Page 57 of Bound

A quiet curse. “Dammit, kitty cat.”

“Dammit because you know I’m right? Because you know they’d do the same exact thing if they were in your situation? Because you were scared and maybe still are scared? Because I sure as hell am scared that all these big feelings I have for you might end up not being enough, might leave us both wounded and alone.”

“Claire—”

“But I’m done with letting that rule me. I spent years on the sidelines of my life before I found the courage to try, and you know what?”

A long blip of quiet before his arms tighten and his head lifts, and thank God, but the humor is back in his eyes. “What?”

“Smitty gives great advice.”

“Heaven help me,” he mutters then exhales. “Lay it on me.”

“Practice makes perfect.”

Laughter rumbles up and out of his chest, filling the air between us. “Fuck me,” he says. “But the asshole is right.”

“Smitty’s not an ass?—”

But before I can finish that thought, he’s yanking me even closer, bending, and…

Showing me that practicing making out with a hot hockey player is fun as hell.

“Get a room, yeah?” someone bellows from behind us, making me jump and us break apart.

Jackson sighs and settles his forehead against mine, mouth curved up at the edges. “Speaking of rooms,” he says. “Come on, kitty cat. Let’s get you back to yours.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Jackson

I lean in and press my mouth to hers, resisting the urge to deepen the kiss, but only just barely.

It would be so easy to nudge that door open, to talk my way inside.

But this is her first date ever.

She only had her first kiss yesterday.

Slow. Patient.

Make her see.

But…

She’sthe one opening my eyes, dropping fucking truth bombs on me that have me reconsidering everything I’ve held as truth over the last decade.

“Good night, kitty cat.”

“Night,” she murmurs but she doesn’t step inside her room and close the door as I expect, as I need her to do to keep my fraying self-control intact.

“What?” I ask when she studies me.

“Why do you call me that?”

I sidle a little closer, intending to steal one more kiss before nudging her inside and slamming the door closed behind her…with me on this side and her safely in her room. “Hmm?”

“Why do you call me kitty cat?”

---