Challenging the Center (Santa Fe Bobcats #6)(48)

Michael’s hands went to her hips automatically, clenching around her in possession. “No.”

One side of her lips tipped ever so slightly. “Funny, that’s what I said too.”

The vise that had clenched his lungs released marginally. “Did they insist?”

“Well, funny thing about being twenty-six.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I get to call the shots in a lot of things.”

“And if Sawyer drops you for disobedience?”

“Then I guess I’m on my own.”

“And if your coach drops you?”

“Peter and I were already not seeing eye to eye. Maybe it’s time for a change.”

For some completely unexplainable reason, that lit something up inside him. “A change, huh?”

“Yeah. Maybe.”

“Would this change have anything to do with dry heat and a cat named Benny?”

“Oh, Benny… He was quite the dance partner. The tail could be a problem though.” She chewed on her lip a moment, a guilty flush taking over her face. “I wasn’t trying to be obvious or an attention whore. I was just… I don’t know.” Setting her jaw, she ended with, “He started it.”

“That’s your story, and you’re sticking to it, huh? The mascot started it.”

“Yup.”

“Okay then.”

They were quiet for a moment, breathing in each other’s scent, their nearness.

Kat whispered, “So what now?”

“Now… you come back to my place.” He lifted her down off the counter.

“Because you’re going to yell at me over there?”

“There may be yelling.” He swatted her ass as she walked by him out of the kitchen, and she predictably yelped before laughing. “But it won’t be angry. Not if I’m doing it right.”

She gave him a look over her shoulder that was hard to read but he took as encouragement. Then grabbed her keys from the hook by the door and left the apartment behind him.





Chapter 14





We’re going to have sex. Holy shit, we’re actually going to have sex.

It had never been so… easy before. So matter of fact. Hey, let’s go back to my place and have sex. It was probably her lack of experience talking, but she had no clue this was how it was done.

Michael waited for her to lock her apartment door, then fiddled with his own lock. Calm as you please, no rush, no hurry.

Instantly she realized easy wasn’t what she wanted. It felt cold, like a business transaction. Like something they were just going to scratch off the day’s to-do list.

Grocery shop: check

10,000 steps: check

Have sex with neighbor: check

As Michael’s door swung open, Kat felt her reservations slide up and grip her throat. She croaked out, “Michael, we really don’t—”

“Come on in.” He opened up and slid an arm around her lower back, propelling her into the apartment.

Fine. So they could have the this isn’t a good idea chat in private. Better idea. She walked in and waited for him to close the door. As she spun around to tell him they were better off not crossing this line, her first word was interrupted by his hands fisting in her hair, pulling her head back so he could kiss her deeply.

All protests died the instant his lips hit hers. This was no polite, cold, businesslike merging of two bodies. It was hot, a little wild, messy. Their lips tangled, teeth bumped, hands groped for purchase in hair, at the back of their necks, shoulders, fisted in shirts. Anything they could do to anchor themselves more firmly together and keep the contact.

He ground his body against hers, palming her ass and pulling her as close together as physically possible. The moment his erection pressed into her stomach, she knew she was lost to the inevitable. Never before had she felt the bright… need. There was no other word for it. Need clawed through her, erasing all thoughts of slowing down, of stopping, of being rational. This need wasn’t a rational feeling and wouldn’t allow reality to penetrate the fog it created.

His large hand smoothed down to the junction where her butt met her upper thigh, squeezed hard enough to make her gasp into his mouth, then did the same thing with the other side. “Hitch up,” he breathed.

It took her kiss-addled mind a moment to realize what he was asking, then she immediately complied, jumping enough that he could catch her under the thighs and give her the chance to wrap her legs around his waist. It pressed her open core into his erection, and she moaned at the feeling.

“You’ve got to stop making those sounds,” Michael chided in a gruff voice, walking with her. The sensation of moving backward, already deprived of oxygen from their drugging kisses, had Kat’s head spinning. “I won’t last five f*cking seconds otherwise.”

“Not… oh,” she mewled as he hitched her harder against him. “Not doing it on purpose.”

“Right.” He kicked his bedroom door closed—why, she didn’t know—and walked to the bed. Kat looked at him, eye level, waiting for him to press her against the mattress, cover her with his body and continue making love to her. In preparation, she unwrapped her legs from around his waist.

Then she went flying, back hitting the mattress and bouncing twice before she settled down. “What the hell?”