Page 34 of Tripped By Love
Marco
KISS HER
“Shut up and kiss her,
You’re thinking too much.”
Performed by Eric Van Houten
Written by Cooney / Van Houten / Warren
Jonas had given me shit aboutCassidy as soon as the apartment door had slammed shut behind us.
“Now I know why you were so desperate to come back to Grand Orchard. She’sAngel, right? Why didn’t you tell us you had a girlfriend?”
I choked. “Cassidy is not my girlfriend. She’s my boss’s sister. A friend. A workout companion. That’s it.”
Jonas had laughed. “Sure…I can see how ‘working out’ with her would be worth it.”
I’d cuffed him on the back of the head. “Don’t be an ass.”
“Maliyah is going to flip.”
“Don’t get her hopes up, Jo-Jo. Nothing is ever going to happen between Cassidy and me.”
Then I’d left him to change, journey across the driveway, and enter the house of the woman I wanted more than I’d ever wanted anything in my life.
Almost kissing her in the kitchen had been a disaster.
Almost kissing her would haunt me for another twenty days. Just like the scent of her would and the way her skin had pebbled under my touch, making me think of just how tight her nipples would have been if I’d been skating over them instead of her arms with my fingers…and my tongue.
Chevelle had saved us. Saved us from making a mistake that would change everything. A mistake that might have meant removing myself from her world permanently, and I couldn’t afford to do that right now. Not with Clayton Hardy threatening to show back up.
When she threw down her challenge to be the first to a hundred, I focused on the movements of the squat presses burning up my muscles instead of how good she looked bending and flexing. By the time we were done with our hour of workout, she was sweating, skin gleaming, and making me think of exactly what she’d look like underneath me or over me as we moved together in other ways. A different workout.
I almost ran from her then.
Trying to escape the images before I did something about them.
But they followed me home.
They haunted me through my dreams and were still haunting me the next day when I saw her enterLa Musica de Ensueños Studioswith Chevelle on her hip. I was in the Garner Security office, trying to concentrate on the update Trevor was giving me about The Painted Daisies,The Exhibitorreporter, and the information on Earth Paradise Distributions. It was Lance Ralley’s name that finally dragged me back to reality.
“What did you say?”
“She’s meeting with him at ten today.” Trevor thrust his chin toward the studio across the street. “Brady and the lawyers are going over the contract he sent her with a fine-tooth comb. I haven’t mentioned anything about the espionage lawsuit because you asked me not to until we knew more.”
I glanced down at my father’s watch that I’d worn since his death. It was five minutes to ten.
“Shit. What did you actually find out?”
“Hard to know for sure. He settled with the plaintiff.”
“Did you talk to them?”
“They have a nondisclosure agreement in place. The woman said she wouldn’t talk unless Lance approved it,” Trevor replied.
I grabbed the paper Trevor was looking at with the details and headed out of the room.
