Page 79 of Books and Hookups

I gave her a rueful smile. “When you grow up with more siblings than money, you learn how to fix things. I’ll get my tools and take care of it.”

“I—” She swallowed. “Okay.” She set her water on the coffee table next to a pink book with an illustration of a pregnant woman on the cover. “I’ll move some of that stuff.”

“No. Sit there and rest. Want me to make you a snack?”

“A burger from Barb’s?” Her eyes lit up.

“It’s only eleven. The heat’s making Norm especially cranky, and he’d kill us both if I asked him to make you a burger before noon. How about some dried fruit and almonds, then when I’m done, we can go down for lunch?”

She crossed her arms. “Fine.” Her breasts pushed out over them, and the scoop neck of her dress pulled down, exposing the valley in between. I swallowed hard. I loved her breasts before, but they were amazing now. I’d spent a lot of time with them over the past month, and I could practically taste her?—

She cleared her throat and tugged up her dress to cover that enticing hollow.

“Wh-what?” My brain was full of static.

“You were going to get me a snack. And then tools. But I can get my own snack if you need a minute to reboot.” She smirked.

“No.” I shook my head. “No, I’ve got it.”Get it together, Carbone.I trudged into her kitchen. I had a job to do. Besides, whether or not we were sleeping together, ogling her was disrespectful. I grabbed the giant container of trail mix I’d picked up at the warehouse store and shook some into a bowl. Careful not to look at her again, I set the bowl on her coffee table. “Be right back,” I muttered.

I returned with my tools and a clearer head. She’d put away all the stuff that had been piled in the crib, probably in the secondhand dresser my siblings had gifted her at the shower. “Did you need me to run any of those new baby clothes through the wash?” I asked as I assessed the crib. “Tina says we need to use that special baby detergent.”

When she didn’t answer, I glanced over my shoulder. “Lucie?”

She was ogling me.

“I’ll do the laundry after,” I said.

“We’ll do it after,” she murmured, eyes glued to my ass.

I couldn’t help smiling—or flexing—as I bent to pick up my cordless drill. “I’m gonna sink a couple of screws in here,” I said.

She swallowed. “Uh-huh.”

I drilled a recess for the head of the screw so it would sit below the surface of the wood, then I switched bits and drilled a longer pilot hole for the shaft. After repeating the steps on the right side, I sank the screws in, securing the side to the ends of the crib. I rattled the side experimentally, but it didn’t budge.

“See?” I said, dropping my drill into its bag. “Now the side butts up against the corners. It’s not going anywhere.”

I turned to see her response, but she was right in front of me. She put her hands on the side of the crib, caging me in. “It’s not?”

“No.” I lowered my eyebrows. Was she talking about the crib or me? Regardless, the answer was the same. “It’s not.”

“Guess I’m stuck with it then.” She pressed closer, and her glorious breasts brushed my chest.

I sucked in a breath as all the blood rushed from my brain to my other head. “Stuck with me,” I echoed nonsensically.

“Look,” she said, “you can’t come in here acting out some thin porno plotline and not fuck me.”

“I…I can’t?” My brain had gone offline.

She reached up to the back of my neck and tugged out the ponytail holder securing my hair. The pull at my scalp made the hairs rise on my arms. When she tunneled her fingers into my hair, I couldn’t help it. My hands naturally fit themselves to the curve of her lower back. One wandered down to explore the succulent curve of her ass. She pressed her hips to me, pinning my erection against her belly.

“No, your line is, ‘I think something else needs drilling,’” she murmured. Her lips looked plush. The sweet scent of the almonds she’d eaten wafted up to me. I lowered my head, seeking her kiss.

When our lips met, it was electric. Like I’d stuck a screwdriver in a wall socket, heat licked up my spine. I bent to touch, to taste her. She was soft and delicious and hungry, opening to me, licking inside my mouth, lighting up every nerve as she fused her body to mine. My scalp tingled as she scratched her short nails through my hair.

Her other hand clamped onto my ass. I groaned, rubbing myself against her firm belly. My thin shorts let me feel every curve of her, curves I wanted to explore and map.

She broke the kiss, panting. “Want to take this someplace more comfortable?”

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