Page 131 of Pretty Little Thing

“Oh, you heard that?” she squeaks.

I let out a laugh. “Yes. I did.”

She looks down. “Well, I just…” She pokes her inner cheek with her tongue and taps her nail against the bottom of her water glass. “I mean…”

I shake my head. Tense and speechless Nora Payne…

“I love you, too,” I say.

Nora stares at her hands for so long, I think that maybe she didn’t hear it. Finally, her head turns up and she looks across the table at me.

“You do?” she asks.

I nod. “Yes.”

She doesn’t move. Even her eyes stay fixed in their sockets.

“Breathe,”I remind her.

She inhales deep. Her cheeks flush and her lips twitch as she pushes the air out again. She bites her lip and nods over and over until she gets up the nerve to look at me again with those big, glistening eyes.

“I love you,” she says again.

I extend my hand across the table and lay it open with my palm up. She takes it and I hold it until her fingers stop shaking.

“So, what do normal couples usually do after saying I love you?” I ask her.

She laughs. “Well, according to my expertise, the general consensus is that the man carries his woman down to their hotel room and he fucks her brains out.”

We lock eyes and her lips curl upward into a sweet, sinful smile.

Yes, Ms. Payne.

I raise a hand. “Check, please.”

Nora glances around after a few seconds of silence. “I don’t think they heard you,” she says, amused.

I whisper across the table. “Yeah, that seemed weird when I saw it in the movies. What waiter is always around to hear that? They’ve got shit to do.”

She laughs and grabs her clutch. “Actually, we only got water so far, so I think we can just leave.”

“All right.”

We stand up quickly and I grab her hand as we beeline across the restaurant back to the elevator. She taps the call button repeatedly while we dodge the curious eyes of the host staff.

Finally, the doors open and we pounce onto the empty elevator. The doors barely slide closed again before my urges take over and I pull her body against mine.

We kiss, and this time, it feels deeper than before. Cosmically charged and delicately real. She feels almost softer, smoother, but no less tough-as-nails.

I pin her to the wall and she instantly hops up to wrap her legs around my waist. I hold her there, feeling the heat on her skin as my hands travel beneath her dress. I touch even more skin, along with the heat and natural wetness between her legs.

“Nora…”

“Yes?” she replies with a moan on her breath.

“Where are your panties?”

She chuckles. “Not wearing any.”

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