Page 36 of Stealing Home

Biting my lip, I wait for him to speak. I can feel the sparks between us. It makes me wonder why I’m struggling against this connection.

“What do you want, Low?” When he uses my nickname in that low, rumbling tone, shivers break out across my whole body.

I don’t know how to ask for what I want. At some point over the years I lost my voice. My opinions didn’t matter to Nando, and after a while I stopped expressing them. Scott seems to insist on making me express myself. I don’t know what to do with his attention.

His thumb strokes back and forth across the edge of my jaw. “Tell me,” he urges.

“I want you to kiss me,” I whisper.

He doesn’t hesitate, and his lips meet mine gently.

It’s not enough. I turn around and move up until I’m straddling his lap. This time I place my hands on his face and kiss him. One of Scott’s hands fists in my hair while the other grabs my hip and pulls me down onto his lap.

He’s hard, and I start to rock against him. The friction makes me gasp into his mouth. He moves forward with me still cradled in his arms until I’m underneath him. Every hard inch presses me deeper into the cushions, and he continues to grind against me. It’s building and building, and then he lifts his weight off of me.

“This is not slow,” he pants, and I stare up at him confused.

For the first time in years, I want. I want so much I might die if I don’t get more of him. He kisses me sweetly. “I don’t want just one night with you. Please tell me you want more than that. I know you just left your husband, but you don’t strike me as the type of person to walk away unless you’ve been miserable for a long time. Long enough you know you can never go back to when it was good. If I’m wrong, please tell me, because I don’t want to be your rebound.”

I run my hands up his arms that are trembling with the effort not to drop his weight down on top of me. “You’re not a rebound,” I say quietly.

He drops his weight back on top of me, and kisses me again. Slower this time. He’s savoring me, and I don’t feel the need to rush anymore. The need hasn’t passed, but I can wait for him.

After the credits roll, he looks at me. “Do you want me to go?”

I decide to serve him a dose of his own medicine. “Do you want to go?”

He cocks his head and smirks. “To be honest my roommates were talking about throwing a party.”

“Oh,” I say and scramble out from under him. “So you probably want to go hang out with them.”

The clock shows me it’s only nine at night, still early even by my standards. Of course he wants to go hang out with his friends. “You should. I remember what college was like. You deserve this time to experience all of that.”

His smirk morphs into a frown. “I have, and that scene isn’t me. I’m not missing a damn thing being here with you, but I know I’d be missing the hell out of you if I went back.”

“Staying the night is far from taking it slow,” I respond.

“Not all night, but at least for another movie.”

I hand him the remote. “Okay, hotshot, but this time you choose.”

* * *

Monday morningI meet Wren down in the garage. It doesn’t take long for her to walk me through the opening procedures I’ve missed since I’d been coming in later in the mornings to keep Nando from finding out I got a new job.

“Okay, before we get started on payroll, did I see a certain hot, young pitcher climbing the stairs to your place on Sunday night?”

I wince. I’d totally forgot they’d be monitoring the security alerts in case my ex made an appearance. “Yeah, Scott came by. We had dinner and watched a movie.”

She wiggles her eyebrows. “Are you going to see him again?”

“He wants to get together tonight, but I’m in a freak out spiral because my husband will get served divorce papers today.”

“Maybe it would be good not to be alone then. He could be a good distraction,” she urges.

I chew my lip. “I think he wants to be more than a distraction. I don’t want to use him.”

“Use who?” Griffin grumbles from the doorway.

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