Page 76 of Sacrifice the Knight (Checkmate 6)

With a grin, I slide my hand along the side of her breasts, her ribs, then stop when I cup her ass. “Your body. Fuck…” I groan. “Your body, Katrina. It’s everything that makes up my dirty dreams. You have no clue the way you hypnotize half the men in this town. I don’t need your money; I have my own. I don’t need your home; I’m waiting to find one for myself, but haven’t pulled the trigger because I don’t want one unless I can fill it with love. I don’t need your car; Ilovemine.” I smile. “I need your body.” I kiss her cheek. “Your heart.” I press my palm over it and feel the wild beats. “Your brain. Your loyalty. And if you’re willing to share, your son’s friendship, his heart, his loyalty. You’re a package deal, and I love everything you have to offer. Even the weird loan shark daddy.”

She snickers and wipes a hand beneath her nose. “He’s not a loan shark. He’s a savvy businessman who knows a good bet when he sees one.”

“You have no clue how many criminals I’ve heard call themselves savvy businessmen.” I lean forward and catch her laughing lips with mine. I don’t want to talk criminals, work, dads, or anything else that doesn’t start and end with us. “For tonight it’s just me and you, okay? Then tomorrow… it can be whatever you want it to be. Zero pressure. No guilt, no worries, no extra baggage for you. But whatever you choose for it to be, my heart will still beat for you. Our stars met, and now we revolve around the same spot of gravity. I don’t want to go anywhere else; I don’t want anyone else.”

“Nobody ever treated me the way you do.” She wraps her arms around my neck to resume dancing. K-Ci & JoJo sing of praying for love, of waiting, of promises. “No man has ever loved me the way you’re saying–”

“I won’t stop.” I cup her cheeks and press a slow kiss to her lips. “I promise I won’t. This is more than a crush, more than burgers and fries, and it’s a hell of a lot more than dirty fucking in the middle of the night.”

“But that doesn’t have to stop, right?”

The vise around my throat releases with a tense laugh. “Hell no. We can make love sometimes. And other times, I’ll fuck you like a dirty hooker inside a filthy garage while security cameras are watching us.”

She pulls back. “What?”

“Hm? What cameras?”

Her body vibrates with laughter as tears continue to fall from her eyes, but she steps onto her toes and kisses me back. It’s a little bitloveand a whole lot ofdirty hooker, but not ten minutes after that, we switch out the last of the lights and close up.

Tomorrow will be a day of change. But tonight, we remain in our bubble, and I can pretend it doesn’t terrify me.

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