Page 67 of Starting Over with You
“Yeah, and I know you wanted to kiss me.”
“Wow. Pretty sure of yourself, huh?”
“Tell me I’m wrong,” I demand, but she looks away again, the pink of her cheeks turning a bright red.
“Missy said not to do anything with you because it would be weird for Skyye.”
My brow furrows, and I purse my lips. What is Missy up to? I don’t like that. “I don’t agree,” I say, my heart kicking up in speed. “I know my daughter wants me to be happy.”
Kenni looks up at me through her lashes. “And kissing me would do that for you?”
Oh, fuck me sideways, this woman is going to kill me dead. I reel in the desire to spill my heart to her, put it in the palm of her hand, and beg her to keep it. I drag my finger and thumb across my mustache, trying to calm myself down, but my voice breaks a bit. “It’d be the best thing to happen to me since Skyye.”
Our eyes meet once the words leave my lips, and she takes a sharp breath. I feel like I’m suffocating in her penetrating gaze as her chest rises and falls with visible effort. It’s almost as if she doesn’t want to believe me, but she knows I’d never lie to her.
In such a small voice, she says, “I’m newly separated.”
“Thank God,” I admit, and her eyes widen, but the blue is glassy, like she’s about to cry.
“I don’t know, Dean,” she says, glancing away, her fingers fidgeting around her mug.
“Know what?”
“What to even think.”
I swallow, but I don’t allow myself to move toward her. I staywhere I am, unable to look away from her beautiful face. “Tell me what that pretty head is thinking, Kenni. Let me help.”
“That this conversation is not one roommates should be having,” she says with a laugh that has no humor in it. “That I don’t want to be another notch on your belt alongside my sister.” My eyes widen at her accusation, and she grimaces quickly, “Sorry, that was shitty.”
“I understand why you’d say that after what Missy said.” She sighs, and I continue, “But just so you know, I never loved Missy. Ask her—she’ll tell you.” My claim is loaded as fuck, but I don’t know if she’s catching what I’m trying to throw to her. I step around the island, taking her hip in my hand, gripping the flesh as she rewards me with a little whimper that makes me hard everywhere. “Also, I haven’t been with anyone in over a year, and I threw away any belt with notches a long time ago.”
Confusion, but also excitement, shines in her blue eyes, and I can’t take it. I lean in, pressing my lips to her jaw. She’s soft and smells so damn good that I have to hold in a moan. She leans into my lips, and I close my eyes, my body begging for hers. I kiss her softly before I whisper against her lips, “I can’t wait to twirl you around the dance floor tonight, darlin’.” Kenni sucks in a breath, and I smile against her jaw. “But if I don’t go to bed right now, I’ll drag you in there with me to show you a lot of thingsbesideshow good of a cuddler I am.”
I kiss her jaw once more, just a chaste one, before I pull back and turn toward my room. I need her to think. I need her to want me like I want her.
Because I know if I look in her eyes, I’ll tell her that I’m so fucking in love with her it hurts, all I want is for her to give me a chance—and that there is no way in hell she’s just my roommate.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX
Kenni
Me
You were right.
Sadie
As I tell Matt, I usually am.
Sadie
But tell me how I’m right today. I like the ego boost.
Me
Dean has been flirting with me.
