Page 111 of False Start

His hot eyes met mine for a brief second before a sexy grin tipped the corners of his mouth and in one smooth, slow move, he found my neck, his thumb nudging my jaw up higher, giving him better access as he licked and sucked the skin there.

“So, uh—” Damn what he did with his mouth. I squeezed my thighs together and cleared my throat. “How, umm—” I blew out a breath as tingling heat shot up my spine. “How did she end up with this if naked is the end game?”

“I didn’t ask,” he mumbled against my skin, nipping his way to my ear. “And don’t plan to. If I ever want to have wood again, I need to keep all thoughts of Patti and naked or anything beyond way the hell out of my head.”

I laid my palm against his cheek, the one I slapped, and he stilled. “I don’t think wood is a problem of yours.”

“Doesn’t seem so, no,” he said, facing me now, his hooded gaze dark and unreadable.

My heart squeezed, humiliation bubbling inside me, remembering the look of sheer disappointment on his face after what I did to Tilly only to be replaced by the absolute shock after I smacked him.

“I’m sorry I hit you. I—I’ve never done that before.”

“It’s forgotten.”

“Forgiven, not forgotten. Please,” I said, brushing my lips softly over his skin there. “Because I never want to do it again.”

We stared at one another for several beats, my fingers tracing over his cheekbone, neither one of us saying what we both knew—he wouldn’t stick around long enough for that to be a problem.

He took my hand and pressed his lips to the center of my palm—a kiss that went straight to all my vulnerable places.

“I hurt you. It was such an easy miscalculation on my part and it changed you.”

His choice of words…a clue to what he was thinking, feeling—to the future and what he’d do. Why he always chose to go. “You did, but that’s no excuse for what I did. You’re human. You fucked up. I’ve now fucked up. I will again in a different way. It’s what we do. And it’s why we don’t forget.”

“Forgiven then,” he said, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “You look tired. Why don’t we get you cleaned up?” He moved our boxes and stood, reached out a hand to pull me to my feet, and started nudging me down the hall in front of him.

“Well, it’s the least you can do since you might have knocked me up.”

He skidded to a stop and froze behind me for a beat—or ten. His hands tightened on my biceps, his forehead bumping against the back of my head.

“Fuck,” he bit out, his hot breath landing on my neck, flirting with the wisps of hair there. Because of course I’d be getting aroused while he was in the middle of a heart attack.

“Yes, we did,” I hummed the words, a smile twitching at the corners of my mouth, but not quite ready to stop fucking with him.

“Condoms.”

“Those are important.”

“I’m sorry, I—how many cows over the years were impregnated in that barn and now—”

I spun on him then because my newfound control was not going to hold up this curve in the road. “Okay, I’m going to need you to stop right there. Relax, big boy. I never met my father. I don’t even know his name. Do you really think I don’t handle my business where unwanted pregnancy is concerned?”

“No. But you were with Eve before this so I—”

“I have an IUD. You’re good. Now, do I have anything to worry about? Been dickie dunking in polluted holes?”

“No, there hasn’t been anyone, in—quite a while actually.”

“Let’s leave it at that then, because the thought of anyone else touching you gives me feelings. I don’t like it.”

He stood there grinning like an idiot.

“And stop smiling like that. Now, about this getting me cleaned up thing… Do you have a list of the services you provide in that regard?”

“For you, anything,” he said, walking me backwards into my room.

“My hair. I don’t know how the hell I’m going to wash my hair.”

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