Page 14 of Revelation

“Just that we’ll be down in a few.”

“Oh, good. I was worried you were—”

“And,that I missed his text because you and I were busy taking ol’ one-eye to the optometrist.”

“You did not!”

He shows me his phone. He did. In those exact words.

“Josh!”

He laughs. “Hey, nothing smooths out an awkward situation better than humor. Trust me, I should know. I’ve been smoothing out awkward situations my whole fucking life.”

“Ugh.Josh.” I put my hands over my face.

“Kat, the man saw me fucking the shit out of you. I don’t think my text will come as a huge surprise.” When I don’t join Josh’s laughter, he nuzzles his nose into my ear. “Aw, don’t worry, babe.He’ll recover. Henn’s got a whopper of a crush on you, for sure, but he’s a big boy.” He moves my hair behind my shoulder and kisses my neck. “Maybe seeing us together will help Henn move past his little crush.” Josh’s phone pings in his hand and he looks at it. “Henn says, ‘Meet me in an hour. An eye exam should never be rushed.’” Josh laughs heartily. “See? What did I tell you? Little Henny’s already bounced back.”

“You’re not embarrassed Henn saw us screwing the crap out of each other?”

“Well, yeah, of course, I’m embarrassed. Fucking in front of Henn isn’t high on my list of things to do. But I’m not gonna lose any sleep over it. At least I was fucking an insanely gorgeous woman and not a goat. Well, not this time, anyway.”

“Ha, ha. Don’t make bestiality jokes, Josh—I still haven’t read your perverted application. Speaking of which, how have Istillnot read your perverted application?”

“Hey, I gave it to you. I’ve met my obligation. If you haven’t read it by now that’s on you.”

“How do you keep distracting me? Are you some sort of evil genius?”

“Yes, I am—the world’s dumbest evil genius.”

“I just realized something,” I say, having a genuine epiphany. “You’ve been diabolically controlling me this whole time, haven’t you? Controlling me while letting me thinkI’mcontrollingyou.”

He shrugs. “I’m wise and powerful, babe; I warned you right from the start.” He shoots me a megawatt smile. “What’s the rush on reading that damned thing, anyway? You said you emailed it to yourself, right?—so now you can read it whenever.”

I smile. I can’t believe how relaxed and easygoing Josh has become about his application—what a turnaround since we first started sparring over it.

Josh looks at his watch. “Jonas and Sarah should be landing in D.C. in about an hour—Jonas said they’d be landing around seven Washington time. So let’s take a nice, long shower, let you rinse out your cooch and maybe scrub off some of that batshit-crazy you’ve got all over you—and then we’ll meet Henn for the photo thing. By then it’ll be time to touch base with Jonas and Sarah to see if they have any news about today’s meeting with the feds.” He pulls me to himclose. “Andthenwe’ll grab a few hours of sleep together in my room, just me and you.” He kisses my neck. “Sound good, my crazy little Party Girl with a Hyphen?”

I think my heart’s gonna burst right out of my chest. “That all sounds perfect, Playboy.”

6

KAT

Up ’til now, all of my naked interactions with Josh have been fast and furious. But now, in this steaming hot, post-hallway-fuckery shower, I’m finally getting the chance to slowly touch and appreciate every inch of Josh’s muscled, tattooed body. And appreciate it, I do. Holy hot damn. He’s gorgeous.

I squirt shower gel into my palm and eagerly run my hand over his “Grace” tattoo on his chest and then down the ruts and ridges of his abs and across his pelvis, skimming my palm between the “V” cuts in his waist and over the word “OVERCOME.”

And, glory be, as I touch Josh, he returns the favor, slowly exploring every curve and crevice of my wet body with his palms and fingertips.

“You’re beautiful,” Josh says softly in my ear, kissing my neck. “Gorgeous.”

My fingertips slide to the tattoo on the right side of his torso, behind his ribcage. Before now, I haven’t paid much attention to this one. But now that I’m studying it, I’m noticing it’s an intricate scene of a fish swimming in a river, shaded by an overhanging tree on a nearby riverbank.

“What’s the story on this one?” I ask, touching the fish with my fingertip.

He runs his hand across my right nipple and down my side, over the curve of my hip, and down my ass cheek. “I’ll give you my standard answer first,” he says softly, his lips grazing my ear. “And then, I’ll tell you the whole truth.”

“Okay,” I whisper, just before his lips find mine.

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