Page 25 of After You

“That doesn’t answer my question. What’s goingon?”

“This isn’t the place to talk aboutit.”

She looked around. “Whynot?”

“Because one of us is going to end up yelling. Maybe even both of us. And that will upset your grandma.”

Hannah’s eyes flickered to the house over his shoulder. “They’re watching.”

“Exactly.”

“And you want them to think that we’re getting along.”

“Yes.”

“So that Grandma isn’t upset about us not getting along.”

“Right.”

She sighed and dropped her hands. “But we’re not going to be getting along?”

“I didn’t saythat.”

She frowned. “I’m not following.”

Yeah, he knew that. He was still formulating the plan, but he knew how it needed to go. And this little water fight—and her irritation about it—had given him a solididea.

“Just play along for now,” he said. “I’ll fill you in later when we have a minute alone.”

Her eyebrows rose. “We’re going to have a minute alone?”

He raked a hand through his hair, annoyance rising in his chest. “Jesus, Hannah, don’t you think we need at least a minute ortwo?”

She swallowed. “I’d kind of…hoped…we wouldn’t,” she finally finished weakly.

And that pissed him off. He shifted so his back was fully to the kitchen window. “Really? You thought you’d be here for six weeks and we wouldn’ttalk?”

For fuck’s sake. This was the first time they’d seen each other in three years.

She gave a little shrug. “I was planning on laying low, sticking around here, not really stirring anythingup.”

Now it was his turn to lift his eyebrows. “Not stirring anything up? Seriously?” Hell, the thought of her being back in town had had him stirred up for almost a monthnow.

“I know we would have talked about Grandma and her surgery and stuff, but yeah, I guess I was thinking maybe it wouldn’t have to…get personal.”

A hot knife of disbelief, anger, and oh fuck that went through Kyle so fast that he had to suck in a quick breath. She didn’t want to get personal? Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. Everything about this felt personal. And he was going to make sure she felt the same damnedway.

“The last time I saw you, you were soapy and wet in my shower. I went down on you, made you come in my mouth, then turned you around and fucked you from behind before I had to get to the hospital. Then you went back to Seattle and broke things off with almost no explanation. And now, three fucking years later, you think you’re just going to stay here for six weeks and things won’tget personal?”

He couldn’t believe how difficult it was to hold himself still and keep his body language casual for any onlookers. He wanted to shout, he wanted to shake her, he wanted to punch a fist into Alice’s car hood. And Kyle never got worked up like this. He felt like his whole body was vibrating.

Hannah was also holding herself tightly, her arms crossed, her cheeks flushed, and her eyeswide.

Kyle was also having trouble fighting against the visual memories of everything he’d just reminded Hannah of. He could picture the way the soap bubbles had clung to her breasts, he could taste the intoxicating combination of soap and Hannah on his tongue, he could smell the shampoo and the sweet scent of her arousal mingling. His body was reacting to it all too. His blood was pumping from anger and red-hot desire.

“I can’t believe you just said that,” she finally managed.

“Yeah, well, there’s more where that came from.” There were years of memories like that. And not just the naked ones. Memories of them on the porch swing talking about the future, family dinners where it had felt like their families were already meshed into one unit, even simple things like him learning to braid her hair. Intimate, sweet moments. Blow-his-mind hot moments. Moments full of laughter and family andlove.

---