Page 134 of To Catch a Latte Thick as Thieves

“Jared, where are you going?” she asked as she hurried behind him.

He didn’t answer her. She’d know soon enough. Besides, he didn’t want to give her a chance to think about it and reject him.

He strode past two bedrooms, stopping at the third and largest bedroom at the end of the hall. Not realizing he’d stopped, Cat plowed right into his back with a surprised “oomph!” Jared reached back to steady her with a hand. Glancing over his shoulder into the room, she smiled with delighted surprise.

The room was decorated Santa Fe style. The blond furniture was cut with jagged patterns and decorated in rich browns, reds and blues. The enormous bed in the center of the room matched the rest of the furniture with its carved wooden headboard. Jared liked it immediately.

“Isn’t it wonderful?” she asked from behind him.

He didn’t answer. He turned and before she could utter a sound, he lifted her up and tossed her onto the mammoth bed. Her mouth popped open in surprise, but his actions must have given him away, because her quick-changing, mercurial eyes flashed from angry blue to seductive green on a blink.

He advanced toward her, and she reclined on the bed, her arms outstretched and welcoming him. Jared felt a peculiar knot tighten in his throat. She thought this was goodbye. He had yet to inform her differently, but he would. Oh yes, he certainly would.

8

The predatory gleamin Jared’s eyes sent a thrill rushing through Cat from her head to her feet. She hissed out a breath. Their time was drawing to a close. She tried not to think about it, but there it was. She studied him, trying to memorize everything about him from his white-blond hair to his low-slung jeans.

She wouldn’t cry. She refused to cry. She swallowed her tears and concentrated on the man climbing onto the mattress beside her. His hair brushed her cheek as he kissed a path down her throat. The intimacy of that touch caused her heart to wrench. Oh, goodness, she loved him.

She gripped his broad shoulders for a moment, wanting to hold onto him. She forced herself to relax her grip and stroke his back, mimicking the caress of a lover. What she wanted to do was hang on and never let go, to lose herself in him. But no, she’d done that once before, and it had left her empty and alone, collapsed upon herself like a vine without a trellis. She wouldn’t do that again.

Oh, but this man, he tempted her. To have him forever, to become one with him, it felt right. He was different, special, hers?

She wanted to remember everything about him, his strength, his warmth and his scent. She wanted to remember how she felt at this moment, just before they joined, so that in the future, when she was alone, she would be able to relive this moment. This man.

“Cat.” Jared’s voice was thick with desire, and he leaned over her, cupping her face with his palms. “What are you thinking?”

Cat let herself be trapped by his cerulean gaze, and she knew she couldn’t tell him what was in her mind, her heart, her soul. That she loved him. If she told him, he’d feel obliged to take care of her, and she couldn’t allow that. Instead, she chose an answer guaranteed to coax a response.

“That I want you,” she whispered and arched up against him, capturing his lips with hers.

“You’re killing me, woman,” he growled against her mouth.

“Yeah, well, ask a stupid question,” she murmured, and Jared shut her up with a kiss.

His tongue wooed its way past her lips and into her mouth. It teased the roof of her mouth and tangled with her tongue, causing her heart to hammer triple time and her knees to shake.

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