“Did I ruin them?”
“No, they just smell like sex.”
“Want to borrow something? Or wash anything?”
“I…” How big of a line was I stepping over? “I should just run home and change.”
“Here.” He opened a drawer and tossed me a pair of sweatpants, then opened another drawer and handed me a tee. “Wear those for now. Stay up here until you have to go. I’ll toss your stuff in the wash. It won’t take long. Any special instructions?”
I shook my head. “No, but you don’t have to do that.”
“Well, I am the one who couldn’t resist you.”
“I came here hoping for that reaction.”
A slow, sexy smirk lifted his lips.
“Oh, stop,” I said with a laugh. “You know I want you.”
“I do now. You’re coming back here after your meeting, right?”
“I was thinking about it. You said I could work here. If you don’t mind. Sometimes I struggle to focus when I’m home with all the other things I need to do.”
“You are welcome here anytime you want to be here.”
I rolled my eyes. “Because you want more sex.”
He shook his head and moved close to me. “No, Casey, because I like having you in my home. I like knowing my sheets are going to smell like you. My sweats are going to be right up against your naked body. My couch is going to have you on it. I like seeing you in my space and, yeah, I like fucking you in my bed, but it’s a lot more than that.”
“Okay,” I breathed, because what the hell else could I say to that?
I stepped into his sweatpants, surprised when they were big on me, then I tugged his shirt over my head, again noting how big it was. He got dressed in clean clothes, then took everything we were both wearing to the laundry room next to his kitchen and started the wash.
“You said you have to open at ten?”
He nodded. “I do, but Gail and Carson will be here…” He checked the clock. “Soon.”
“I didn’t realize that.”
“All good. They have keys.”
A door slammed downstairs, and we looked at each other.
“Stay up here and get some work done. I’ll be back up in twenty minutes to put the clothes in the dryer.”
“I can do that.”
“Nope. You have work to do. You don’t need to let my home distract you.”
“What if I want to snoop?”
He chuckled. “Then by all means, get as distracted as you’d like.” He leaned over me and kissed me softly again. “I’ll be back up here soon.”
I smiled and watched him walk to the door. He winked before he closed it, then left me alone in his apartment.
The tears that lingered during sex raced back to my eyes, blurring my vision. What was wrong with me? I’d been having sex for more than half my life. I never got emotional about it. Not my first time, or when I found out I was pregnant, or even when Kyle and I got married and celebrated our wedding night.
But that wasn’t just sex. Whatever just happened with Landon was magical. It was… the kind of thing they talked about at book club. Sex with someone who knew you and whom you knew. I thought I’d experienced that with Kyle. We were married for years. We knew each other. But sex with him was never more than an act.
