Page 45 of The Catch

She tipped her head up and let her lips graze his throat, feeling him swallow at the sensation. Pushing away the emotion bubbling up from years ago, she kissed him again, letting her tongue slip out on the next press. She took control of the moment, feigning the bravery he’d just accused her of. Call it liquid courage, or fake-it-till-you-make-it, either way, she wanted this, and she was going to take it.

Josh’s hand moved from her shoulder to the back of her neck, and he rubbed tiny circles into her skin, feeling her while she tasted him. The voices from the other guests began to fade, and she had a vague recognition of someone directing people into the house for card games. “Do you want to go inside?” she asked.

“It’s getting late.” His voice sounded strangled. “Maybe we should start walking back.”

She smiled against his skin, then pulled away, letting him stand to help her to her feet. “We should.”

Sixteen

By the time they gotto Josh’s front door, he was so painfully hard that he genuinely feared the string and Velcro closure on his shorts would fail him. The walk had taken twice as long as it should have, since they’d stopped numerous times along the way to kiss sloppily, touching as much as they could while standing upright. Cat had been touching him all night. He wasn’t sure what had come over her, but he wasn’t going to question it. Especially after she’d finally told him the story he’d known was hiding behind all of that fear in her eyes.

He wanted to touch her as much as she’d let him until she could feel his promise that he wasn’t the next guy that was going to break her heart.

His hands were clumsy with anticipation when he put the key in the lock and opened the door for her. Cat trailed her fingers across his stomach as she brushed past him, and he had to bite down on his tongue to keep from moaning out loud. When the door shut behind them, he wrapped his arms around her, lifting her off of the ground so that they were face to face. He looked at his watch over her shoulder, seeing that it was past midnight. “It’s late,” he whispered against her lips. “You’re not going to drive back to the city tonight, are you?”

“Do you want me to stay?” she asked breathily.

“More than anything.”

She bit her lip, and he waited with bated breath while the options played out in her eyes. Finally, she gave him a little nod, and he led her to his bedroom.

Josh felt electric, like whatever happened next was going to be important. Maybe that was normal. It had been a long time since he’d slept with someone for the first time, or at all for that matter, and Cat wasn’t just someone. There had been build up, lots of it. This was the culmination of all of that tension that started the night he’d met her and wondered if he would ever be the same. He was about to find out.

Cat emerged from his ensuite bathroom. The little makeup she’d been wearing was gone, and her face was still dewy from the water she’d splashed on it. He stood from the edge of the bed as she approached.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said, brushing his fingers over her cheek.

“Me too.”

“Do you, um, need something to sleep in?” He’d exchanged his bathing suit for a pair of cotton boxers, but she was still wearing her shorts and shirt. He didn’t want to assume she’d be stripping too, even though he was practically salivating over the prospect.

“It’s too hot for clothes,” she said, crossing her arms at her waist and gracefully lifting her tank top and long-sleeve shirt over her head. They fell to the floor behind her, and he bit back a moan when he saw her perfect round breasts spilling out of the top of ruby-red lace cups. His attention was so seized that he didn’t even see her pop open the button on her shorts, only noticing they had fallen away when a strip of matching red lace caught his eye from her hip.

“Fuck, Catia,” he said, wishing his brain had thought of something better. She giggled though, seemingly unoffended.

“I’m beginning to think you think that’s my name.”

“Sorry,” he said, stepping closer to massage her hip with his thumb. “Bad habit. I never learned the Southern Charm thing.”

“I think you’re very charming.”

Cat’s mouth twisted into a half pout, half smile. It was a challenge and an invitation wrapped into one, and he accepted both, scooping his hands underneath her and hoisting her into his arms. She squealed a delighted laugh that washed over him like the rain on a hot day. Her legs wrapped around his waist, and he took a few steps towards the bed, dropping her onto the mattress. The bun on top of her head loosened on impact, and he fingered the hair tie, pulling it all the way out and setting it on the bed beside her. A sea of caramel and chocolate waves fell around her head, and he licked his lips.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered as he connected the dots of her freckles with his eyes. One on the top of her lip, one on the side of her nose. Two on her left cheek, one on her right. She even had matching dark flecks floating in the honey-brown of her eyes.

“Come here.” Cat reached for his hand and tugged, and he collapsed on top of her, breathing heavily. He dove into her neck, sighing at his first taste of salty skin, but something nagged just behind the anticipation—a vision of the sloppy, frantic sex that would come out a night like this. Fevered touching, a haze of inebriation smudging the details from his memory. He tried to ignore it, but his head was spinning from lust and tequila. Cat’s eyes were glassy and her cheeks flushed. His plan to prove something to her started to feel like a plan to take something from her. It wasn’t right.

“We shouldn’t do this tonight,” he heard himself say, then he buried his face in her hair to silence himself.Shut up, Josh.He was an idiot. Was he really going to stop this?

“What?” Cat huffed out her question in a desperate breath, clearly wondering the same thing.

They were finally here, alone in his bedroom, but his brain was battling his body, each making perfectly convincing arguments. He’d waited too long to stop now. But he’d waited too long for it not to be perfect. There was a reason they didn’t sleep together that night in his hotel room. Sure, there was Dylan and Shawn’s annoying appearance, but he liked to think even if they hadn’t been there, he would have recognized that Cat wasn’t a drunken hookup kind of girl.

He pulled up onto his hands, hovering above her. “We shouldn’t do this tonight,” he said again, hating himself. “We’ve had too much to drink.”

Cat’s face washed with surprise, then settled into something more mischievous. “Oh,” she said, dropping her eyes down his front, an exaggerated look of pity taking over. “I understand.”

His cheeks flamed. “Not because… I didn’t mean…” She started giggling then, and the sound made him groan with regret. He grabbed her by the hips and pressed himself into the valley between her thigh and those little red panties, obliterating any confusion. Her giggling turned to a gasp. “I’ve waited too long,” he said, kissing along the line of her jaw. “Since that night on the beach.”

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