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As if she grasped how inappropriate my thoughts were, Kelly darted out from under my arms and snagged my duffel off her bed. Then she grabbed the snake out of my hands and shoved my bag into my arms.
“Your room’s across the hall.”
“Yeah?” We didn’t move. I watched a hint of emotion flash across her face before she shuttered it.
She gestured to the plush carpet under our feet. “Guess it’ll be nice sleeping somewhere other than the floor, right?”
I couldn’t help myself. I gripped her chin again, forcing her attention to me. I didn’t like the way she could barely look me in the eye. Like she was embarrassed by her nightmares that had me killing my back so I could be there to comfort her.
“Hey.” At the quiet snap to my voice, her eyes finally met mine. “I’m here. Whatever you need, you tell me. I’ll give you anything at all.”
She already owned me. Every last piece of me was hers to do with what she wanted. But surely I’d scare her away if she knew the extent of my obsession with her. If she knew that I’d just pictured her naked in a pile of feather boas, after what she’d been through.
She gripped my wrist, pulling my hand from her face. Then, as if I hadn’t said a thing, she told me, “Wait until you see your bed. You might want to sleep on the floor after all.”
Without waiting on a response, she pulled me from her room to the one across the hall. She plopped face first onto the bed, dropping my hand before she did, but almost not soon enough to keep me from stumbling forward and crushing her against the mattress.
Kelly rolled over, peering up at me in a way that did nothing to remove the image of her my imagination had created.
“What do you think?” She spread her arms wide across the small mattress, and while I assumed she meant to indicate the size of the bed, all I could see was her.
I swallowed hard in an effort to control the saliva that had flooded my mouth. A crooked smile—so fucking beautiful—tilted her lips in the most enticing way. Wiping one hand down my thigh, I leaned forward, pressing my free hand to the mattress beside her head. She tilted her chin up, baring her smooth skin, her sharp intake of breath lifting her breasts toward me.
“Not sure I’ll fit,” I murmured, and Kelly’s eyes flashed with something like fear as I reached for her face. Her mouth dropped open when I ran my thumb along her bottom lip, as she squirmed against the bed before she grabbed my wrist, her fingers pressing into the thudding vein pumping blood to my overworked heart.
Her lips twitched and her eyes sparkled with mischief. “You might be due for a massage after you get done with me.”
Fuck.
I was about to tell her there was no way in hell I’d ever be done with her when her mother’s voice sounded from down the hall. “Kelly? You there, honey?”
Kelly scrambled away from me so fast, I almost fell to the bed. When I turned around, Erin was pulling her daughter into a hug.
“Ugh. Mom! Stop it!”
“Welcome home, sweetheart.”
“Do you need any help in the kitchen?” Kelly wriggled away.
“No, everything’s ready. It’s just movie time!”
Movies. The very thing that we’d been doing in the past couple weeks.
Kelly inched toward the door. “Do we really have to watch it?”
“Hush now. Don’t let your dad hear you say that. You know it’s a tradition.”
Without a response, Kelly rushed from the room. Erin turned a wide, inviting smile my way, one I didn’t feel worthy of at all.
Not after what I’d failed to do.
Not after what I’d almost done.
She reached out and squeezed my arm. “Glad you could make it.”
”Almost didn’t.”
Her face crumpled. “That bad?”
