Page 43 of Crash and Burn

She turned him, pushed him backward and he was looking in her eyes—her mischievous green eyes—as she maneuvered him back onto the stairs.

Oh. God. Yes.

Reaching back, he settled himself onto a step, and was more than rewarded when Maggie settled herself on his lap. “Is this okay?”

She was sliding forward, up his thighs, her legs straddling his.

“Very much.” He maybe didn’t get all of that last word out. He’d pulled her closer, sliding her the last few inches until she was settled flush against him. Until she could feel with no doubt that, yes, it was very much okay.

This time, his touch wandered down below the edge of the so-short running shorts. It was too easy to stroke her skin, right up under the edge of the fabric, to grab her sweet ass and try to move her even closer.

He wanted to peel all their clothing, toss it aside, and drive into her right there on the steps. And he also wanted, just as badly, to let her know she was safe with him. To turn this into more than just a fuck on the staircase. The ride they were on was careening wildly forward, and he wasn’t sure he could stop it.

Maggie’s soft fingers slid under his shirt, traced the edge of his jeans, and elicited a moan from somewhere deep in his soul. God, he’d wanted this for so long, and he didn’t want to stop it.

She pulled back, her breathing as heavy as his. Her chest moved with each inhale, but her eyes stayed on his. Was she going to say they should stop?

Pulling her down, he kissed her again. She could stop them at any time, but he’d wanted to taste her again. Just this once.

Maggie leaned into him, almost toppling him backward. He was lost to everything except the feeling of her skin on his.

But then she jerked upright, and he placed the noise he’d just heard.

Tires squealing on pavement, just outside the front door.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Maggie jolted back at the sound. She was straddling Sebastian, her hair a mess from his fingers. Her own hands were still twisted into his t shirt. The two of them looked like they'd been doing exactly what they'd been doing.

Awkwardly, she scrambled off him and bolted toward the front window. Hearing the car squealing down toward the end of the street, she tipped her head to the left and almost pressed her face to the glass.

Sebastian was right behind her.

In any other situation, she would have been concerned about climbing the couch like a dog and having her ass in the air while she looked out the window. But not right now. She looked back at Sebastian. “It was a silver sedan.”

“That's not good,” Sebastian said. “Which means he was here. Probably sitting in front of the house. Even after I followed him earlier.”

She looked to the man she'd been ravaging just a moment before. His clothes and his hair were still mussed. His expression was anything but—it was fierce, angry, worried.

He was strong and lean, and even upset, he looked like something she wanted. Maggie shrugged at him, not knowing what to do about the silver sedan. She wanted to go back to what they were doing, but clearly they hadn’t been paying enough attention.

Who knew if he'd even come to the door? He might have even peeked in the window and seen them. They’d been making out on the stairs in the front foyer. Thank God the window on the front door was frosted, but the living room window afforded a clear view.

Her attention had all been focused on Sebastian and the way he made her feel. And oh, how he made her feel. That one kiss had blown everything with Rex out of the water—just more proof that she'd not made a good decision up front.

Climbing off the couch, she turned to face Sebastian. That was when she saw the uncertainty in his eyes, too. As if he was wondering if that would be it: one flash makeout session on the steps and then never again.

She stepped toward him again, pushed up on tiptoe and pressed her mouth softly to his, fighting the urge to turn the gentle kiss into something more. Forcing herself to step back, Maggie realized her hands still twisted into his T shirt, as if she could hold him to her. “We should look up that license plate.”

His own hand came up to cover hers, reassuring. “Can you do that? I thought only law enforcement had that ability.”

She tipped her head. “Maybe. But at this point it’s worth a try. We might not get a reverse search on the plate, but you know as good as anybody, that there’s a lot on the internet.”

She headed toward the back of the house, “I’m grabbing my laptop.” And she heard Sebastian head up the stairs, presumably to get his. Settling in at the dinner table, she realized she was out of sorts in her running shorts and T shirt, with her computer at her overly formal antique dining set.

But she needed to work more than she needed to change out of her house cleaning clothes. So she was already punching buttons as Sebastian powered up his own laptop next to her.

He was so close and he smelled of some kind of deep aftershave. She wanted to be doing a lot of other things with him besides internet research, but here she was. Maggie pulled out her phone and checked the picture she’d taken. Then she matched it against Sebastian’s text. And, confident that they had the same number, she started typing.

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