Page 52 of After You

Derek shrugged. “We’re assuming. Right, Kyle?”

“I don’t fucking care.” He really wished he meant that. He didn’t think that Michael Kade was her boyfriend. He was sitting at that tiny table with her and seemed hardly aware she was even there. If he was a boyfriend, he sucked at it. And she hadn’t mentioned him as a reason why she couldn’t go along with Kyle’s seduction plan. But Kade was the man who got to see her every day. In fucking Seattle.

“But you know who that is, right?” Derek asked Scott.

Scott looked at the guy again. “No, shouldI?”

“You ever heard of Michael Kade?” Derek asked.

Scott nodded. “Sure. The writer. He does thrillers and stuff, right?”

“Yep. And that’shim.”

Scott looked again. “Noshit?”

“No shit. That is Michael Kade, the New York Times bestselling author, and he’s here in Sapphire Falls with Hannah for as long as she’s here. He calls her hismuse.”

Before Kyle had to respond to that, Peyton slipped in between Scott and Kyle. And Kyle kind of wanted to kiss her for it. Having one of his friends watching all of his reactions—and commenting on them—was bad enough. Though he should probably be glad to have Scott around. At least the big cop knew a little of what Kyle was going through. Because it was clear that he was as wound up over Peyton as Kyle was over Hannah.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself,” Scott said as he swiveled his stool and Peyton moved between his knees.

Okay, so what Scott was going through wasn’t exactly what Kyle had going on. Scott had thegirl.

Kyle knew he should just concentrate on his coffee, but he found himself looking at Hannah again. And thinking about the seriously laid thing. Sex had been great between them, but it had been pretty straightforward. They’d done it in a truck, on a blanket by the river, on a couple of couches, and various beds. They’d tried out some different positions. But there hadn’t been anything even remotely kinky about it. It had always been…making love. Cheesy maybe, but true. It had been sexy. But there had always been an underlying sweetness.

But sweet was the last word on Kyle’s mind when Peyton stretched up and laid a hot kiss on Scott that had Kyle shifting on his stool and shooting Derek a look. The bartender was watching with wide eyes. He glanced at Kyle and mouthed, “Damn.”

Yeah. Damn. Because now Kyle wanted that. Not with Peyton, but that unabashed passion and can’t-hold-back-how-I-feel that was palpable between her and Scott.

Finally, Peyton settled back on her heels, running her tongue over her lip and smiling up at Scott like he was her everything.

And yeah, Kyle wanted that too. He wanted to be the reason that a woman smiled with that combination of affection and naughtiness. And not from just anyone. His gaze flickered over to Hannah again. She was still staring at her computer screen, but it almost looked like she was trying too hard to seem enthralled with whatever was on there. Had she seen Scott and Peyton’skiss?

He looked over at Riley. She was watching the spectacle with eyebrows up. Peyton’s friend, Heather, was also watching with a huge grin. And sure enough, when he glanced back at Hannah, her eyes had lifted from the screen and she was looking at Scott and Peyton. But her gaze shifted to him a moment later. And her cheeks gotpink.

He couldn’t actually see that from where he was sitting clear across the bar, but somehow, he knew it. And he felt a strange surge of yes go through him. She’d seen the hot kiss, but she was thinking abouthim.

Suddenly he felt a lot better about everything. Well, almost everything. He still hadn’t seen or talked to her in four days. And she was telling everyone in town but him about her life in Seattle. And he didn’t even want to know about her life in Seattle, but he wanted to knowher.

Crazy. He was going crazy.

Scott and Peyton were heading for the door a minute later, and Kyle was relieved. He had too many fucking emotions going on right now, and they weren’t helping with the one he’d best label cock-swellinglust.

“So she’s been down here the last two nights?” he asked Derek.

Derek grinned. “You caught thathuh?”

“And you didn’t tellme.”

“You’re not supposed tocare.”

Right. “Well, that’s not really workingout.”

“So Isee.”

“What the hell has she been doing for the past four days, anyway?”

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