Page 19 of Against the Clock

“I think it’s going to—”

Fat, cold raindrops plop against my upturned face and I exhale, relishing the sensation.

“I love the rain.” I hadn’t even realized I was going to speak until the words came out of my mouth. Lightning flashes, forking across the sky.

“Beautiful,” he says, and at first, I think he’s talking about the way the world looks when it rains. Blurred from all the moisture in the air, clean and crisp and refreshed when it stops.

When I glance back at him, he’s staring at me intently. Seriously.

“We should head back to the city,” I say, but the words are drowned out by a raucous peal of thunder.

And it begins raining in earnest, the friendly, chubby drops turning into a relentless, drenching downpour.

I start to gather up the papers and sandwich remnants, but he beats me to it.

“Let’s get inside,” he yells, loud enough I can hear him over the sudden storm. I nod my agreement, kicking my heels off and grabbing them with one hand. My jeans are soaked, heavy with moisture, and my blouse sticks to me like a second skin.

Lightning, jagged and vicious, snarls against the clouds and I stare at it, some of the primal terror ancient mankind must have felt when faced with a storm like this turning my lizard brain to mush.

“Come on,” Daniel urges, grabbing my hand and pulling me from a standstill into a run behind him.

I’ve always laughed at inappropriate times. It’s a character flaw. And now, with the sky raging around us, thunder so loud it rattles the teeth in my head, laughter flows out of me again. He glances back at me, an incredulous expression on his face, then grins at me again, his whole face lit up with it, brighter than the lightning.

My feet slap against the wet pavestones, and Daniel’s sure hand on mine is the only thing that keeps me from stumbling.

Finally, his house looms in front of us and he quickly unlocks the door, ushering me inside first.

It smells like him.

That expensive cologne lingers in the house, the sandalwood and masculine musk, and I close my eyes, savoring it.

The door closes behind me.

“You okay?” he asks.

I turn back to face him, feeling alive. Feeling present in this moment, so rooted to my body that I’m near giddy with it.

“Your suit,” I finally say. We’re both leaving puddles all around, a river of water marking where we entered. “It’s going to be ruined.”

Unthinking, I tug at his coat, trying to help him out of it. “We should lay it flat to dry so it’s not totally messed up.”

He lets me shuck his coat, standing stock still, like he’s afraid to move.

It isn’t until he’s standing in front of me, his dress shirt plastered to his ripped body, that I realize I’ve started to undress him. My hands are on his chest and I stare up at him, heat rushing across my cheeks.

“Kelsey,” he says, leaning down. “I don’t care about the suit.” His warm breath traces across my lips and I arch my back, needing him with a ferocity I didn’t know was in me.

For a moment, we stand like that, our breath mingling, his lips a fraction of an inch from mine, and possibilities unravel between us.

And when I meet him in the middle, my lips colliding against his, gentle, exploratory, soft…

I know there’s no going back.

CHAPTER 9

DANIEL

Fuck taking it slow.

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