“Thank you, Elliot, for everything. You’ve been so generous to me and Joey, and I just—” Blinking, she turned her head to the side for a moment before facing me again. “I don’t think many people would go out of their way for others the way you have for me.”
She brought my knuckles up to her mouth and pressed a light kiss there, taking me off guard. When she cupped the back of my neck and tugged me down to her waiting mouth, I wasn’t ready. Her lips slid against mine in a warm, firm kiss my brain was too fucking stupefied to respond to.
Catherine kissed me, and all I did was stand there.
Just stood there.
Unmoving.
Unresponsive.
Un-fucking-able to think.
Her lips fell away from mine, and she was a foot away, covering her mouth with her hand, her eyes wide with horror.
“Oh shit, I’m sorry. That was—won’t happen again. I’m so, so sorry.”
The moment she turned to run, my brain came back online. She was leaving, thinking she had something to be sorry about. That wasn’t even close to the case.
Arm snapping out, I captured her by the nape, spinning her into my chest. We collided with a huff of her breath, her breasts pillowing against my upper abdomen. Not giving her another second to berate herself for reading me, the situation, my feelings wrong, I dipped down and covered her mouth with mine.
My fingers dug into the back of her hair, and hers fisted the sides of my T-shirt. It was all I could do not to crush her against me and drink from her lips now that I had her in this position, but I restrained myself, kissing her slowly, urging her mouth to move with mine with the sweep of my tongue along her upper lip.
I tasted her sweetness, sucking it into my bloodstream. Tangled my fingers in her thick, wild locks. Clamped my arm around her waist, holding her as close as I could in this position.
Catherine kissed me back with timid caresses at first, but soon, she became more sure, snuggling closer, sucking deeper, sighing her breath into my lungs.
Then, she was the first to pull away when I was nowhere near done. I’d had a sample, and now I wanted the entire feast.
She flattened her palms on my stomach and pushed back. “I should really go to bed.”
I had to force myself to release her hair when I wasn’t even close to ready to let her go. Dragging my fingertips down her bare arms, I stopped at her hands, squeezing them in mine.
“Good night, Catherine.”
She nibbled on her bottom lip, and every part of me wanted to toss her on the couch and suck that plump lip between mine.
“Good night, Elliot.”
She walked away, and I groaned when I was alone again.
No matter how much I wanted it—I had, that wasn’t ever a question—I’d been avoiding this. Catherine had no idea what she’d awakened when she’d touched her lips to mine. She’d stoked the fire of my desire I’d kept carefully cold for a long time.
There was no going back.
My stomach was filled with flames, and I was burning for her.
Chapter Twenty-three
Catherine
I sat in the center of my walk-in closet, Joey-Girl beside me on a blanket, staring at my racks of clothing and shelves of shoes and handbags.
It seemed my new wardrobe had multiplied overnight. There were rows of shoes—sleek heels and funky boots. Purses with studs and chunky zippers. Ruffle-shoulder tops, knee-length skirts, cute cardigans, tailored slacks, and so many dresses. It was all my style but elevated.
I’d checked the pants. Sometime between us leaving the department store and me discovering everything in my closet last night, they had been hemmed to a perfect length.
So freaking thoughtful. But that was Elliot. Details like that never escaped him.
“Do you see all this, honey? It’s obscene!”
Joey kicked her feet and gazed up at the light fixture, her brow crinkled. She still loved the fan above my bed, maybe more than she loved me, but she was crushing on this light. It was a sweet mini chandelier, so I understood her infatuation.
“I know I told you all about not looking a gift horse in the mouth, but what about kissing one? Because I did, and I don’t know what the hel…vetica I was thinking.” I tapped her nose, making her smile. “You don’t know what I’m saying. Hopefully by the time you understand, Mommy will have her shitake together. See? I’ve stopped cursing so much.”
Not getting a lot of sleep wasn’t anything new to me, but last night had been worse than normal. I’d barely slept at all, tossing and turning, ruminating over Elliot’s complete lack of response to the feel of my lips on his.