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“Sit down, Caleb. I just walked a mile in an alley looking behind dumpsters for your dog. We’re past formalities.”
I settled onto the couch beside her, and we clinked cans. After a long pull, I set my can on the coffee table. “If I’m being honest, Skye is my support animal too.”
She placed her can on the table next to mine and took my hand in hers.
“My mom gave me Skye when I was recovering from the accident. I didn’t want to do PT or leave the house. Honestly, I barely got out of bed most days. So, Mom got the most energetic puppy she could find. Skye had these bright blue eyes then. I didn’t know they’d change to green.”
“The name suits her,” Rowan said, giving my hand a squeeze. “She has a personality as big as the sky.”
“She does,” I said. Skye let out an extra loud snore as if to agree. “I can’t thank you enough for helping me find her.”
Rowan nodded and let go of my hand. I wanted to take it back, but she laced her fingers together and placed them on her lap.“My dad loved chocolate-covered cherries,” she said softly. “Or so I thought. I gave him a box for Christmas when I was little, and he made such a big show of liking them, I bought him a box every year. Since you can only buy them at Christmas, he’d eat one a day because he said he wanted them to last. Each year I got him a bigger and bigger box.”
“That’s nice,” I said, not following where she was going, but curious.
“Well, after he died, I missed buying those boxes. Then, during my first semester at Georgetown, my hall had a white elephant gift exchange with a five-dollar max.”
“So, you bought cherries?”
“No, I bought lip gloss. But I opened a box of chocolate-covered cherries. None of my hallmates knew about my Christmas tradition with my dad. It was just an odd coincidence.”
“That’s incredible.”
She nodded and her emerald eyes glistened. “I hadn’t felt grief like that in years. By the time I sobbed through the story, all my hallmates were crying and hugging me. I took that box of cherries home, and now every Christmas I visit Dad’s grave and eat a cherry.”
My eyes burned. I felt on the edge of losing it all over again when Rowan’s face cracked into a huge smile. “Those cherries taste awful. A couple years ago, Mom confessed that Dad hated them too. He ate one a day because that’s all he could choke down.”
A laugh burst out of me, pulling the ache from my chest. Rowan laughed too, but then her expression shifted. Her mouth parted and her eyes darkened. Her breathing accelerated, her perfect breasts rising and falling in that red dress.
My stomach clenched, and before I could tell myself all the reasons not to, I ran my thumb across her full bottom lip. Iwaited for her to pull away. When she didn’t, I leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on her mouth. Our lips moved together, soft at first, tentative. When she placed her hands on my chest, the kiss deepened, and all my commonsense evaporated.
The need to feel her roared through my body like a freight train. I kissed down her neck to the creamy skin I’d been longing to touch ever since the moment I saw her at the block party. I slid the thin straps from her shoulders and let the fabric fall from her chest. Her pink nipples pebbled beneath my fingers. She let out a gasp and threaded her hands in my hair as I bent and kissed her breast. Her grip tightened when I sucked her nipple into my mouth. I looked up. Her eyes were closed, her head thrown back, her breath coming in pants. I gave the other breast equal attention before lowering Rowan gently to the couch. She moaned as I rocked against her and the sound sent a ripple of pleasure through my body. Fuck, I was going to finish in my shorts if I kept rubbing against her.
“I have to taste you,” I said.
Her eyes widened but she nodded. I ran my hands up her smooth legs, pushing the dress up as I went. I dipped my head and inhaled the scent of her, musky and sweet. She’d soaked the delicate white lace covering her sensitive skin. I ran my tongue over the thin fabric, and she arched off the sofa. Hooking my fingers in the band, I slid her panties down her legs. When I swirled my tongue on her clit, she gripped my hair again, holding me in place. I dipped a finger into her tight heat, and she shuddered. I sucked her into my mouth, and she breathed my name, arching closer. I added another finger, pumping in and out as I twirled her clit in my mouth. She tightened around my fingers as she came, her body shuddering in waves that made my dick weep.
I couldn’t wait another second to feel her skin against mine. I sat up and pulled my shirt over my head. She ran her smallhands down the ridges of my chest to my shorts then cupped me. I sucked in a breath. Our eyes locked, and my chest tightened. Fuck she was beautiful.
Just as I reached for her, a firework went off outside. Skye gave a startled bark and shot off the chair, straight to the downstairs bathroom.
The commotion cleared the lust hold from my mind. What was I doing? Rowan was a patient. She was coming off a nasty divorce and told me, less than a couple hours ago, that she didn’t want to complicate her life. I hadn’t even had my standard “I don’t do relationships” talk with her.
Luckily, the fireworks and Skye seemed to have snapped Rowan back to reality as well. “Um, do you need to check on her?” she said. “I can see myself out.”
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”
She pulled the top of her dress back into place, and I held her hand as she rose from the couch.
“Thanks again for helping me tonight,” I said, giving her fingers a squeeze.
“Um, thank you for,” she blushed and waved her other hand toward the couch.
We smiled at each other and started laughing.
“I better go,” she said, walking to the front door. “Good luck with Skye.”
As soon as she closed the door behind her, I collapsed on the couch and put my head in my hands. That’s when I saw the lace panties on the floor. The thought of Rowan walking through the block party bare was enough to bring me to my feet to chase after her and finish what we started. Another firework exploded and Skye let out a sharp cry inside the bathroom. I blew out a breath and prepared for a long night with the wrong type of fireworks.
