Playing for Keeps (Heartbreaker Bay #7)(62)

“I didn’t lie. I did eat.” He flashed a dirty smile that had her halfway to another orgasm and lifted her, one arm banded around her low back, the other sliding around the back of a thigh, encouraging her to wrap her legs around him.

Which she did, kissing her way down his throat to the emblem on his biceps. “You had a good artist.”

“My cousin,” he said, palming her ass, easily holding her up against him. “Like you, she normally only takes on female clients, but I bugged her until she caved.”

“Why only female clients?”

Caleb shrugged. “She’s not super fond of men. Says they have a lower pain tolerance.”

“Men are big babies.” She laughed when he looked surprised and maybe slightly insulted. “And the more alpha they are,” she went on, “the lower their pain threshold. I once had a client who wanted a big badass Metallica tattoo, but he couldn’t handle it. He left the shop with a single line trailing down the back of his shoulder.”

Caleb smiled. “I wasn’t exactly a tough guy when I got my first tattoo.”

“You mean your cartoon turtle?” she teased.

“Laugh all you want, I deserve it. I was an idiot back then. An idiot who needed a couple of shots of whiskey to get through it.”

“It could’ve been worse,” she said. “You didn’t get the name of your high school sweetheart, for instance. Rocco makes more money covering up other tattoos, like ex-lovers’ names, than anything else. If you’re going to get a name inked on your body forever, it should belong to a pet, one of your kids, or—”

“—Mom?” he asked dryly.

She tried and failed to stifle a grin. “Yeah.”

Apparently her grin was contagious because he was grinning back at her and they were staring at each other stupidly, and then not stupidly . . . and the room began to heat up.

He strode with her out of the kitchen and she got breathless with anticipation. “Are we going to try again to prove neither of us is scared?” she asked.

“Yes. As many times as you can take.”

“I don’t have to be at work until eight in the morning.” She nipped at his throat.

With a rough groan, he glanced at the time. “That gives us eight hours.”

“Think it’s enough time?”

“Not nearly, but I’m good at making do.”

“I hope you’ve got a bed somewhere in this huge place.”

“Yeah,” he said as he strode with her into a large living room. “But we’re not going to make it there.”

“We’re not?”

“No.” The rough gravel of his voice and the look on his face turned her on way more than she’d like to admit. He dropped a knee to the biggest couch she’d ever seen and laid her out on it. “But we are going to get all of our clothes off this time,” he promised and had them both stripped down to bare skin in less than a blink, and then proceeded to crawl up her body and get started making the most of their eight hours.



Sadie assumed the next morning would be awkward. After all, morning-afters weren’t in her repertoire. When Caleb dragged her out of bed before dawn’s first light, she told him he should prepare to die. He only laughed and slung her over his shoulder and strode into his bathroom.

She’d considered biting his very fine ass, but then he stepped with her into his blissfully hot shower so she decided he could live for another few minutes.

“You almost died,” she told him.

“Shh,” he murmured and lifted her up against him. “I’m not finished with you yet.” Then he took his time making sure she shared in his joy of coed morning showers and she forgot all about murder.

After, she told him that maybe he might be the perfect man after all—if he cooked her pancakes. But he reminded her he couldn’t cook worth shit. So whew, he really wasn’t perfect.

Lollipop was in the living room attacking a pillow when they came out of Caleb’s bedroom, ready for work.

Sadie froze. “Your sister’s here?”

“No, she just dropped off Lollipop.”

Remembering the last thirty minutes in the shower, Sadie bit her lower lip. “Think she heard us?”

He gave her an amused look. “Us?”

She smacked his chest and he laughed, grabbing her hand. “She didn’t hear anything, the walls are very well constructed and nearly soundproof.”

The “nearly” worried her, but she put it out of her mind when Caleb bought her McDonald’s, breakfast of champions, and then drove her and Lollipop to work. Before she and the dog slid out of his car, he pulled her in close for a goodbye kiss that curled her toes. His touch was sometimes playful and sometimes lust-filled, but it was always meaningful.

“Have a good morning,” he murmured, smiling at the undoubtedly glazed-over look in her eyes.

“I’ve already had a good morning,” she reminded him. “Did you wreck your knees on that hard tile floor in your shower?”

He smiled a very sexy, very knowing smile that brought her back to the steamy hot shower and how he’d dropped to his knees, slid his hands up her thighs and leaned in to give her one of the most erotic experiences of her life.

“You worried I won’t be able to do it again?” he asked.