Page 60 of Shortcake
I gulped. “So?”Say it. Say it…
A low growl vibrated in his chest. “I care because if you’re going to be with a man twice your age, it sure as fuck better be me.”
I wasn’t able to contain the surprise that splashed across my expression, and I found myself wishing it was way darker back here in the corner of the bookstore. There was nothing to conceal the fiery blush that heated my cheeks. Nothing to mask the molten lava in my stomach. The quiet, itchy feeling that left me fidgeting like a tea kettle about to boil over.
His eyes drifted down to my mouth and his own slightly crooked lips parted.
Then, his mouth sank into mine. He scooped his hands into my hair, tipping my head back as the heat of his tongue, his lips, his breath filled me, melting me like chocolate left out in the sun.
Heady, aching desire pooled between my legs as I sighed into his kiss, opening for him. To him.
The weight of his body pinned me against the bookshelf, my breath shaky as I churned my hips against his.
The primal, low groan he released made me dizzy with want. His palms slid down my body until they gripped the backs of my thighs, hoisting me up so that I could link my ankles around his lower back. Straddling him, I pressed my throbbing sex against the impressively hard length filling his pants.
I reached for a fistful of his hair, gliding my fingers up the back of his neck and giving the strands a firm tug.
His grunt of approval did things to me.
I literally couldn’t remember the last time I was this turned on. The last time I so desperately and achingly wanted someone. Ironic that a man more than a decade my senior could make me feel like a teenager again.
The world spun with that kiss. Angels sang. In the distance, bells chimed.
No, wait.
Those weren’t bells.
That was my phone.
“Oh, my God,Harper,” I said.
Saying his daughter’s name was like a bucket of ice water being thrown on our heads.
Conrad immediately released me, lowering my feet to the ground, then sprang away from me. “What? Where?”
I held up my phone where her name was blinking on the screen with the texts she’d sent me. I wasn’t sure why I smoothed my hair before answering.
Where are you?Harper’s text asked.
I licked my kiss-swollen lips and punched in a reply.I had to run interference. Be there in two min.
Interference?Her question came back quickly, but I dropped my phone into my purse.
“Well?” I asked. “How do you want to handle this book club?”
He swiped a hand down his face before a faint grin lifted the corners of his lips. “Book club, huh?”
I nodded. “Monday nights. They’re a good group of kids, Conrad, I can vouch for at least some of them. And I maintain it would be good for her to make friends her own age.”
His eyes were doing that dark, sparkly thing again like when he was thinking really hard, and his contagious grin twitched wider. “So that she doesn’t end up dating men twice her age?”
“Exactly.”
And Harper having a group of friends would leave a weeknight or two free… to us. To explore this. Whateverthiswas.
His gaze drove into me like a corkscrew. Slowly, painfully, twisting down deep into me, ready to pull out the only thing keeping my emotions bottled inside.
I fought a blush and tried to smother the stupid butterflies taking liftoff in my stomach.
