Page 43 of Must Have Been Love

I reach out and grab them.

“Hey!” She tries to take them back but I hold them up in the air. “Those are mine.”

“I’m keeping them.”

“No you’re not.” She starts jumping, in a feeble attempt to get them back from me.

“Yes I am. You gave me a hickey, I’m taking your panties.”

“I didn’t mean to give you a hickey,” she tells me, reaching out to touch my neck. And fuck, the rush of desire is pumping through me again. Our eyes lock.

“You marked me,” I murmur.

The corner of her lips quirk. “Should I be sorry?”

“Probably. I haven’t had a hickey since high school.”

This time she grins. “Nobody has stolen my panties before, if that helps.”

In a way it does. “I’m sorry you had to hide,” I tell her. “I don’t like that at all.”

She shrugs nonchalantly. “It’s not like we want anybody to know what we were doing, right?”

I blink. I don’t have an answer for that. My brain says she’s right. That we should feel lucky to get away with it.

But my body? It wants more. It wants everything. It wants to take and give until every sense I have is full of her.

If I had a heart, maybe it would, too.

“You should go to Ayda,” Skyler says softly. “I bet she’d love for you to read her a bedtime story.”

There’s no guile to her words. She’s looking at me with honest eyes. Because I know for a fact what dishonest ones look like.

“We need to talk,” I say firmly. Because yes, I have to go see my kid, but this isn’t the end.

“Look, I know I got my rocks off and you didn’t,” Skyler says. “And that’s unfortunate, because I’m a giver not a taker and I absolutely would have followed through if we hadn’t been so rudely interrupted. But I think we both know this was a mistake. Let’s blame it on the alcohol. Or my major accident.” Her eyes crinkle. “Go see your daughter. I promise I don’t expect anything. I know I’m not your type.”

“I’m getting pretty sick of you telling me who my type is,” I say, my voice mild.

“Maybe that’s because you know I’m right.” She looks over my shoulder into the mirror, adjusting the leather crown across her face. “Now can I have my panties back, please?”

“No,” I say stubbornly.

She laughs. “You’re so petulant.”

“I’ll bring them back to you on Monday night.”

“Monday night?” She lifts a brow, looking amused. “Two days is a long time to stay panty-less for.”

“I assume you have more than one pair,” I point out.

She looks at me closely. “You’re full of assumptions, aren’t you. And anyway, I can’t.”

“Why not?” I try and fail to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

“Because your sister is coming over with her friend for a girls’ night. Unless you want to join us.” She lifts a brow.

“Then let’s make it Tuesday,” I tell her, because that’s as long as my patience will last.

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