Page 40 of The Rules of Dating a Younger Man

“Were you up late doing anything in particular?” He flashed me a mischievous grin.

“Why is that any of your business?”

He lowered his voice. “Because we started it, and I want to know how it finished without me.”

“It finished great.”

“Damn, what I wouldn’t have given to be a fly on the wall for that. Or better, a bedbug with a front-row seat.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

He winked. “I forgot… I’m not supposed to say bedbugs around you.”

Taking a sip of my coffee, I couldn’t believe it. Is that cinnamon? A hint of caramel? It was precisely the way I liked it. Glancing down at the details printed on the side of the cup, I noticed he’d indeed figured out my usual order.

“How did you know how I take my coffee? I never told you.”

Brayden tapped the side of his head. “I’m just smart like that.”

“No way. Oat milk with two sugars, one pump of caramel, and a dash of cinnamon? That’s way too specific for you to have gotten lucky.”

“You brought a coffee with you to the house one time. I memorized what was on the sticker on the side, so I’d know what you like.”

Wow.

For some reason, my thoughts went to my husband, God rest his soul. Richard was always too busy with work to bother with such minute details. He couldn’t have told you how I took my coffee if his life depended on it. I never faulted him for that. I understood. It just wasn’t in him. Now, though, it felt foreign to have such attention placed on me.

“That’s not the only thing I know about you,” Brayden went on to say.

“Oh really?” I blinked. “Do tell.”

“Blue is your favorite color. You’ve worn it approximately four times. That’s how I know.”

He’s right.

“One of your eyes is slightly darker than the other. It’s subtle, but I notice it because I’m constantly staring into them.”

It’s getting hotter in here.

He continued, “You write with your left hand but eat with your right. You lick the corner of your lips when you’re nervous.” He smiled. “Should I go on?”

Please don’t, because I don’t know how to stop liking you.

***

After work that afternoon, Brayden accompanied me back to the hotel. We somehow found ourselves in an empty elevator again. Before I could even contemplate whether we’d end up in the same predicament as last time, Brayden had backed me up against the wall.

“You kissed me first last night. So…an eye for an eye,” he muttered over my lips before taking my mouth with his.

Ohhhhhhh. My legs felt weak as I melted into him. He wrapped his hands around my face and kissed me harder than I’d ever been kissed. So commanding. So freaking perfect. When the doors opened, he pushed back immediately. Thankfully, this time there was no one standing there who knew us.

We started down the hall, and I knew that kiss had been way too short. My mouth burned with unsatisfied desire. I needed more. My nipples were hard, and my body was in flames as I walked along with jelly legs.

He brushed against me. “Come to my room so I can finish what I started.”

I wanted to. Or at least every inch of my body did. But I knew what would happen.

“I can’t,” I said.

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