Page 48 of Loving You Always

“When tomorrow?” Walsh asked.

“I don’t know. I’m working at Déjà Vu all day. After work?”

“What time is that?”

“It’s ten to six.” She leaned into his palm cupping the side of her face.

“I’ll pick you up at six.” The strong planes of his face were barely revealed in the moonlight, but she could see the tinder in his eyes. Felt the match strike of desire catch and pop inside with an answering fire. “Pack a bag.”

Kerris’s heart went locomotive, pumping, puffing, and coming off the rails.

“Walsh, we can’t…We need to set some ground rules. I already feel guilty enough about how things happened.”

“Ground rules. Okay.” Walsh teased her lips with his breath. “We can kiss, right?”

Kerris’s brain fogged a little with the promise of his lips, but she nodded her head in jerks.

“And I can touch you here?” He skimmed a finger over her nipple through the cotton shirt.

Kerris stepped back, afraid if this went much further they’d end up dry humping against a tree.

“Everything but.” The words shot out of her mouth sharply, before she could round their edges.

Walsh rolled his eyes, but his smile stayed in place.

“I can do everything but, for now. I mean, you tortured me for the last year. I think I can last another three months.”

Kerris looked up at him, tiny firecrackers going off everywhere his hands had touched.

“And you’re fine with us not…well, with how I want to handle things. The fact that we can’t—”

“We won’t.” He leaned down, pressing his lips behind her ear and down her neck, leaving a wake of sparks. “God knows I want to, though.”

He pulled her closer, and feeling him hard and stiff against her softened the cartilage around her knees. She slumped a little and his fingers tightened on her elbows. She looked up and his green eyes, dark and hot and tender, were waiting for her.

“So tomorrow night, we are on our own. I love Mama Jess, Kerris, but I don’t need a chaperone.”

Kerris allowed her mouth a small grin.

“I just want us to have something we’ve never had,” Walsh said. “Time uninterrupted. Alone.”

“I know, Walsh, I just…”

“You trust me, Kerris?”

She always had. Almost from the beginning. Irrationally. Stupidly. Completely. With her secrets and, even though it wasn’t his to take, with her heart.

“Yes.”

“Good.” He bent to leave the words on her lips. “Then pack a bag.”

Chapter Fifteen

The tinkling bell above Déjà Vu’s door signaled someone had entered the shop. Kerris trapped a sigh behind her lips. She recited all the reasons she should be pleasant and patient with this final customer. She owned this place. She was responsible for its success. Over the last year, while Kerris healed, inside and out, Meredith and Mama Jess had borne more than their share of the work here. Kerris didn’t begrudge them this day off. So even though seeing Walsh tonight had dominated her thoughts all day, she needed to suck it up and be nice.

She closed the register drawer and looked up, the warmed-over smile freezing on her face when she saw her last “customer.”

“Trisha?”

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