Page 86 of Catch and Release

Carp.

Catfish.

A few minutes later, they were pulling into a hotel parking lot and leaving their car at the valet. He helped Grams get out of the car and offered her his arm.

“Charlie’s my date tonight,” Grams said, as if it were obvious. “Go help Willa out of the car.”

“Grams, you asked me to come as your date to this every year. I don’t understa?—”

“Well, my new friend, Charlie, is my date this year.”

As if on cue, Charlie came up next to Grams and offered her arm. The two of them marched inside with purpose, leaving Shawn to watch them dumbfounded.

“Up to her matchmaking again, I see,” Willa said. “I thought she promised you she’d stop doing that?”

Shawn turned around and took her in again. Now that nobody was watching, he did nothing to hold back the pure lust and desire from his gaze, and he walked slowly up to Willa, cradling a cheek in his hand. His thumb brushed her cheek, and she closed her eyes and leaned into it.

“You wearing panties tonight?” he asked, knowing he was torturing himself by asking. He’d already looked at her ass in that dress long enough to know the odds were slim that she had anything on underneath.

Her eyes opened slowly and she shook her head, a cat-like grin tugging at her lips. He groaned.

“What are you trying to do to me?”

“Nothing,” Willa said, grabbing the hand that was on her cheek and tugging it to her side so she could clasp it as they walked inside together. “This dress is just too tight for panties.”

Shawn shook his head. “I’m convinced you do this to fuck with me.”

“You think I really think about you that much?” Willa asked lightly.

“I hope you do,” Shawn responded before he could stop himself.

She stopped in her tracks and looked up at him, eyes wide.

“Welcome to the Bingo Ball!” a piercing voice rung out, interrupting their conversation.

Shawn quickly looked at the source of the voice and found Amos. He nodded and they signed in before descending stairs into a long hallway that led to a ballroom. Willa’s hand rested delicately on his arm, and that one touch was enough to make him feel like he might combust.

As they passed a deserted hallway, Shawn tugged Willa with him down it and toward a door that went outside.

“What are you doing, Shawn?” Willa asked. “The ballroom’s back that way.”

“We’re making a quick detour,” he said, walking her to where the doors led outside to a back alley.

“A quick detour for what?” she asked as he opened the door and led her outside, pushing her back against the brick wall.

“For this,” he said against her lips before crushing his mouth against hers.

A small part of his idiotic brain knew he was being reckless and stupid. The chances that Grams would see them out here were slim, but somebody else could possibly come along. Still, he knew that this part of the hotel was rarely visited, and given that there was no parking back here and only a couple of trash cans, he figured they were safe.

Probably.

Really, though, most of his brain was focused on her lips. Her tongue. Her tight little body underneath his. The way her fingers trailed over his chest and then up to his jawline. He reached underneath her dress—the slit provided him easy access, and palmed her pussy.

“Just like I thought,” he said, burying his face in her neck and breathing in her scent before nipping her neck. “Fucking drenched.”

She whimpered as he teased her with his fingers, lightly touching her folds and her clit, pushing his forefinger inside her just barely before tugging it out again.

“Shawn, please.”

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