Chapter Twenty #2
“I think that’s a given, since he doesn’t know the details of the event. I made the mistake the last time of telling him where I’d be.”
Another breath blew between his lips. He eyed the open laptop and strategically placed phone.
“You working?”
“Just getting organized for tomorrow.”
For the first time since knocking on her door, he smiled. Her toes reflexively curled under the covers, her knees pressing together.
“Charity Quinlan, Queen of the Prepared. Empress of the Organized. You should get business cards saying that.”
This time she gave into the urge to let her eyes dance around their orbits.
“I’ll get right on it.”
His grin widened.
Lordy! She was a goner, plain and simple.
She had all the feels for Kolby that a gal should have for a guy.
Why she wasn’t one hundred percent happy about it was simple: they were too different and it was a certifiable guarantee that he was gonna break her heart if she ever decided to put action to her many lusty thoughts about the man.
But boy oh boy, did she want to take the chance. Kolby represented everything she should stay away from in a man. Shallow. Pleasure seeking. Non-committal. Thinking only of the here and now and not future-minded.
Or so she’d thought.
During the past few weeks those descriptions had changed, along with her feelings for the man.
He wasn’t shallow, far from it, in fact. He kept his own counsel on most things, but she’d witnessed his thoughtfulness and kindness numerous times with clients, the staff at the hospital, and most especially with his mother.
In all the weeks since the night-that-should-never-have-happened-and-now-knew-didn’t, she hadn’t seen him with or known about one woman he’d hooked up with, Shannon of the fake breasts or all the other women who’d shown interest at the weddings they'd managed combined.
As far as non-committal, she now knew his status wasn’t because he was all about himself and the pleasure he could wring out of life, but more about the fact he had an ill mother he was bound to and didn’t want to burden anyone else with the weight of his responsibility.
For a few moments they simply stared across the room at one another.
Charity hoped her face concealed the desire charging through her.
The urge to fling the covers back, sprint across the room, jump up into his arms and wrap her legs around his waist was so overwhelming, she had to physically press her butt against the mattress to stay in place.
She fisted her hands next to her laptop and willed her pounding heart to slow.
“Okay, well.” Kolby shook his head, his shoulders following, while his eyes beat a rapid tattoo, blinking like he was coming awake.
Or out of a trance.
“I’ll let you get back to it. I’ll be just down the hall if you need anything.”
His earlobes turned a charming shade of pink.
He was halfway through the door when she stopped him. “Kolby?
He turned, one hand on the knob. “Yeah?”
She swallowed again.
Never start anythang you ain’t prepared t’finish, Baby-Girl.
It was her father’s voice whispering in her ear with the advice that had saved her many times.
This time? Not so much.
Charity drew in a breath and then let it ease out again, her gaze locked with his.
“When you say anything, what does that include?”
Forehead wrinkled, he tilted his head. “I – I don’t know.” A shrug. “A glass of water? To talk about something? Just...anything.”
Nodding, her decision made – which if she really wanted to be truthful about it, was made a long time before this moment – she shifted her laptop and phone to the bedside table, then threw back the covers. Standing barefoot, she took another breath and slowly walked toward him.
Clad in her old college sweatpants, threadbare at the knees, and a T-shirt that read Southern Girls: Steel wrapped in cotton, she wasn’t dressed for any kind of seduction.
But she didn’t care.
“Charity?”
Stopping right in front of him, bare toes to bare toes, she licked her lips and pressed her hands, open-palmed, on his chest. His heart was pounding as hard as hers.
Kolby hissed in a breath, his hands automatically coming up to circle her wrists.
He repeated her name, then asked, “What are you doing?”
“I have a question.”
“Okay.”
“Does your offer of anything include kissing me?”
“What?” The word exploded from him, echoing in the space between them.
Not the reaction she expected, but he didn’t sound disgusted or off-put, just surprised.
She could work with surprised. Surprised wasn’t an outright refusal, thank the good Lord above.
Exerting the barest amount of pressure, she let her nails dig into his chest, through his shirt. The man was built like a redwood tree.
“I’d like you to kiss me,” she said simply.
“Kiss you? What, like a...goodnight kiss?”
She almost giggled at the way his forehead resembled her Granny’s Venetian blinds, the skin at the corners of his eyes wrinkled and narrowed in confusion.
“No,” she whispered, skating her hands up to his shoulders, then winding them around his neck.
Their height difference was insane without the benefit of her heeled shoes, so she lifted up to the tips of her toes.
Every curve of her body was now plastered to every hard plane of his as his hands slipped around her waist and settled at the small of her back.
Through her lust-filled haze, she noted they trembled against her.
An unwavering sense of power shot through her system at the knowledge she could make this man quake.
So there would be no doubt about what she wanted, she tilted her head back to look him square in the eyes, and said, “A goodnight kiss is the last thing I want.”
It was his turn to swallow, the notch at his throat working with the effort.
“What do you want?” he asked in a soft voice washed with desire, his pupils growing two sizes to almost obliterate the color.
“I want you to kiss me like you want me.” She took a breath. “As a woman, not a girl who needs to be protected, or who’s a co-worker you can barely tolerate, but as a woman you desire.”
When he didn’t respond immediately, fear he’d reject her -or worse, laugh in her face - threatened to humble her.
Those few seconds where he studied her, his gaze shifting back and forth between her eyes, taking in her parted lips, and what she knew were cheeks heated to ripe red Fall apples, seemed like tortured hours.
Then...
“I’ve wanted you, just that way, for a long, long, time, Charity.”
She blinked as shock seeped through her.
“You...you have?”
His hands pressed her closer against his body, the truth of his words evident in the arousal straining against his jeans.
That sensation of power grew tenfold.
“So damn much it’s been driving me nuts.
” He kissed the tip of her nose and laid his forehead against hers.
He sighed, eyes closed. “I want you so bad I can’t stop thinking about it.
About you. About us. How great it would be.
” He opened his eyes and pulled back, everything he’d just said clear as clear could be in them.
He slid a finger down her temple, across her cheek, stopping at the corner of her mouth.
“Why—why haven’t you said anything?”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“I’m one thousand percent serious.”
With a shake of his head, he told her, “When you thought we’d slept together, you were ready to castrate me and made your loathing of me obvious. In my mind, there was no scenario where me telling you how I felt was going to end well.”
“But we didn’t sleep together.”
“You didn't know that, though, so I was concerned about how you'd react. Plus, we work together, Charity. Closely. Which is why I’ve been trying so hard to ignore my attraction to you. I don’t want our working relationship to be strained.”
“It’s always been strained,” she said, because it was the simple truth. “But we’ve managed.” After a moment she added, “Barely, and with some bumps. But.” She shrugged.
He nodded as his finger trailed down her chin to cup it. His gaze swept her eyes again looking for...what?
“Don’t think, Kolby,” she said. “Just kiss me.”
Before he could move, she pressed her lips against his and prayed he’d kiss her back.
Those prayers were answered before the request landed in Heaven.
His mouth was made for this, she mused as his lips glided over hers, learning her subtle curves, trailing across the seam with his tongue.
When she opened for him and he deepened the kiss, she lost the ability to stay on her toes.
Kolby must have understood because he slid both hands under her thighs and lifted her so she could wind her legs around his waist.
With the next breath he carried her across the room. When he plopped down on the chair next to the bed, she pulled back from the amazing kiss, confused.
“Why aren’t we on the bed?” she asked, taking in his plump, wet mouth. She planted her hands on his chest again, noting that his heart was thumping three times faster than before.
He swept the hair back from her face with both hands and kissed her nose again.
“You asked me to kiss you, Charity. Nothing more.”
“What—” She pressed her lips together and cast her eyes downward, color heightening her cheeks again. When she looked back up, his nostrils flared as his chest rose, heavily, against her hands. “What if I want more?”
“The fact that you do means everything,” he said, his voice raw with emotion. “But,” he shook his head.
“But what? I know you want me as much as I want you right now.” She wiggled her butt against the length of him pressing against her.
He closed his eyes and swallowed.
***
Jesus. She was gonna kill him. It would be a tortured, albeit pleasurable death, but she was going to kill him, that much was certain.
The last thing he’d expected when he’d knocked on her door to say goodnight was this.