Page 36 of Flirting with 40

With my bottom lip between my teeth, I take a step back. “But my toes are in the sand.”

His eyes hold mine, and I swear the look in them makes it hard for me to breathe.

I can tell myself all I want that this was just practice.

But who am I fooling?

It’s been years since I kissed a man like that.

Paul and I stopped french kissing years into our relationship. I’d forgotten the intimacy and romanticism of it until now.

Until Slade’s lips and our pretend kiss that was so much more than pretend.

It was just a kiss.

It was just practice.

Prisha’s advice may have been good, and as much as I want to heed it, parts of me are a lot deeper under the influence of Slade Henderson than I thought, and therefore I don’t want to hear it.

I want to listen to how my body feels. How my heart is racing. How my head is swimming. How that ache in me that he created burns. And how I want . . . just simply want for the first time in what feels like forever.

He’s a rebound.

That’s what this is.

And that kiss just showed me he’s exactly what I need.

Quick. Filthy. Devastating. A rebound romp.

My only thought as I pull out of the parking lot and head home?

I definitely need to go home and shave.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Slade

I look at the stack of folded clothes on the bed before me. I think I have everything I need, including the box of condoms.

Because, fuck, that kiss last night? Was on fire.

I was interested in Blakely the first night we met. When she had dinner with me at Metta’s, I might have gotten a crush on her. And last night? After she destroyed me with those soft lips and fisted hands in my sweatshirt? I’m definitely game.

What an unexpected twist.

What a risk I’m more than willing to take because . . . the woman’s gotten ahold of me somehow.

There was a reserved confidence about her last night, a subtle change in her demeanor that turned me on. Quiet strength wrapped in stunning beauty.

A beauty that was effortless.

And there’s no way that kiss didn’t affect her either.

My dick stirs to life at the mere thought of it.

“Yep. Definitely bringing the condoms.”

When my cell starts ringing and I see the name on the screen, my thoughts shift rapidly.