Page 77 of The Exception

“Right. Sonya?”

“Mmm?” Her voice came out as a squeak.

Trav leaned in, turning his shoulder to partially shield them from the car and the others who weren’t hiding the fact that they were watching through the window. “Last night—that wasn’t an accident, right?” he whispered in her ear.

She brushed her fingers over her neck, eyes darting over her shoulder. “It wasn’t an accident.”

“You’ll call me later?” He fingered the hem of her t-shirt, letting his thumb brush her hip.

“Yes. I’ll call.” More breathlessness. His confidence started to climb again. She wasn’t blowing him off, she was just easing into it. He shook his head, grinning down at her. He could play this how she wanted. He’d been asking how high to jump since he met her.

“All right,” he said. “I’ll talk to you soon.”

Time to go before he did something he wasn’t sure she would forgive him for.

Sonya nodded and headed back to the car while he unlocked his front door, thinking about a cold shower. Just before he stepped inside, her voice stopped him.

“Trav, wait.”

He turned to see Sonya toss the keys to Dani who’d been hanging out the window eavesdropping.

“I’ll pick it up tomorrow,” she said over her shoulder. And she ran up the sidewalk to the threshold where he was glued to the ground. Two feet short, she launched herself at him.

He dropped his pack and caught her, eyes wide as she wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him.

“I’m going to stay,” she said. “Okay?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely.”

Twenty-nine

Sonya’s heart beat a drumline in her chest. She couldn’t believe herself! She’d just mauled him in front of an audience, and she had no idea how she was getting her car back, or how she was getting to work tomorrow, but she didn’t care.

She giggled as Trav kicked his stuff into the hallway, keeping one hand on her ass as he stumbled toward his open bedroom door. “Oh my God. You still haven’t bought a bed?”

Trav shook his head. “The one chance I had to buy one, I had to leave the store before I embarrassed myself. You lying next to me, talking about positions. I couldn’t deal.”

“I had a sex dream about you that night,” she admitted.

He groaned into her neck. “You’re killing me.” Trav took a few more steps, pausing in front of the blow up mattress in the center of his floor. “Um, maybe we should go back to the couch.”

She gave him what she hoped was a smoldering look. “I could use a hot shower after that drive. You have one of those, right?”

“Damn right I do.”

He pivoted toward an en-suite: white tile, a fancy pedestal sink, and a glass-doored shower that looked like it belonged in a hotel. “This is gorgeous,” she said as he set her on her toes.

“Did you assume I lived in a dive?” His hands were already lifting her t-shirt and she raised her arms so he could remove it. She had a smart answer for that question somewhere, but she forgot it when he dipped to run his tongue over her stomach.

Her fingers found his hair, tugging. “Maybe,” she said. “I hadn’t really thought about it—”

“Quit analyzing my Feng Shui and get undressed.” His arm banded her waist and he lifted her enough to tug down the athletic shorts she’d worn for the drive home. Setting her back on her feet, he turned on the water while she kicked off her underwear.

When he dropped his shorts to the ground, she had to curl her fingers into her palm to keep from digging them into the ridges between his ab muscles. But when she looked up from her gluttonous perusal of his body, he was staring down at her with the sweetest expression.

“What?” she whispered.

“You’re so beautiful. I’ve thought so from that first moment you told me to fuck off on the plane.”

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