Page 45 of Our Secret Summer

“You found a house?” Dylan unearthed the merman statue from her bag and put it on the dining table. Raffo eyed it quizzically but didn’t say anything.

“Yeah. A five-minute drive from here. So Con and I can be even more joined at the hip.” That did a good job of reminding Dylan of how close Raffo and her son were. It helped a fraction with squashing the increasing desire to kiss Raffo, but not a whole lot, if she was honest.

“That’s great.” Only immediate physical distance could save Dylan from her desire. “I’m sorry, but Con is waiting for me. I’d best get that suit.”

“Sure.” Raffo’s smile held something Dylan couldn’t read—or didn’t dare to.

Dylan nearly tripped on the stairs, her legs betraying her state of mind. In Connor’s room, she took a few deep breaths to steady herself—and the insane lust rushing through her veins. With a heavy heart, Dylan made her way downstairs because it had instantly become clear to her that the only way she’d ever get over Raffo was if she didn’t see her again. If two minutes in her company could unravel Dylan so swiftly, she shouldn’t take any chances. On the upside, Dylan would just be doing more of what she’d been doing for five long, Raffo-less weeks already.

“How’s the painting coming along?” Dylan asked as she was already crossing to the hallway. It was only polite to inquire.

“My house or my art?” Raffo leaned with her shoulder against the wall and she looked so damn sexy, Dylan had to avert her gaze.

Dylan chuckled like the schoolgirl she felt she was on the inside. “Art,” she managed to say.

“Not so good since I left Big Bear, to be honest.” Raffo was still her old, straightforward—and delicious—self.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Dylan wanted to ask a million questions, but she couldn’t let herself. She had to get out of there, she had to get away from Raffo’s energy before it sucked her all the way in. “I’d better go. Good to see you,” she mumbled, as she made her escape—because that’s what it felt like—from Connor’s house.

On the way to the gallery, she repeated the words out loud like a mantra. “Connor comes first. Connor comes first. Connor comes goddamned first.”

CHAPTER 31

After Dylan’s impromptu visit, Raffo poured herself a large glass of water and slowly sipped it while hoping the bell would ring again. But it didn’t. Dylan had barely been able look at her. Then, she couldn’t leave quick enough, as though Connor was waiting somewhere cold and naked for his suit.

Raffo dragged herself up the stairs to get dressed, the brief but intense encounter leaving her shaken. Just as she made it to the top of the stairs, she heard a noise below. It wasn’t the bell. It was someone letting themselves in. It couldn’t be Connor because, apparently, he was so busy he’d had to dispatch his mother to pick up his dry-cleaning.

She thundered downstairs, deliberately heavy-footed to warn off any potential intruder. But the person standing in the middle of the living room was hardly an intruder. It was Dylan.

“Did you forget something?” Raffo asked. Her robe had fallen open—she knew because Dylan’s gaze had dropped to her chest, lingering there instead of meeting her eyes.

“I did,” Dylan said, her breath ragged, as though she had jogged back here instead of driving. She took a step closer, grabbed the side of Raffo’s robe, and pulled her close. “I forgot this,” Dylan said, then kissed Raffo full on the lips.

Raffo’s knees went weak instantly. Because the very thing she’d been too afraid to dream of—to hope for—was exactly what was happening. Dylan’s soft lips against hers. Dylan’s hand letting go of Raffo’s robe and slipping inside it. So, of course, Raffo kissed Dylan back, despite the fact that they were in Connor’s house and despite Raffo believing, to her very core, that she’d rather give up painting forever than come between Connor and his mother.

Apparently, Raffo’s core was not to be trusted when it came to Dylan. Nor was her common sense. Dylan’s touch was too powerful. She’d gone without it for too long because despite what Raffo wanted to believe, and what she’d been telling herself—tried to convince herself of—Dylan’s hands were exactly where they belonged right now. On Raffo’s skin. Driving her crazy at lightning speed. Deactivating whatever flimsy amount of rational thought Raffo had left. But she was only human and, like most humans, she was ruled by her emotions more than anything.

“For the life of me,” Dylan breathed into Raffo’s ear. “I can’t forget you. I think about you all the time.”

Raffo pushed her hands into Dylan’s hair and pulled her closer so she could kiss her again. So her tongue could dart in and out of Dylan’s delicious mouth and Raffo, just for one minute—or maybe five—could take everything she’d denied herself for Connor’s sake. It was just a kiss. Just a moment of temporary insanity. They’d come to their senses soon enough, after a few more of Dylan’s divine kisses.

They stumbled backward until Raffo stood with her back against the door Dylan had just walked through for the second time in half an hour.

Dylan’s hand sneaked up Raffo’s belly and, softly, landed on her breast.

For five endless weeks, Raffo had tried so hard to push thoughts like this away as soon as they surfaced. She knew giving in wasn’t an option, that she shouldn’t try to keep the memories from Big Bear alive. But now it was actually happening, Raffo had no defense. Dylan had driven herself back here. She had instigated this, and it didn’t look as though she was going to put a stop to it any time soon. Raffo had to be the wiser one, although she had no clue how. Not yet. She would in a minute. Just one more minute of Dylan’s soft hands on her breast and her tongue in her mouth.

Dylan’s hand grew bolder, her touch more insistent as she broke their kiss.

Fuck, she was so gorgeous, so utterly beautiful, so everything Raffo had denied herself.

“I want to make you come,” Dylan said, her words so breathtakingly sexy, they almost made Raffo come there and then simply because it was Dylan who said them. “God, I want to,” Dylan groaned. “Is that okay?”

Dylan was still fully dressed whereas Raffo’s robe was barely still covering her. Raffo nodded because it was all she wanted. Just for another few minutes. Saying no was not an option in the state she was in. In this dream that she hadn’t allowed herself to have that had, somehow, become reality.

“I’m going to lick you,” Dylan whispered, her eyes blazing pure lust. She kissed Raffo again, her lips hot on Raffo’s mouth, while her hand trailed down. Then, she broke the kiss and kneeled between Raffo’s legs.

Through half-closed eyes, Raffo glimpsed the strange little statue Dylan had put on the table when she’d arrived earlier, reminding her why Dylan had come here in the first place—for Connor—but then Dylan’s hot tongue swept along Raffo’s clit and all thoughts were instantly erased from her brain.

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