She bites her bottom lip and her lids lower so she’s looking up at me through her lashes now. “The thing with you in the barn was not at all the same thing.”
The cab pulls up in front of our brownstone, and as I reach for my wallet, she scurries out and up the driveway. I toss the driver forty dollars and chase after her. She’s unlocked the front door and left it open for me. Her shoes are on the floor at the foot of the staircase and I worry for a minute that she might have gone up to her room to pass out. I want so badly to keep hanging out with her right now.
I make my way down the hall into the kitchen and find her lying on the wicker couch in the little glassed-in porch that’s attached to the kitchen and has French doors that lead onto the back deck. Her eyes are closed.
I wander to the fridge. “I’m hungry.”
“That’s because you were too busy being Mr. Perfect Beautiful Hockey God to chow down on all those yummy appetizers,” she tells me without opening her eyes.
I smile. “Mr. Perfect Beautiful Hockey God?”
“Oh, shut up. You know it’s true,” she replies in a flat tone. “You should be the face of the NHL. They should put you on billboards in Times Square. You’re hot and your charm levels are through the roof.”
I’m laughing now as I grab an apple out of the fruit bowl and start devouring it. She falls silent and I worry she’s going to pass out. I don’t know if she’s just tipsy or full-on drunk.
“Callie?”
“Mmm?”
“How was the barn thing different than daring Cole to kiss you?” I want to know. “I mean in both cases you were testing our limits.”
“Uh-huh,” she agrees in a sleepy voice. “But like I said, I’ve never been attracted to Cole. I’ve thought you were drop-dead gorgeous since I was ten.”
I feel like someone dropped a piano in the center of the room. Or even more accurately, in the center of my brain. It’s like something just wentboomand all my thoughts were blown clear out of my head.
She’s been attracted to me since she was ten. Me? The sexiest, wildest, craziest, strongest woman I have known in my life—the very essence of everything I never thought would ever want anything to do with me—has been attracted to me for over thirteen years.
Wow.
She’s quiet again. I put down the half-eaten apple, walk into the little glassed-in room and stand above her. Her eyes are still closed. Her arms are above her head, hanging over the arm of the couch. Her hair is fanned out on the cushion she’s got her head on. The pale pink eye shadow on her eyelids is glittering in the dim light and her lips are pink and glossy like she recently licked them.
“Callie,” I start softly. “That night I was on the road trip…did you do what you said you’d do?”
Her lids flutter but she doesn’t open her eyes. “What are you asking me, Devin?”
“Did you warm yourself up to thoughts of me?”
“Did you take that cold shower that night?” she questions back, eyes still closed, body still motionless.
“No,” I reply honestly. “I took a warm one the next morning and jerked off to thoughts of you.”
I blame the Champagne. I blame the bold, dirty words and the inability to stop them from coming out of my mouth on the Champagne.
“Then we’re even because I did it too.” Her eyes flutter and her lips twitch, almost smiling. “And for the record, I’m going to do it again tonight.”
Her eyes finally open just enough to peer up at me as I crouch down beside her.
“You won’t have to tonight,” I tell her and press my lips to hers.
She makes a little sound—a cross between a moan and a sigh—and reaches out and touches the sides of my face, letting her hands slide backward over my ears and into my hair. I lose my grasp on my self-control and deepen the kiss. My lips move, hers move, our mouths open and our tongues connect, and electricity darts down my spine.
The kissing goes on forever. It never loses its intensity. My hands get lost in her long, silky hair; she runs her fingertips through mine. Our tongues explore each other’s mouths needily. I can’t stop touching her or tasting her. I wonder crazily if I will ever have the power to stop.
She starts to sit up. I move with her, so our kiss doesn’t have to break. She holds on to the front of my suit jacket and starts turning me. I reach out with my hand and find the edge of the couch as she pushes me back. Without ever taking her lips off my lips or her tongue out of my mouth, she manages to get me to sit on the couch and she’s straddling my lap. The barn memories race through my brain.
She pulls away from my lips just enough to speak.
“Feel familiar?” she whispers with a tiny smile and grinds her hips over my hardening dick.
