Page 57 of The Grinder

In the kitchen, he found the coffeemaker—a huge, twelve-pot monstrosity—on the counter, located the filters in the cabinet above it and the coffee in the freezer.

He’d finished his first cup by the time he heard the click of heels on the stairs.

He automatically looked toward the sound—and nearly swallowed his tongue.

Holy fuck, he was in so much goddamn trouble.

Her skirt was black and thin and reached her knees, her shirt was gray and tight and unbuttoned just enough that he could imagine he saw cleavage and her heels were black and red.

She’d pulled her hair into some twist on the back of her head that made his fingers itch to release it and she was wearing pearls. A double string that lay over her breasts and made him imagine how she’d look wearing only those damn pearls.

Jesus. He’d finally managed to will his erection away but now he was pretty sure he’d spend the rest of the day thinking about those pearls and getting a hard-on.

“You know, I never understood the whole librarian fixation.” He grinned as she gave him a bemused look and headed for the coffee. “I totally get it now.”

She rolled her eyes at him but he caught her smiling before she put the mug to her mouth.

And groaned.

“Oh. My. God. Where did you learn to make coffee this good?” Her eyes widened as she took another sip. “My sister’s always tastes like sludge and is so damn strong, I feel like I’m on speed all day. Mine never tastes this good. I think I’m going to keep you locked in my house as my personal coffee slave.”

“Not your sex slave, huh? Well, damn, I guess I’ll have to up my game in bed.”

Her eyebrows rose. “What time is practice?”

“Eleven. We go until one then refuel and hit the gym for a few hours. Refuel again.” A thought occurred to him. “Shit. Forgot I’ve got a thing this afternoon. An after-school program. Don’t know how long that’ll go but I should be done by six. Let’s get some dinner after that. Or we could cook. Which I can do, by the way. If you don’t mind someone in your kitchen. I’d have you over to the apartment but my roommate’s kind of a slob so…”

She didn’t say anything right away, just watched him with those steady blue eyes. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking and he was about to open his mouth and keep going when she nodded.

“Sure, we can cook here, if you don’t mind having my sister around.”

He shrugged. “Course not. Her house, too, right?”

“Should I—”

“I’ll pick up everything after the event and be here around seven. That work for you?”

“That’s fine.”

“Anything you don’t like?”

Her lips quirked. “I’m assuming you mean food?”

“I did but if you wanna talk about something else, I’m all ears.”

Her head tilted to the side, as if she were thinking about it, but then she shook her head. “I really do need to get to work. And you’re dangerous to my concentration.”

He didn’t bother to hide his smile and she shook her head and walked to the sink to dump her mug.

Standing, he did the same then wrapped an arm around her waist to bring her in against him for a quick kiss.

“I’ll see you tonight, hon.”

Then he walked out before she changed her mind.

* * * * *

“Dude, you look like you had a good night’s sleep, which is weird because I could swear you didn’t make it home last night.” Justin’s shit-eating grin spread. “Whose couch did you sleep on? Must’ve been comfortable.”

---