Page 50 of The Catch

She lifted her hips to meet his, pressing into his side with her thigh and coaxing him to go faster. She wrapped her hands around his biceps, digging her nails into his skin as she used him for leverage to offer the resistance she knew he was craving.

Josh met her offer with a bruising grip on her thigh, pushing her bent leg toward her shoulder, and planting his other hand beside her on the pillow. Where his lips had been sucking at her skin, now his teeth scraped over her collarbone. His power surged, and his perfect stroke slipped and shook. She wanted nothing more than to see him come apart, to make him feel what she just had. It suddenly became more important than breathing.

She turned her head to see his fist twist the pillowcase, the veins in his forearms pulsing, and his muscles trembling from holding his weight. She whispered his name again on an exhale, and he made a noise like a growl that melted into a whimper. The sound of it, the dampness of his skin and the hair at his temples, the way his eyes lost focus and rolled before clenching shut, it all settled in her chest in this unfamiliar feeling of conjointment, like they were soldered together by some common goal that was bigger than either of them. Maybe that goal was just his physical release, but at that moment, it felt metaphorical, fucking philosophical.

It was furious when it happened, like a crack of thunder that catches you off guard even though the clouds have been building. Cat held the back of his neck and kissed his stubbled cheek as he gasped and cursed above her. She’d never been so intertwined with another person’s pleasure. Each thrust of his hips and choked out profanity was a jolt of pride and shared gratification.

Josh’s body finally relaxed, and she pushed her fingers into his hair, alternating between tugging and smoothing. After a moment of huffing short, raspy breaths into her neck, he peeled himself from her, flopping onto his back.

Cool air rushed her front, drying the fine mist of perspiration that had settled on her skin. Josh was silent, still breathing heavily beside her, and a sudden flush of modesty replaced the high Cat had been riding. She reached between them for the sheet to cover herself, but Josh snatched her wrist, bringing it up to his mouth and grazing the outside with his lips.

“Don’t move,” he said. “I’ll be right back.” He walked to the bathroom and disappeared inside.

The clock on Josh’s bedside table glowed a disdainful six a.m., and as soon as Cat saw it, she yawned. A moment later, he dropped down beside her again, gathering her into his side. Exhaustion settled over her like a blanket as her breathing slowed to a crawl. She was just about to slip into a sated sleep when he whispered into her hair, “That was perfect.”

When Cat woke again, Josh was gone, but the water was running in the bathroom off of his bedroom. Amazed that she hadn’t woken up when he left the bed, she rolled over to see what time it was. Nine a.m.Still early.She closed her eyes again and snuggled back into the pillow with a yawn. That lasted for about thirty seconds. Then her brain exploded with a hundred different questions. What happened now? Was she supposed to leave? Was that the right way to handle this?No, not this.She got the impression that Josh might be offended if she hurried out. Besides, she knew deep down she didn’t want to leave. She really should have asked Dani and Sonya when they were picking out her clothes. Morning-afters were not something she had much experience with.

While she was still convincing herself that she was reading Josh’s signals correctly, the water turned off, and the shower curtain swung against the rod. Quickly, she found her hair tie and swept her hair up onto the top of her head. Then she reached down and arranged the sheets just so, making sure they were covering and exposing exactly the right spots for maximum flattery. She’d just adjusted her head on the pillow when the door opened, and Josh appeared wrapped in a towel from the waist down, a toothbrush hanging out of the corner of his smile, and…oh my God… a pair of sexy as hell, black-rimmed glasses. He looked absolutely delicious.

“Good morning again,” he muttered around the brush. He stepped just out of sight, and the water turned on again. When he came back, his mouth was free, and he held onto the towel as he crossed the room.

Cat licked her lips, her eyes bouncing around his face.

“I slept in my contacts last night.” He smiled and gestured to his eyes. “I had to take them out for a bit.”

Was he seriously apologizing?“You… Josh, those are fucking hot.”

Josh’s grin grew from timid to confused until it finally broke into a laugh. “You’re fucking hot,” he said. He leaned down to kiss her, but she slapped her hand over her mouth.

“Let me brush too,” she said through her fingers.

He laughed again, stepping back so that she could get out of bed and go to the bathroom, but she suddenly remembered that her clothing was in various spots around the room. He’d already been there seen that, but she wasn’t a walk-to-the-bathroom-naked-in-broad-daylight-the-first- morning type of girl.

Josh saw her hesitation and reached down and tugged the sheet free from the mattress, tucking it around her like a toga. “You look like a goddess. You need one of those crowns of leaves.”

“Too bad I didn’t think to pack mine.” She felt more like a kid dressed as a ghost for Halloween than a goddess, but it was sweet of him to say.

“I’ll meet you in the kitchen,” he said, tapping her butt as she shuffled by him like he did it all the time.

After brushing her teeth and doing the same staging with her outfit that she had when she’d woken up in his hotel room, she made her way out to the kitchen. She’d put on a new pair of underwear that she’d packed just in case and her henley from the night before, the buttons left open with nothing underneath.

Josh turned from the sink in just his boxers, giving her a discreet head to toe, and smiled a smile that was far more shy than she would have expected after what had just transpired between them. After staring for a moment, he snapped to and pulled out one of the leather stools at the breakfast bar, offering it to her.

When she hopped up onto it, he leaned in and claimed the kiss she’d denied him earlier. He tasted like peppermint, the same as the toothpaste she’d just borrowed in his bathroom, and his stubble felt as good as it looked as it brushed against her chin.

“Do you want coffee?” he asked, with a final peck on her cheek.

“Please.”

“How’s your head this morning after Shawn’s famous margaritas?”

“I can handle my tequila,” she said, rolling the L off of the roof of her mouth.

“I think I believe you.”

He moved toward the coffee maker on his countertop. It was a simple, two setting machine, nothing like the one she’d invested half a paycheck in when she first found her condo. She supposed she could get used to it. Or maybe she could convince him to upgrade once he tasted the Americano from her Delonghi…

Okay, she was getting way ahead of herself. Maybe he had no intention of this being a new habit.

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