringer twenty times over.
“Let me walk you home,” he offered.
“No, it’s fine. I need the fresh
