Page 51 of The Sweet Life

“Put the key in the lock,” he ordered in her ear.

She shivered, trying to do as he said, but she had a hard time focusing when he undid a third button and lowered her shirt off her shoulders, his fingers sweeping over her collarbones to the lace edging the cups of her bra.

“Madonna santa, grazie,” she cried as the key turned in the lock and she opened the door. They practically tripped over each other in their rush to get inside. The remaining buttons popped off Gia’s shirt, and she brushed aside Flynn’s apologies, moving his hands away to take it off herself. His gaze was heated as it moved over her, standing in her bra, skirt, and heels.

She hummed her appreciation as she helped him take off his shirt. Smoothing her hands over his six-pack, gleaming golden in the moonlight shining through her studio window, she dragged a nail lightly along his skin just above the waistband of his jeans, loving the way his muscles twitched in reaction to her touch, the way he sucked in a breath.

Her phone rang from where she’d dropped it on the floor. She ignored it and went back to teasing him, only this time she undid the top button of his jeans. His phone vibrated in his pocket, and hers started ringing again.

They looked at each other, and the lightbulb went off at the same time for them both. “I’m going to kill her,” Gia said, reaching for her phone as Flynn withdrew his from his pocket.

“Where’s your bedroom?”

She pointed, and he took her hand, leading the way. “Why are we going to my bedroom?”

“We might as well be comfortable while we spend half the night talking to your sister, Willow, and my kids.” He brushed a kiss over her cheek and then whispered in her ear. “And after we talk to them, we’re going to finish what we started and blow each other’s minds. Over and over again.”

Chapter Seventeen

Sage’s phone rang on the nightstand. She didn’t have to worry about waking anyone up. She was sleeping alone and not happy about it. It was her fault. Last night when Jake suggested they celebrate their fresh start, she’d mistakenly assumed it was a euphemism for them having sex.

And she’d been ready to have sex with him, more than ready, truth be told. And it wasn’t just because they’d had fun feeding each other the chocolate cake or she’d laughed more with Jake than she could remember laughing in a very long time.

Yesterday had been a turning point in their relationship. They’d shared things about themselves, important things. Things Sage had never talked about to anyone else. He wasn’t who she thought he was. She admired and respected the man he’d become. It didn’t hurt that he was gorgeous or that he’d apparently had a crush on her growing up. She’d thought she’d seen signs that he still did, but maybe she’d been wrong.

Her door opened as she reached for the phone. “Who’s calling you at this hour of the morning?” Jake asked, coming overand picking up her phone. “Your sister. Do you want me to tell her you’re still sleeping?”

“No. If you answer my phone this early, she’ll think you’re in bed with me.” What was wrong with her? She sounded disappointed. Dammit. How early was it? Too early for Jake to notice the subtle whine in her voice, she decided.

He angled his head. “Are you disappointed that I’m not in bed with you?”

“No! Why would you ask a stupid question like that?”

“Uh, maybe because you sounded like you were.”

“Of course I’m not.” She raised herself up on the bed, puffed up her pillows, and leaned back against them. “You can give me my phone now. Earth to Jake.” She made agimmemotion with her fingers while following his gaze.

She smirked. “I think you’re projecting, Jake Walker. It’s you who’s disappointed you aren’t in bed with me.” Assuming they were going to have sex last night, she’d chosen the sexy, siren-red lingerie that she’d never worn but Willow had packed for her when Sage was in the hospital. Come to think of it, her sister had been the one who’d bought the lingerie for her. When it became apparent sex wasn’t on the table, Sage couldn’t be bothered to hunt down a T-shirt and sleep pants.

“The day’s still young,” he said, casting her a cocky grin and walking out with his long, loose-limbed stride.

“You can’t just say something like that to me and walk away,” she called after him, hearing the rumble of his deep, sexy laugh in response.

She glanced at her now-silent phone. It was five in the morning! She called her sister back. “What is so urgent that you couldn’t wait until a decent hour to call me?”

“Oh please, you rarely sleep. Besides, this is my normal wake-up time.”

“Hello, it’s not mine. And I’m supposed to catch up on my sleep while I’m here—or have you forgotten that I’m burned out?”

“No, but I figured you weren’t following doctor’s orders anyway. You’re not really an order follower. But I’m sorry if I woke you up. I really need to talk to you about this, though. I’ve been up half the night stewing about it. You can thank Noah for me not waking you up at two this morning.”

“Thank you, Noah. Now, what are you worked up about this time?” Usually at this point in the conversation, Sage would be going over a brief while listening to her sister vent. It wasn’t that she found the things Willow vented about trivial; it was just that it took her sister a while to get to the point.

Sage put the call on speaker and pulled up one of the online newspapers she subscribed to.

“Okay, so I’ll give you a little background info first,” her sister said.

“Of course you will,” Sage said under her breath while reading an article about lane closures in the city. The one benefit of not having to go into work was not fighting traffic. She looked up from the article when her door opened and Jake once again walked in, only this time she smiled. He’d brought her coffee.

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