Page 35 of Hooked
“Hey.” He put the backpack on the ground, cupped her cheeks with both hands, and kissed her. He wasn’t polite this time. He’d been hungry for her all night.
Tayla’s mouth tasted like chocolate and strawberries. His tongue stroked hers, teasing the inside of her mouth until she opened more. His palm ran down her neck, his thumb brushed over her pulse, and he stroked her shoulder. Her arm. Her waist. He slid his thumb into the back pocket of her jeans and cupped her ass.
Fine, fine ass.
Tayla pressed her body closer. She couldn’t have missed his body’s reaction to her; she didn’t seem to mind. Her hand dug into the small of his back, giving him all sorts of ideas.
He swallowed the groan that wanted to leave his throat and ran his teeth along her full lower lip, licking the edge with the tip of his tongue.
Her nails dug into his skin.
“Mmmm.” He savored one more taste of her tongue before he let her go. “You should go in.”
Her eyes were closed. Her lips were flushed and swollen. “I’m thinking about so many other things than going inside right now.”
Jeremy smiled and bent down to her ear as he gave her ass one more squeeze. “To be continued.”
“You’re evil,” she whispered.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It’s not an insult.” She bent down and picked up her backpack, reaching for the keys in the front pocket. “I’ll see you later. Send me a dirty text when you get home.”
He pointed toward Ash. “When I get home in like three minutes because I live around the corner?”
“Yes. Then.” She unlocked the door and waved at him. “Dirty texts. I’ll be expecting them.”
As you wish.He almost said it, but she’d seenThe Princess Bridetoo. He wasn’t putting himself out there like that. Not yet. “I’ll text you.”
She blew him a kiss and closed the door, locking it behind her, and Jeremy got back in the truck. He drove up 8th Avenue, crossed Central, and turned left on Oak. When he got to Ash, he turned right and pulled into the driveway. Hopping out, he opened the gate and pulled the truck into the backyard. He’d unload everything in the morning before he headed to the mountains.
He closed the gate and got out his phone, then he found a picture Cary had taken of him during a particularly muddy hike last spring in Yosemite when they were going up to some falls.
He texted the picture of him covered in mud to Tayla.
There you go. Hope that’s dirty enough for you.
I requested textS. Plural. I’m going to need more than this.
Just how dirty are you looking for?
The series of emojis she sent back was enough to make him blush even if he didn’t understand what half of them meant.
Tayla smiledevery time her phone buzzed, trying to ignore the multiple pictures of Jeremy covered in varying levels of dirt. In many of them he was in a climbing harness that gave her too many ideas. In others, he was shirtless and sweaty. She responded to each with increasingly dirty innuendo.
Yes, almost dirty enough.
Now without the harness.
Tell me more about ur knot-tying skillz.She added a raised eyebrow emoji to that one.
Between responding to texts, she reread the open email on her laptop. She’d been checking her mail when Jeremy’s first text came in. It was an inescapable habit. She couldn’t sleep without checking her email.
Hey,Tayla,
We love your résumé, your writing voice on your blog, and your social media feeds. Everyone in the office is impressed with what you might bring to the team.
I know you’re not in the Bay Area anymore, but would you be willing to come up for an interview? Our team is built on person-to-person contact and community, so we prefer in-person meets to video conferences. Let me know what your schedule is like.
