Page 74 of That Reilly Boy
“Same, but that doesn’t mean—” Doesn’t mean what? That I don’t want him? That I don’t ache for his touch? I definitely do. “This is a bad idea.”
He pops another grape in my mouth. “More chewing. Less telling me wanting you is a bad idea.”
I’m not silenced that easily. “It is,” I mumble around the mushed grape.
“Ever since I kissed you yesterday, I’ve wanted to kiss you again. I want to hold you like I did while we danced. I want to run my fingers over those freckles on your shoulders.”
Even though it’s only a faint shadow through his T-shirt, I trace the tattoo over his heart. “It will make everything so much more messy.”
“Not if we don’t let it,” he says, and I’m aware of him setting the grapes on the counter before putting his hands on my waist and pulling me close. His lips leave a trail of hot kisses down my neck and instead of pushing him away, I tilt my head to expose more skin. “Let me make love to you, Cara.”
“What happens in Boston stays in Boston,” I whisper, already lost.
Chapter Forty-Five
Hayden
I miss my wife.
My wife.
No matter how many times I tell myself it’s not real, I’m jolted by pleasure and pride every time those words go through my mind. For better or worse, Cara Gamble is my wife, and I do miss her—fake vows or not. It hasn’t even been thirty hours since the car service picked her up to whisk her back to Sumac Falls.
But every one of those twenty-eight hours has felt emptier.
We shouldn’t have crossed that line. To be fair, it probably would have taken some kind of natural disaster to stop us, but blurring boundaries isn’t a good idea in any business deal. Blurring the boundaries in a business deal that has me married to the first girl I ever loved—and maybe never stopped loving—has the potential to be a disaster. Leaving my feelings out of it has been a struggle the entire time, and to say having her naked in my bed didn’t help is an understatement.
And to continue my streak of making bad decisions where Cara is concerned, I pull out my phone and send her a text message. Maybe it’ll be enough communication to take the edge off.
HAYDEN
I’ll be back in town tomorrow afternoon. The office is closed Thursday and Friday for the Fourth, so we can do the Fourth of July on the town square together.
She must be busy with a client because it’s almost forty minutes before my phone chimes with a reply.
CARA
Sounds good.
I was hoping for more than that, but there are no dots indicating she’s sending another message through. Frowning, I type a response.
HAYDEN
Should I pick you up or will you drive your own car to my mother’s house?
The dots appear and disappear several times before they go away completely, deepening my frown into a scowl. We had a plan for navigating looking married when I was in town. The entire charade is pointless if we sleep in separate houses.
The dots come back, lingering for what feels like forever.
CARA
I have ten minutes until my next appointment. If you’re free, just call me because I don’t have time to text everything out.
That doesn’t sound good, so I immediately flip to my contacts and tap the button to call her.
She answers on the first ring. “Hey.”
“Hey. What’s going on?”
