Page 59 of Tempt

“I was so good at taking the other Band-Aid off you wanted a repeat performance?” I ask.

She jumps in surprise, and popcorn spills. “I didn’t know you were going to be home so early.”

“It was a bloodbath. Russell destroyed them. Andy asleep?”

“He crashed pretty hard. They had a double header of tag and crafts at school today. Bea made a macaroni cottage. Andy took it on himself to do one better.”

She nods to the coffee table where a meal’s worth of dry pasta is glued to a piece of construction paper.

“A mountain?” I guess.

“A truck. Those are wheels.”

“Ahhh. I see it now.”

Kat laughs and I lean over the couch behind her. “What’re you watching?”

“Selling Sunset. These stunning women sell ridiculously massive houses in LA. Pools, basketball courts, you name it they’ve got it.”

On the screen, a woman with blonde hair almost as long as her legs strides down a street, talking on her phone. Then walks into a cafe where she meets another equally proportioned woman, this one with dark hair. They swap double-cheek kisses and blindingly white smiles before grabbing seats.

For the next minute, neither of them mentions a property listing.

“Are they actually realtors?” I ask, the buzz still very much alive in my head.

“Who knows? Who cares?”

Kat reaches for some popcorn.

Fuck, she’s cute.

The way she talks.

The way she eats.

The way she breathes.

She’s beautiful and funny and playful and underdressed in my living room.

More than that, I enjoy her company.

When I inhale, her vanilla scent washes over me.

The way she looked at me when she told me she dreams about me…she was curious. Hungry.

Just thinking about it has the blood pounding in my veins.

“You warm?” I ask.

“Nope.”

Beer’s fault, then.

I tug off my sweater and round the couch. I drop next to her and reach over to grab some popcorn from the bowl.

“What?” I ask when she turns to stare at me.

“You didn’t even ask,” she says, mock indignant.

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