Page 41 of Temptress

I returned her hug, closing my eyes and breathing her in. “Of course. And I’m always here if you ever need to talk.”

She planted a kiss on her father’s cheek and headed upstairs as I stood and started to stack the dirty dishes. I carried them into the kitchen and put them in the sink, turning on the hot water and bracing my palms on the counter as I lowered my head and took deep breaths while waiting for it to heat up.

I sucked in a surprised gasp when I felt Silas’s heat press against my back as his hands spanned across my waist. That surprised gasp instantly turned into a whimper when he leaned in, brushing my hair aside with his chin and pressed his lips against my neck in a feather-light kiss.

“You always smell so good, baby,” he said, his voice like velvet over sharp, jagged rocks.

“What are you doing?” I breathed. “You shouldn’t be touching me like this. Darcy could come in here and see.” My actions betrayed my words as I leaned back, wanting to get closer.

His groan vibrated against my skin as he trailed kisses to my shoulder and back up again. “Can’t help it. When you’re in the room, I need to touch you.”

I could appreciate that, and the feeling was certainly mutual, but there was one thing I needed to get off my chest first.

“Silas,” I said, turning in his embrace and placing my palms on his chest. As much as I didn’t want to, I pushed until he moved back enough to look up at me, but I got a tiny thrill when he still refused to let me go. “When Darcy came to invite me to dinner earlier, I had the impression she suspects something is happening between us. Or at least hopes there is. I’m not trying to be pushy, but I need to know what we’re doing here. How do you want me to act around her?”

That ever-present furrow of his brow deepened. “I want you to act like yourself. Like you always do.”

“You know what I mean. How are we playing this? Are we keeping this from her?”

He heaved out a sigh, his eyes following the path of his fingers in fascination as he lifted his hand to brush my hair back from my forehead and tuck it behind my ear. “Would that be a problem for you, Sassy? Keeping this a secret from her?”

It was my turn to frown as I shook my head. “No, of course not. She’s your daughter, so I’m following your lead here.”

“It’s not that I don’t want her to know,” he insisted, his deep blue eyes burrowing into mine as he stared at me. “I don’t want you to think that. But I haven’t always been the best father. She and I are finally finding our footing, and I don’t want to mess with that. I want to make sure things are stable before I say or do something that could shake her foundation.”

I got that, really. He was trying to do right by his daughter. I respected the hell out of that and found it incredibly sexy. But there was still the teeniest part inside of me that wanted to be selfish and argue. Keeping this from Darcy for the time being meant that I wouldn’t get to see him or spend time with him as often as I wanted. But I slapped a piece of duct tape over that greedy little bitch’s mouth and smiled as I nodded at him in agreement.

“I totally get that. And I’m fine with it, Si. Promise.”

He leaned in and brushed his lips against mine, once, twice, before sealing them together in a sweet, slow, tantalizing kiss that packed just as big an impact as the wild, punishing kisses we’d shared earlier.

I finished rinsing the dishes and loading them into the dishwasher, then, after a heated make-out session on his back deck, I headed back to my place, each step feeling more and more like I was floating on air.

As much as I enjoyed the smell of him on my skin, I turned the hot water in my shower on and washed myself, then slipped on my robe, and with my hair still wet, moved into my bedroom to get ready for bed.

My cellphone dinged with an incoming message and I sat on the edge of the bed, dragging a brush through my damp locks as I grabbed the phone off my nightstand and swiped to read the message. My face instantly spread into a smile at Silas’s text.

Neighbor From Hell:What are you wearing right now?

A husky chuckle escaped me as I set the brush down so I could type out a response.

Me:Baggy sweats full of holes and grannie panties. Did I just kill your boner?

His response was instant.

Neighbor From Hell:You could never kill my boner. And you’re also a liar. Right now you’re wearing the sexiest fucking robe I’ve ever seen, and I’d give anything to slip my hands inside and pull it apart so I could see all of you.

My breath hitched as my head shot up and twisted around, looking all around my room for him even though I knew he wasn’t there. Before I could ask how he knew that, another messaged dinged through.

Neighbor From Hell:Look out your bedroom window.

I twisted my head to peek out the glass and gasped when I saw Silas standing yards away in his house, dressed in nothing but a pair of boxer briefs.

This was the first glimpse I’d gotten of all the beauty that was him. Until that moment, all those cut, chiseled muscles had been hidden behind clothes, but as he stood there, I took in the magnitude of how powerful he really was. His body could have been sculpted by the most talented artist on the planet.

My question ofhow far do those tattoos gowas finally answered. They started at his wrists and went all the way up to the ball of his shoulder, two perfect sleeves of ink on an otherwise unmarked body, at least from what I could see just then.

One of his hands braced on the glass of his window while the other one brought his phone up to his ear. A moment later, my own started to ring in my hand, jarring me from my ogling.

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