Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100873 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100873 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Right there with the skyline of the city glittering across and to her left on the water and their friends wandering on ahead. He kissed her in the quiet space between cars on the road while the waves whispered below the seawall, one arm around her and the hand of his other gently cupping her cheek and jaw.
After it was over, they turned and walked on, and her heart… it developed another crack in its protective shield.
* * *
Given the length of the outing, Catie wanted to go back to her own place, where she had everything she needed for her comfort. Danny seemed unbothered by her decision and cheerfully tailed her home.
Once inside, she yawned—to his vocal amusement. “Look at us! Such hot young things!”
Shoving at his shoulder as she started laughing too, she said, “Round five can wait till I’ve caught a bit of shuteye.”
But then he tugged her close and kissed her all slow and with a smile yet on his lips and her body melted. She ended up naked in bed with him not long afterward. It was different this time around—softer, gentler, almost lazy as they lay facing each other and explored and touched and kissed.
She still had on her legs, hadn’t really thought about it, but as he stroked his hands over her body, his skin slightly rough and all perfect, she found herself saying, “Do you ever think about the fact I have prosthetic legs when we do this?”
Had she planned to ask the question instead of it just coming out, she might’ve expected shock or perhaps anger. People didn’t like being questioned—many took it as an insult when she was just curious.
Danny shrugged. “A couple of times at the start, when I worried I’d inadvertently hurt you in some position”—he pressed a hand over her mouth when she scowled and parted her lips—“but then I realized d’oh, this is Caitlin I’m thinking about.”
A wicked grin. “I know you’d tell me to get the hell off if I was hurting you or if I was causing your legs to twist or bend in an uncomfortable way. Just like you did when we were roughhousing as kids. So then I stopped worrying.”
Had any other man said those words to her, she wouldn’t have believed him. It was easy to say such things, harder to live them. But she could say with certainty that Danny never held back with her. The fact he’d had to come to terms with how to see her once they began having sex made sense too—she’d had to do the same after all.
“Harrumph,” she said once he’d removed his hand. “I should’ve bitten you.”
“Then you’d have to kiss it better.” Grin more than wicked now, he nudged her onto her back so he could come over her.
She went, because she was feeling lazy and sexy and because he was gorgeous and funny and she… liked him. There. That hadn’t been so hard to admit. She really liked Daniel Tana Esera.
Wrapping her arms around him, she sighed as he slid into her after grabbing the protection from the bedside table. They’d learned their lesson, kept it handy now. As they moved together with languorous ease, neither one of them in a rush, Danny nuzzled and kissed her throat while she kissed the muscled curve of his shoulder, and inside her, things grew warm and tight and it had nothing to do with orgasm.
Shoving aside the terrifying realization that wanted to bloom, she held on and focused only on the heavy warmth of his body, the way he moved in her, on her, how he touched her, how he felt under her own hands, and how at the end, they kissed with their eyes locked.
* * *
Laveni pushed down her cat-eye sunglasses and looked at Catie over her latte, the drink delicately frothed and offered with a tiny cookie on the side. The two of them were sitting at an outdoor table at their favorite local café, the winter sunshine bright.
“You look like you got shagged,” the other woman declared.
Catie almost snorted her cappuccino out her nose. After coughing and recovering, she pointed a finger at her best friend. “Says the woman with stubble burn on her cheeks.”
Veni’s hands flew up, the purple of her suede jacket a dazzling pop of color. “What? Where?”
Catie cackled.
“Ugh.” Veni picked up her latte, took a sip of the foam, then licked off the traces on the dark plum curves of her lips. “So fine, we both got shagged. But I have a fiancé who just two hours ago returned from a long-haul trucking run.”
“What are you even doing here, Veni?” Catie shrugged off the faded denim of her own jacket to reveal the rich cerise of her silky top with its V-neck, the long sleeves cuffed at the wrists; she’d taken care to match her lipstick to the top. Catie and her bestie liked dressing up for their girl dates.