Page 64 of The Girl He Loves

“Right here,” he says and backs me up against the wall. With his hands on my hips, he dips his head to brush a kiss across my mouth. Three times. I melt into him.

I mumble against his lips. “What are you doing?”

“Saying hello.” When he presses his pelvis to mine, I nearly lose my mind with desire. I forget about everything that bogged my mind down today and let myself get lost in pleasure.

As he braces himself with one hand against the wall, Dax moves the other hand up my shirt, and his lips are on my collar bone kissing a path toward my breast. I run a hand up his leg and under his athletic shorts and grasp him, stroking softly once. He sucks in a breath. My move fans the flames. He’s hard. I’m wet. His desire for me as strong as mine for him. And our need to quench this thirst carries both of us away. Our tempo increases. Dax’s hand slides from under my shirt to up my skirt where he toys with the seam of my panties. I tremble. He groans. Tyler’s chair scrapes across the floor in the kitchen.

The sound brings me to my senses, and I push Dax away. He hobbles back, trying to balance on one leg, his hand over his man parts covering his erection.

“Jeez, that got out of hand fast,” he says with a grin, leaning against the wall for support.

I sink to the floor because my legs are weak and my hands are shaking and I still want him.

Tyler comes into the room. “Can I start cutting the thingies?”

“Yes,” Dax says.

“No,” I say.

Dax gives me the eye and glances down to his hands. His way of saying he needs Tyler to leave the room right away.

“Okay,” I say to them both but look at Tyler. “You can cut them, but first you need to set everything up. Get out a cutting board and the tortillas. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Tyler smiles and zips off back to the kitchen.

Dax blows out a breath and gestures for me to follow him into the living room, then grabs his crutches. “Grab your phone,” he calls over his shoulder.

In the living room, he’s plopped on the couch. I sit on the coffee table and face him, afraid to be next to him or I might jump his bones. My body is not ready to stop what we started.

He takes my phone and adds an app. Once it’s loaded, he shows me where all the cameras are and how to check each one remotely. He shows me how to activate or deactivate the alarm, all from my phone. “You can do it from the website on your computer, too.”

I smile. “Cool. Did it take long to install this?”

Dax shakes his head. “No, and I got a few extra cameras thrown in because the technician is a fan. You’ll never have to worry about someone coming in here again without you knowing. You having this gives me peace of mind.” He shows me his phone. “I’m going to delete the app from my phone. Only you should have it. And you should change your password. I only had it to show you.”

The gesture is sweet. He’s telling me he’s not going to invade my privacy the way Justin did. But I can’t help but read more into it. That he’s leaving. That he won’t have this connection with us. Ugh, I don’t know. Maybe I’m being stupid. Yet, it’s how I feel.

My phone pings, and I check my email. “Look.” I show him the email. “The lab got the package, and the result will be available in twenty-four hours.”

“Wow, that was fast.”

I nod. “Yeah, I guess Justin paid for the fastest delivery possible. He really wants to be done with us.”

“He’s an idiot.” Dax squeezes my knee.

Tyler yells from the kitchen, “Okay, I’m ready.”

Dax and I grin at each other. I stand as Dax’s phone rings. He glances at the screen, and a slight smile plays on his lips. He takes his earbuds from his pocket and places them in his ears. As he’s doing so, he says, “Hand me a crutch, will ya? I’m going to take this outside.” Then he answers the call. I hand him a crutch and watch him hobble out to the patio. Not looking back once.

In the kitchen, I place my phone on the table next to Dax’s computer and go help Tyler.

“Okay,” I say. “We need something round.” I take a plastic cup from the cabinet. “We can use this. Watch.” I flip the cup upside down and go around it with a butter knife. “If the knife doesn’t cut all the way, you hand it to me and I’ll finish the job.” Because handing him a butter knife is scary enough, I won't go with anything sharper.

Standing on a kitchen step-stool so he can reach easier, Tyler gets right to work, a grin on his face. “This is cool.”

I’m glad simple pleasures work for him.

My phone chimes a message, and I walk to the table to check it. Only it’s not my phone but Dax’s computer. I don’t mean to read it, even though I do have snooping tendencies. But there’s the message, hanging out in the corner of the computer screen.

It’s from his dad and it reads: Excited to have you as part of the team. I can have our realtor look for a place for you while she looks for us. Yes?

And it’s like college all over again. Dax is leaving.

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