He nodded. “It’s environmentally responsible.”
“Mmhmm.” She was studying him openly and he held himself still, afraid that the wrong move would ruin everything.
The fact that this was most likely a mistake suddenly didn’t seem to matter. At all. The only thing that mattered was that he be allowed to taste those lips again, touch those curves, feel that glorious hair.
Fuck. Nothing had ever mattered more.
It was a sickness, an infatuation, a disease, an addiction. Whatever it was, it was all consuming. And the only thing keeping him from this new necessity in his life was whatever internal debate was clearly going on in that clever mind of hers.
Her next words caught him by surprise. “So, you have a dream woman, huh?”
He caught himself before he could flinch. He didn’t want to think about the future Mrs. Jennings. Not now when he was hellbent on sleeping with this woman. He didn’t trust himself to talk so he murmured his assent. Did he have a dream woman? Yes. Was this woman her? No. But was she the woman he needed tonight? There could be no doubt.
“From what your friends said, it sounds like I have very little in common with this magical, mythical woman of yours,” she said.
He smiled at her teasing tone but kept quiet. There was really no good way to answer that, especially not if he stood a chance in hell of having a repeat performance of the best sex ever.
She gave him a sassy look as her head tilted to the side and her lips curved up. “You know, you’re not my dream man either.”
He let out a short laugh even though the words were surprisingly painful to hear. He wasn’t that much of a cocky asshole to think that he was God’s gift to women. He knew he wasn’t every woman’s cup of tea.
But he selfishly wanted to be this woman’s dream guy. What would it feel like to be the one who made this woman open up? The one who made her smile and laugh and drop that cold, reserved exterior that she wore like a shell?
He shook off that thought, because really—how incredibly selfish. You’re not the one for me, but I want to be the one for you. No, he wasn’t that asshole. He chose not to be. So he forced a smile. “Great. Good.”
Her smile was mocking. “Awesome.”
“Glad we got that squared away,” he said. His gaze never left hers and despite the teasing, there was something going on there. Something unspoken. Something that filled the space between them and made the atmosphere feel heavy and dense.
Fuck, this was attraction. It was physical and undeniable and it resonated in the air around them like a force field.
They stood on the brink. They could laugh it off and walk away, go back to being supervisor and intern on Monday morning. Or, they could act.
He could act.
A nervous churning in his gut only heightened his desire, it added an element of suspense and anticipation. A terrifying thrill at the possibility of being rejected, of ruining this tentative truce they seemed to have forged, or maybe even a new understanding they’d discovered.
If they walked away now they might be able to be friends. Or friendly work acquaintances, at least.
If they continued… well, if he continued they’d be entering into new, unchartered territory.
She licked her lips and the decision was made. Fuck the consequence. Screw the long-term ramifications. He needed to have her, just one more time.
“It’s too bad, really,” he said, taking a step closer to where she stood frozen on the sidewalk.
“Oh yeah?” Her voice was breathier than he’d ever heard it. Shit, her voice was sexy.
He nodded. “Someone told me the sex between us was good.” He grinned. “Great, even.”
Her eyes were smoldering, her lips parting in invitation. “Is that right?”
He nodded again, watching her closely, praying desperately that she wanted this as badly as he did.
After a moment she tilted her head to the side and looked up at him. “What does that have to do with anything?”
He caught the teasing glint in her eyes and he narrowed his gaze. “Excuse me?”
She shrugged, clearly feigning nonchalance. “Just because we’ve ruled one another out for long term possibilities doesn’t negate the fact that the sex is great.”
Did that mean… Was she saying…?
“I mean, great sex is great sex,” she continued. “It doesn’t necessarily have to occur within a relationship.”
He stared at her for a moment. “You are so sexy when you talk logic.”
Her head fell back as she let out a soft laugh. Her smile made him want to reach out and let her hair down. He ached to see her wild with abandon once more.
Just once more.
Never dropping her eyes, she lifted a hand to hail a cab. When a yellow taxi pulled up beside them she headed toward the back door. Reaching for the handle, she turned back to face him. “So, what do you say? You want to share a cab?”
He didn’t hesitate. In fact, he nearly stumbled over his feet to scramble in behind her. As soon as the door was shut, he was all over her. She laughed, pulled back slightly to give directions to her place, and then she turned to him, her lips meeting his as he crushed her to him.
The ride felt interminable. He couldn’t wait to get there, to make her his, just once more.
Fuck. Mistake or not, they were really doing this.
Chapter Nine
This was such a mistake. It was the worst decision she could have ever made. He was everything she didn’t want in a man and she clearly wasn’t what he wanted either.
She pushed away slightly, fighting for air as that thought once again made breathing difficult.
Then his hands were in her hair, tugging her locks out of their fastenings, his lips moving over her neck as if he innately knew where she was most sensitive. God, how did he do that?
It didn’t matter how he did it, just that he do it. And it didn’t matter that she wasn’t his dream girl, because he wasn’t her Mr. Right, either.
She’d already found her Mr. Right. Caleb was just her Mr. Right Now.
“What are you grinning about?” he asked, his breathing ragged as he nibbled on her earlobe.
Was she grinning? Yeah. She was. She totally was. Possibly because she felt like the cat that ate the canary. This was what she’d wanted all week. She’d been fighting it because of their jobs and because… well, because Caleb was Caleb. So not her type. Not a bad guy, but definitely not long-term material.
As if him being an actor wasn’t bad enough, he also had no idea what he wanted out of life.
Though apparently he knew exactly what he wanted out of a woman, and his dream woman bore no resemblance to her. Though his friends surely hadn’t listed all of this dream woman’s many and myriad exemplary traits, she had to assume that practical and solid were not high on that list, and those were probably the adjectives most used to describe her, followed by straightforward, pragmatic, and sarcastic. The latter would knock a woman out of the running right away, according to Kat.
Not that it mattered. She wasn’t competing. She just wanted another night like the last. But this time she’d be smart.
The cab pulled to a stop and she got out as Caleb paid, following her quickly into the building and up to her apartment. The door no sooner closed behind them than she was back in his arms.
He surprised her by lifting her easily, her legs wrapping around him as he led the way to her bedroom.
Kennedy wasn’t a small girl. She was tall and solid. No guy had ever carried her, period, let alone so easily. If asked prior to this moment, she would have said such an act was befitting a Neanderthal, but she had to admit that his easy strength in carrying her made her hot as hell.
Good Lord, what was happening to her?
This was wrong. A mistake on so many levels. She didn’t mess with flakey guys. She didn’t date nor sleep with any man who needed to get his life together. She had no dreams of being a mother—to a child, let alone a grown man.
&nb
sp; He laid her down on her bed and knelt over her. She caught a glimpse of his chiseled features in the glow from the streetlamps outside. The dim lighting only exacerbated his hotness, making him look like some sort of black-and-white matinee idol from another era.
Sweet Jesus, he was too hot for life. Far too attractive for her. She didn’t have a rule against dating ridiculously hot guys, but that was most likely because it had never come up. No man this hot had ever shown an interest. She never would have thought it possible, to be honest. But here he was, in her bed, looking at her with the most deliciously sinful lust in his eyes.
So just enjoy it already.
Yes. That was the best option.
He dipped his head, trailing kisses over her skin as he unbuttoned her blouse.
Fuck, she couldn’t breathe. Was that normal? No guy she’d ever slept with had made her incapable of breathing. None of them had ever made her tremble with a caress. No other guy had ever made her feel light and carefree and… oh God… giddy.
She’d been absolutely giddy tonight—from giddy excitement of teasing and sparring verbally, to giddy with nervous anticipation as they flirted, to giddy with insatiable desire as she realized that this was really happening.
Holy shit. No guy had ever made her giddy.
Her buttons undone, he quickly to get rid of the rest of her clothes. His hair tickled her skin as he explored her body with his lips and tongue.
She tipped her head back as she arched toward him, surrendering to the moment. To the absolute bliss.
This might not be smart or logical, and it certainly wasn’t pragmatic, but she was too far gone to care. She’d made her choice and tomorrow morning she’d figure out how to live with it. But for now, for this one night, she planned to enjoy the hell out of it.
Decision made, she was free to revel. To wallow in sensations and touches and the feel of his mouth crushing against hers as if he needed her air to breathe. The level of intensity in his every touch was intoxicating, as was the tenderness in his kisses, and in his whispered words of desire.
When he finally rolled on a condom and slipped inside of her, she was too far gone to care about anything other than finding release and making him feel as good as she did. They moved together like it was the most natural thing in the world.
She lost all track of time as he moved inside her, his breath hot against her neck as she clung to his back, tightening her legs to draw him ever closer. When at last she reached her climax, she cried out his name.
He swallowed the sound with a kiss as he picked up the tempo and ground against her, groaning with unrestrained need until he followed her into oblivion.
It wasn’t until much later as she was falling asleep in his arms that her brain clicked into play once more, but even then it was a dim voice that reminded her politely that this was a bad idea. A very bad idea.
How was she going to deal with the ramifications? How would this work, exactly?
Shhh. She hushed the irritatingly rational voice. Tomorrow. She’d figure it all out tomorrow.
Chapter Ten
For the second time Caleb found himself waking to find that Kennedy was already wide awake, showered, dressed, and watching him with an inscrutable gaze.
Though, at least this time she didn’t kick him out of her apartment.
“Bagel?” She held up a paper bag along with a take-out coffee cup. “I didn’t know whether you take milk or sugar so I got it black.” Her tone was so even, so businesslike, they could have been meeting for the first time in a board room, or getting ready for an interview.
The tone was not in keeping with the fact that he was currently naked.
Her hair was pulled back in that tight work bun and her face wore that mask he was beginning to know so well. Was it weird that the stern work face was starting to be a bit of a turn on? Now when he saw it, he saw it for what it was. A mask. A façade. It was what she hid her emotions behind.
At work it made sense, but here? Now?
He snatched the bag and coffee out of her hands. Maybe food would help him figure her out.
“I have some milk in the fridge if you’d like.” She perched on the edge of the bed with her hands clasped politely in her lap as if preparing to watch him eat his breakfast… or perhaps conduct an interview.
“Black is fine.” He took a sip of truly terrible coffee and set it on the nightstand, alongside her dazzling array of reading material. There were two piles of precariously stacked books that ranged from epic fantasy to classics to non-fiction tomes. “Have you read all of these?”
She glanced over. “I’m currently reading them.”
“All of them?”
“Yes.”
He continued to watch her as he chewed his bagel and tried to remember the last time he’d read anything other than scripts.
She shifted under his gaze, tucking a nonexistent loose strand of hair behind her hair in what was clearly a nervous gesture. Aha! He’d finally found some clue to the mystery woman’s secret.
This morning, at least, she was trying to hide the fact that she was nervous. But why? Because of last night? Did she regret it?
“I have a short attention span.”
He blinked at her. What? Did she mean she was tired of him? Oh fuck, maybe she was just feeding him so she could kick him out again. He met her straightforward gaze. Wait, was she talking about him or—
She gestured back to the books. “I love to read but I have a hard time sticking to one. I like to bounce around.”
Huh. He tucked that tidbit away for a later date when he could analyze his mystery woman to his heart’s content. “So you’re seriously reading all of those books right now.”
She nodded.
“You must be even smarter than I imagined.”
She shrugged again. “I’m well read.”
He loved the fact that she didn’t try to deny it. Kennedy seemed like a woman who was well aware of her intelligence. Though whether she had any idea of her other excellent attributes was questionable.
As her silence lengthened, he grew impatient. She clearly wanted to say something and the Kennedy he’d come to know this past week did not hesitate to say what was on her mind.
“Are you going to kick me out again?” he asked, only half teasing.
She ignored the question. “We need to define this relationship.”
He widened his eyes. Oh. Okay. That was not what he was expecting.
She cleared her throat and did that nervous hair tucking thing again. “Rather, we need to clarify how exactly this is not a relationship.”
Her lips pulled in and her nostrils flared in obvious irritation. “Oh hell, this isn’t coming out right. Let me try again.”
He laughed. He couldn’t help it. She was just too damn cute when she was flustered. Not that she actually appeared flustered. She appeared like she was about to conduct a lecture on the nature of non-relationships. But he was starting to see through the appearance she clearly strove to project.
After last night, there was no way he’d fall for her automaton routine ever again. She might be able to compartmentalize and she was certainly well able to control her emotions, especially in regards to work, but she was far from unfeeling.
He grinned at the memory of the sounds she’d made the night before. Oh yeah, she could feel.
She scowled at him, clearly not appreciating his laughter, but that made it even harder to stop laughing.
“I think it’s important that we clear the air,” she said.
He waved a hand as he took a bit of the bagel, which was significantly better than the coffee. “By all means. Clear away.”
She took a deep breath. “I enjoyed last night immensely.”
He choked on his bagel. Once again his mystery woman had caught him by surprise. If there was one thing Kennedy was not, it was predictable. “Me too.”
She gave a short nod. “Good.” She unclasped her hands and then folded them in her lap again. “I would not be aver
se to doing this again sometime.”
He stared. He honestly didn’t know whether he wanted to laugh at her businesslike tone or pump his fist in the air in triumph. His penis, for one, was shouting for joy.
“But it can’t last,” she continued. “I propose that we let nature take its course over the next few months that we’ll be working together, on the understanding that we will part ways amicably at the end of your contract.”
Some of his original excitement dwindled and died. Not that he was looking for something long-term either, but hearing it was another matter. It was almost like rejection, even though he felt the same way.
It seemed she was waiting for a response of some kind. “Understood,” he said, trying for the same businesslike tone and most likely failing.
She gave a short nod.
“But why not?” It came out before he could stop it.
She visibly started at the question. Apparently she’d thought that conversation was over. “Why not what?”
“Why can’t it be long-term?” At her obvious surprise, he hurried on. “Not that I think it should be. I think we both realized last night that we’re not each other’s type.”
She nodded in agreement. Great, they were totally on the same page. So why was he starting to feel royally annoyed with this whole conversation.
“Exactly,” she said.
No. Not exactly. “I get that we might not make sense together,” he said, unable to let it go. “But why are you so intent on setting some sort of end date on… this.” He gestured from his now partially concealed naked body to her totally clothed body.
She pursed her lips as if debating what to say next. Then she smoothed her neatly ironed black pants and met his gaze. “Because I already have a boyfriend.”
She might as well have punched him in the stomach, at least then his gasping for air wouldn’t look quite so comical. She had a boyfriend. She had a boyfriend?
His heart took a nosedive into his stomach, which was ludicrous because he didn’t care if she dated other men. But he did care about being the other man. “Fuck. Shit.” He cursed under his breath as he set down the food and reached for some clothes. “Jesus, I can’t believe I’m that guy. I’m never that guy.”
Desire for Days (Sexy in Spades Book 3) Page 8