Page 59 of Until I Have You

I needed something else to be hungry for.

Theo sates that.

It’s temporary.I’m sure it is.Because he’s handsome and he’s off-fucking-limits, that’s for sure.That in combination with the curtain he’s pulled to show me what goes on in his head…his sensitivities and love for his daughter, his yearning for something bigger for himself, well.

That’s a recipe for a complete sexual disaster.At least when you look at all the facts separate from the chemistry that’s been building between us.

Theo opens the door for me.“After you.”

Does he have to be so polite?

The bar is really on the floor if politeness is making me horny, but with that accent too?Christ almighty.

“Thank you.”I step inside and take in the apartment.

Unlike my father’s penthouse, which has been updated and rearranged throughout the years, it is an old co-op with all the original features.Crown molding, built-ins, parquet floors.Not large, but charming.

It even smells old, like a library of ancient books.

It’s a version of heaven.

“May I take your coat?”

“Oh, yes, thank you.”I hurry to unbutton it.

Theo slides his fingers into the collar of my jacket and pulls it off me, exposing my bare arms to the air.

Goosebumps spring up on my skin, and they don’t go unnoticed by Theo.He brushes the back of his hand down my arm.“Is it too cold in here?”

I grab the spot he’s just touched.Now I’m burning.“No, not too cold.”

I turn to face him, keeping my hand on my arm, approaching him with a docile sort of posture.

Theo places my coat on the hall tree, then his own, avoiding eye contact with me.“Well, why don’t we have a drink, and we can…discuss.”

“Discuss what?”I smile.

“Abigail, I might be a man, but I am an old man, and my days of impulse and recklessness are long behind me.Everything comes with terms now.”He gestures through the door behind me.“Please.”

I chuckle, following his hand into a sitting room decorated in furniture you’d see in the parlor of a historical romance heroine.“You’re notold.”

“Relative to my present company, I’d beg to differ.”

I shoot him a look over my shoulder.“If I can’t mention you-know-who, you can’t mention you’re old.Those are the start of my terms.”

Theo smiles, his cheeks turning round.He nods.“I’ll be amenable to that.”He strides over to the sideboard.“Do you drink whisky straight?”

I am my father’s daughter.“Yes.”

“A woman after my own heart.”

I begin to salivate when he slides off his suit jacket and swings it over the back of one of the sofas.I am only human, after all.

“Speaking of…” He’s interrupted by the glugging of a decanter of whisky as he pours.“When did that…happen?”

I step further into the room, unsure where I should go.“When did I become interested in you?”

“I won’t presumethatmuch.”

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