Page 10 of A Lucky Shot

Josh looked at her appraisingly. “I think it’s time to test the waters.”

“Test the … is that a movie?”

He closed the space between them, sending a wave of heat washing over her body. Standing on the last step put them almost at eye level, and he dropped his gaze to her mouth, his lips only inches from hers.

“What if I said I’ve wanted to kiss you since the moment I laid eyes on you?”

Oh. Test the waters. Waters she hadn’t swum in a long time. The thrill winding its way up her spine bloomed into a smile, and she chanced looping her thumbs into his belt loops to draw him closer. “I’d say what took you so long.”

“Had to finish arguing with you first,” he said, eyelids half closing, and slid his hand up the nape of her neck.

His grip tightened in her hair, gently tugging her head back to open her lips, and he flicked his tongue along hers, the sharp spice of cinnamon sparking where they met. It was wild, breath taking. It wasn’t nearly enough. She stood on her tiptoes, arching her body flush against him as she sucked his lower lip, and a short moan escaped the back of his throat.

The hand that wasn’t cupping the back of her neck meandered to her hip and squeezed, a restrained urging of his pelvis into hers. A warm fuzziness stole over her as she pulled back to gauge his reaction.

He looked hungry, sly. He pulled her back, forcefully this time, and sparks flared at every point of contact. She slid her hands up his biceps, their solid warmth flexing under her fingers.

It had been years since she’d hooked up with someone she’d just met. She didn’t want to bail on her friends—anymore than she already had—but Libby would be the first one to cheer her on, and Jill knew Cass’s luck with men had been less than stellar.

And dang it, she was thirty-two freaking years old and trudging through the longest dry spell of her adult life. She could have a one-night stand with a hot guy in another city if she wanted to. If the pulse beating at several key points in her body was any indication, she wanted to.

No reason to hold back. They’d never see each other again. She could make him feel good for a couple of hours and let him make her feel good. Then she’d head home tomorrow with no strings attached and no expectations. Perfect.

Waters tested.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I don’t think I want to watch movies anymore.”

“Where’s your hotel?” he demanded, his voice snapping the surface of her skin to rapt attention.

For the first time, Cass wished she wasn’t having a fun-times girls’ sleepover weekend. “My friends will be there. Not up for an audience,” she replied, fingers threading his hair. The thick waves slid through her fingers, and she wondered if she’d have her hands there if he was the kind of man to go down on her. “Your place?”

He appeared to think for a moment. “Okay, we’ll have the place to ourselves.”

“Roommate?”

“Something like that.” He sucked on her lower lip, rooting in his jeans pocket for his phone with one hand and the other still bound up in her hair.

Oh, she loved a man who could multitask. “What if they come home?”

“I have walls,” he said. “You can make all the noise you want, beautiful.”

Cass could count on one hand the number of times she’d made out in the back of an Uber, but that hand was busy roaming under his shirt. Every inch of him was warm and smooth under her fingertips, and she could not wait to get his shirt off and lick the firmest abs she’d touched in a decade.

“I don’t want to sound like a cliché, but I don’t usually do this,” she breathed.

He pulled his teeth back from where he’d been nibbling the skin below her ear. “Then I am a lucky man.”

The Uber dropped them at the steps of a sleek Yaletown building. Not that she noticed much of the lobby or elevator. He dragged her to his front door and into a blast of warm air as they stumbled into his empty condo.

Cass shed her jacket. “Why’s it so hot in here?”

“More comfortable when I take your clothes off.”

Ah. Well, who better than a player to break her dry spell with? She followed him straight through the tiny living area into his bedroom. Spare and clean, just like him. A botanical mural painted in stylized negative decorated the dark walls. Blackout curtains pooled on the hardwood floor and the faint scent of sandalwood surrounded her. The glass lamp beside his bed threw off an amber glow, making him look like he was dipped in gold. He shucked his jacket and dove his hands back into her hair, tilting her face up to kiss her again.

“Can I get you anything?”

It would have sounded sincere if he hadn’t been pinning her to the wall with his hard-on rocking against her stomach.

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