Page 59 of After You

She lifted her fingers and undid her buttons quickly. She’d buttoned them up wrong anyway, she realized. As the buttons parted and Kyle’s expression grew more and more heated, she remembered she was wearing a pink bra with light green panties. They didn’t match at all, and she wondered briefly if Kyle was going to find that out. And if he’d realize that she’d always worn matching panties andbras.

She liked when things matched. Back when she could expend energy on things like that. She hadn’t considered herself uptight or Type A, but she had been. Definitely. But nothing in her house growing up had matched. Their furniture had been a hodgepodge of new and old. They hadn’t had matching towel sets. Their pots and pans had been a mix of things they’d gotten on sale or had been given clear back when her parents had gotten married. Even the storage containers in the fridge had been a mix of tops and bottoms. They were small things that didn’t really matter, but they’d somehow seemed like a lack of organization, or caring, to Hannah. And truthfully, it had been a lack of caring. She got that now. Matching up the lids on the Tupperware was an unimportant detail when you were worried about paying the electric bill to keep the fridge on in the first place.

As the final button parted, she went one step further and spread the two sides apart.

Frankly, if Kyle didn’t like a pink bra with green panties, she didn’t reallycare.

“Holy shit.” He traced a finger along the upper edge of the bra, heating her skin with that single touch. “You’re so fucking gorgeous.”

Hannah felt her eyes widen. It was a heartfelt, and hot, sentiment…that he’d never said before. He’d told her she was beautiful. He’d probably even used the word gorgeous. But he’d never said fucking gorgeous. He’d never said fucking to her period. Not even if he was swearing about something else entirely.

He was right, he’d always been sweet and considerate of her. He’d given a mischievous look here and there. He’d kissed her with heat. He’d let his hands wander at times he shouldn’t—under the edge of a tablecloth or in a corner where they might get caught—but he’d always kept himself just this side of indecent. And while he’d certainly seen and touched every inch of her, they’d never really talked about it. It had been a lot of sighs and moans, but very little actual words.

He slipped the tip of his finger into one bra cup and tugged gently. “Unhook.”

Hannah couldn’t believe they were doing this. She was going to unhook her bra in front of him, in the Come Again kitchen, with the very bright lights above and the crowd of people only a few feetaway?

But she was already reaching behind her back. They were around the corner. She’d have time to pull her shirt closed if someone camein.

The hooks slid free and the bra went slack. Kyle tugged again, pulling it away from her breasts.

Her nipples were already hard, but they puckered further the instant his gaze hitthem.

“Oh, damn, yes.” He ran the pad of his thumb over one of them, and Hannah gasped softly, her thighs squeezing together as heat and want shot straight to hercore.

They’d mostly had sex in the dark while they’d lived in Sapphire Falls. They’d been teenagers after all. But when they’d gone off to college and had two dorm rooms to use however they wanted to—within reason—they’d done it with the lights on and in broad daylight.

But this felt different.

Because in the past, they’d had sex as most people did most things they thought they were going to get to do over and over again for the rest of their lives. They’d enjoyed it, but they’d also taken it for granted.

He’d never studied her before. He’d never licked her nipple and then pinched it gently while watching her carefully for every reaction. He’d also never said, “Playing with your nipples always made you sowet.”

She sucked in a breath. Apparently talking about it also did. He’d never talked about her being wet before. He’d felt it, of course. He knew how to make it happen. But they’d never talked aboutit.

“Say it,” he told her, tugging gently on one nipple. “Tell me you’re wet forme.”

“I’m—” She cleared her throat. “I’m very wet for you.” Wow, it was crazy how hot it was saying it out loud herself.

He kissed his way to the other breast and licked and sucked there for a moment, making her squirm against thewall.

Then she heard herself say, “But I thought this was all about showing, not telling.”

She froze for a second. She couldn’t believe those words had come from her mouth.

Similarly, Kyle stopped moving, then slowly looked up at her. And she was really glad she’d said it. That look in his eyes was worthit.

Okay, she wasn’t sure exactly what had gotten into her, but it was time for him to be a little shocked and hot too. She kept her eyes on his as she popped open the button on her shorts and slid the zipperdown.

Kyle seemed to be holding his breath as he watched her part the front panels, showing off the, yes, green panties. It was so hot watching him watch her, and she wondered why they’d never done this before and why they were doing it now and if they could maybe go somewhere else and really do it. She was shocked that she wanted Kyle to watch her touch herself, but she sodid.

She slid her hand into the front of the panties, then lower, her middle finger gliding over her clit. She gave a little shiver. Then kept going. She slid her finger through the wet heat he’d caused, feeling the insane urge to lie down on the tile floor and spread her legs for him. Who cared who was on the other side of the swinging door? Who cared that the floor in the kitchen of a food service business was the last place she would have ever imagined lying down? Who cared that this was Kyle and she was supposed to be resisting him—for some admittedly good reasons—and that getting naked for him was probably the opposite ofthat?

“Definitely wet,” she told him, her voice barely audible.

There was a pause where there was no sound, no motion, no nothing but hot anticipation in the air. Then he growled and took her face in his hands and kissed her. And she felt tears pricking at the back of her eyes because even in the midst of the intense desire she saw in him, felt in him, he was still holding her head gently, clearly remembering herneck.

She found herself gripping the front of his shirt, her whole body pulsing with need and wanting his hand where hers had been between her legs so badly, she was on the verge of tellinghim.

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