About That Kiss Read online

  Except his heart had way too many walls up for that, even now, so he had to settle for showing her how much she pleased his body. And he thought, given the way she clung to him after, that maybe he’d given her that.

  Much, much later, Kylie rolled over in her dark bedroom and heard a soft growl. “Oops, sorry,” she whispered to Vinnie and rolled the other way, this time coming up against a different roadblock, one of the human variety. She reached out with a hand. Yep. A naked, hard, warm human body.

  “Mmph,” said that naked, hard, warm body, the one that had taken her to new heights and back. It reminded her that Joe had brought her home after they’d . . . well, decimated his office. No other word for it. And afterward, still hungry for each other, they’d ended up here, in her bed.

  Now Joe reached out and wrapped his arms around her. She thought he’d get up, pull his clothes on over that amazing body, and walk it out her door.

  But he didn’t. Instead, he pulled her in close, pressed his face into the crook of her neck, and sighed heavily, his entire body relaxed. Sated.

  “I didn’t think you’d stay,” she said.

  “Tired.”

  She bit her lower lip because she didn’t want to mistake this for more than it was, something she could all too easily do if she let herself. “Thought maybe we were going back to separating church and state after, like last time.”

  “I can keep it in my pants if that’s what you want,” he said, voice low and husky.

  “But you appear to sleep naked.”

  He let out a low laugh, but didn’t move to get out of the bed. In fact, he didn’t move at all. Vinnie did though. He came in hot and plopped down on top of them both, making his way to a spot in the crook of Joe’s neck. It was a good choice. Kylie herself loved that spot. Rough with stubble, scented like a man, warm . . . With a smile, she closed her eyes and let herself drift off to sleep, safe and warm and wearing a ridiculous smile.

  The next morning Kylie was in the shower when she felt the air pressure change. Then a hand, much larger than her own, took control of her washcloth. Joe’s hands were slow and knowing as they glided over her body, making her heart pound as she melted into him.

  Abandoning the washcloth, his slightly calloused fingers stroked her belly, and she shivered in spite of the hot water. When she tried to turn to face him, he held her still while continuing his delicious torture with his knowing fingers, until she’d flattened her hands on the tile in front of her, dropped her head back onto his shoulder, and let herself go. She was still shuddering when he pulled her hips back and entered her from behind, doing what he’d done the night before.

  Taking her to heaven and back.

  She was still in the afterglow when she finally showed up at work. Gib took one look at her face and closed his eyes.

  “What?” she asked.

  “So you and Joe are a thing.”

  “No,” she said.

  He gave her a get real look. “You decide that before or after you fucked him?”

  She narrowed her eyes, some of her happy glow dimming. “You don’t get to go there, Gib.”

  “He’s going to hurt you, Kylie. He’s not the right guy for you.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it, not with you.”

  He looked pained. “Look, I screwed up, okay?”

  She tossed up her hands. “What does that even mean?”

  “It means I should’ve made my move sooner,” he said.

  “No kidding!”

  He grimaced. “There was just never the right time—”

  She laughed. Like really laughed, even when this caused Gib to frown.

  “I don’t see what’s so amusing,” he said.

  “You had years, Gib.”

  “We were kids,” he said. “And your grandpa did so much for me that I couldn’t allow—”

  “Come on,” she said. “Be honest at least. When push came to shove, you just weren’t that into me. And no matter what I told myself, it was the same for me or I’d have made a move on you.” She sighed and then reached for his hand because she didn’t want to lose him from her life. She really didn’t. He’d been an important part of it for a long time and life was too short. “It’s okay,” she said. “We’re okay and we’re going to stay okay. But this subject’s closed. I’m going to get to work.”

  And that’s just what she did. She went into the back and put her head down and concentrated on the mirror she needed to finish before Molly’s birthday tomorrow, instead of dwelling on the fact that she had only a week left to find her penguin, one week until playtime—or until whatever she and Joe were doing—was over.

  Chapter 21

  #YouCantHandleTheTruth

  The rest of the day was a blur for Kylie because she was so swamped with work. Whether due to guilt or otherwise, Gib had once again passed some new jobs on to her, leaving her in the throes of no less than five different projects. It was both wonderful and overwhelming but at least things were status quo between them.

  By lunchtime, her brain was flatlining, so she took off her apron, dusted off as much as she could, and grabbed Vinnie, heading out to the courtyard to clear her head.

  At the fountain, she sat on a bench. Vinnie lifted his little leg on a bush and then came to sniff at the water.

  “Careful,” she warned him. Not too long ago he’d gotten brave and had jumped in. Only problem was that because of his squat build and heavy head, he couldn’t swim. Panic had ensued until she’d rescued him.

  But smart and bright as he was, he was also overconfident and believed himself invincible—hence the reminder. “No swimming,” she said.

  He snorted and then ran in circles for a solid two minutes, doing his best roadrunner impression until suddenly he ran out of gas and flopped at Kylie’s feet, panting in exhaustion.

  Kylie shook her head and stared at the fountain. As she’d told Joe the night before, the legend was clear. Wish for love with a true heart and love would find you.

  But legends were made up. Fantasies. Except . . . there really had been a lot of love stories to happen right here in this building in the past few years, several of them involving her good friends, and all could be traced back to wishing on this very fountain.

  Last night when she’d wished for her penguin, she’d actually been tempted to wish for something else all together, and how scary was that? She would’ve liked to wish for Joe to openly look at her the way he sometimes did when he thought she wasn’t watching, his warm gaze making her hot and mushy at the same time, his expression telling her she was more than just sex to him, that maybe there were real feelings, feelings that could go deep, deeper than she’d ever allowed before.

  Not that she’d wish away the sex though, especially since thoughts of that alone could give her a hot flash. The images were implanted, his just-for-her smile barely curving his lips, that hard, honed body taking hers however he wanted—because let’s face it, any way he wanted had been pretty damn amazing so far, especially when he used his tongue to—

  “Now see, you gotta actually toss in a coin,” came a craggy voice and something hit the water. A coin.

  Kylie’s head whipped around to stare at Old Man Eddie. He grinned at her. “Hope you wished for something good, darlin’,” he said. “Would hate to see that penny go to waste.”

  “I . . . I can’t believe you did that.”

  He shrugged. “You were standing here in indecision for so long that Vinnie fell asleep.” He pointed to her dog, who was still curled up on the sun-warmed cobblestones at her feet, snoring like a buzz saw. “What did you wish for?” he asked.

  Oh good God. She’d just wished for more wild sex with Joe. She stared at Eddie and he gave her a slow, sly grin.

  “So it’s like that, is it? Who’s the lucky fellow?”

  “No. No, no, no,” she said. “It doesn’t count since I didn’t throw the coin. You did.”

  Old Man Eddie just smiled.

  “Oh come on,” she said. “Sure