Page 69 of His Hot Mess

The industrial pendant cast a glow over the center of the back room and Sadie looked up, surprised. When she saw me, the smile on her face fell away.

“Chris,” she said. Whispered, almost.

I was frozen. I didn’t know what to say. Lucy, behind me, clearly didn’t either. Thankfully, Charles Haverford came back inside again, pulling the door to the alley closed behind him.

“Charles!” Lucy called, striding past me. She threw me a glance that saidyou’re welcomealmost as clearly as if she’d said the words.

“Lucy Fulham! And Mr. Slade!” Charles shook each of our hands heartily—Lucy, his former apartment tenant, and me, the AWOL builder.

We talked about the store for a few minutes, Sadie joining the circle, her eyes on me a hair too long. I did my best to agree, yes the store had turned out great, and yes, I’d love to chat about the other commercial units in the building, as well as some of Charles’s other properties.

But all I could think about was Sadie.

Sadie in the dress that reminded me of those blossoms blowing around her when I picked her up that day in front of the store.

Sadie with the laugh that made warmth run over me, exploding in my chest.

Sadie whose lip I wanted to run my thumb across right this second, the whole world around us be damned.

“Let’s ask him!” Lucy said, beckoning to Charles.

Ask him what? Where were they going? I’d completely blanked out of the conversation. Lucy and Charles passed through the door back into the shop, closing it behind them. Suddenly, I was alone with Sadie.

She hadn’t moved, either. She was staring at me, pinning me to the spot with her eyes, her gaze drilling into mine.

“Sadie—” I began.

She shook her head. She was furious, I could tell. “No. I don’t need to hear it.”

A spark flared inside of me. The one that came when she pushed. When she was so damn hot under the collar—and achingly sexy—I wanted to take her face in my hands. To tell her to stop being so obstinate. And in the same breath, to tell her,Don’t you see? I’m in love with you.

Except I wasn’t. This wasn’t how it worked, and besides, I’d done everything in my power to stop that from happening.

“You don’t even know what I’m going to say,” I said, my voice low.

“It doesn’t matter. You already made it clear what you should have said before. You left, and you stayed away. You’re back here now only because it’s good business sense and I—”

I stepped forward, coming up to her fast. She inhaled, a sharp, fast sound that made my lower body loosen with desire. Taking a step back, her legs hit the table behind her and I came up so close I could see the soft skin of her throat pulse.

Sadie’s pupils dilated as I stared into them.

“How could I spend even one more second with you when all I want to do—all I can even think of, is this?” I leaned in and took her mouth with mine.

Explosions rocketed in my ears, lighting up every cell, every synapse, in my body. Sadie snaked her hands around my neck as I gripped her hips and lifted her onto the table. I slid my hand up her thigh, pushing her dress back.

God her skin was so soft; so warm. Her breath was hot on my neck as I slipped my hand into the fabric between her legs, gliding my thumb along the hot slick wetness there.

Sadie gasped, seeming to somehow melt and clench around me all at once.

“Chris,” she said. But she didn’t finish. All she said was my name, over and over. “Chris.”

“I can’t not think about you,” I said, in between kisses. In between flicking my tongue across her teeth, biting her lower lip. “I try, every damn day I try. But it’s like you’re living inside of me somehow. I pressed my thumb to her clit, rounding circles as she moaned under me.

“Chris,” she said again.

I wanted her, god I wanted her. My cock pressed painfully against my zipper. But it was like I couldn’t get enough. Even if I were inside of her right this minute, which I desperately wanted—needed—to be, it wouldn’t be enough.

A thud from somewhere in the store made me freeze.

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