Page 28 of After You

“This is not like old times!” She’d never worn a nice dress and sandals to wash the car. She would have had her hair pulled up. She would have been barefoot. And she would have been giving as good as she got and enjoying it. Because she would have known what he was thinking, and she would have been completely comfortable. Because the car washing—just like doing the dishes with him, and mowing the lawn, and folding laundry—had all been a sweet kind of…love. They’d been connected. They’d been a team. And every one of those activities had enforcedthat.

But comfortable was the last thing she felt right now. And she had no idea what he was thinking.

He just stood grinning at her. “There are definitely some advantages to this plan.” His eyes traveled over her and Hannah lookeddown.

The dress was white, of course, and was now clinging to her like a secondskin.

She glared harder. “You have aplan?”

But of course he did. This was Kyle. She should have known. He’d probably calculated the exact amount of water he’d soaked herwith.

“I do,” he said with a nod. “But you’re still not walkingaway.”

Dammit. She wasn’t. “This is all really…not likeyou.”

Something flashed in his eyes, and he dropped the grin and the playful demeanor. He tossed the hose onto the grass, took two big steps forward, and wrapped an arm around her waist, bringing her up against his body, soaking his jeans in the process. “No, it’s not,” he said. “I always treated you like a princess. I was polite and chivalrous and a fucking gentleman.”

Up against his hard, hot, half-naked, now-completely-wet body, Hannah’s thoughts seemed to scatter like a handful of confetti tossed into the air. “You…you were…” she mumbled. Kyle had always been sweet and thoughtful toward her. Even when he’d been sexy, even when they’d taken those hot, slippery showers and he’d done the things he’d reminded her of a few minutes ago, he’d been…sweet. As strange as that sounded. Until right now in her grandmother’s driveway, he’d never said anything like “I turned you around and fucked you from behind.”

She shivered with the memory of him saying that…and doingthat.

“Well, that didn’t exactly work out for me, did it?” he asked, his eyes on her mouth.

It took her a second to realize he was talking about being sweet not working out, not the shower sex. Because that had definitely worked out for themboth.

“I don’t…” She licked her lips that were suddenly dry in spite of the fact that the rest of her was dripping wet. From the hose. And from Kyle. “I don’t know what youmean.”

“I mean, treating you romantically didn’t really work out for me,” he said. “So I think we’re going to try something new thistime.”

And then he kissedher.

Except, it was nothing like the kisses she was used to. He didn’t just touch his lips to hers. He took her mouth. That was the best description. He took her chin between his thumb and fingers, tipping her head and then holding her still. He opened his lips over hers immediately, slicking his tongue along her bottom lip and then slipping inside to meet hers with firm, hot strokes. He held her tightly to his body, turning her and walking her backward until her butt was against the side of the hot, wetcar.

Hot and wet seemed to be the themehere.

Because then he was pressing his body against hers so that she could feel every inch of him. Every. Single. Inch.

He kissed her until she couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t think, she couldn’t do anything except let him. Let him do pretty much anything he wanted.

When he did finally lift his head and stare down at her, his first words were, “Dammit, Hannah.”

She felt her eyebrows rise. “What?”

“You weren’t supposed to letme dothat.”

“I’m sorry, what? I let you do that? You just kind of did it.” But she’d totally let him. And she would likely do it again.

“Push meback.”

She frowned. “Wh—”

“Just fucking push me back,” he said, sounding like he was talking through gritted teeth.

She put her hands on his chest and pushed.

He moved back away from her. “Now frown atme.”

That was not a problem. “You’re crazy, you knowthat?”

---