Who's the Daddy (Crescent Cove 3)

Fuck, even her feet were hot.

“You okay with pillows?” she asked, finally breaking the comfortable silence. Comfortable minus the definite straining in my jeans.

“You mean in general or…”

Her smile was a revelation, lighting up her golden-brown eyes in the dwindling sunlight. There was just enough remaining that the apartment—what there was of it—had a soft pink glow. Even Kelsey. Especially Kelsey. Her cheeks were flushed, and I didn’t know if it was from the exertion of getting her apartment in order, or if it was due to…this.

Whatever this was. A mistake, probably. I was good at making them. Except it didn’t feel wrong right now to be winding gooey warm cheese around my finger and dropping it into my mouth, knowing she was watching my every move.

“I mean, to sit on while we eat. As you can see, I’m still decorating.” She tugged the sofa’s back cushions out from under a pile of books and papers, then tossed them on the floor next to her coffee table.

“That what you’re calling this?”

She jerked a shoulder and her baggy shirt tried to slip down her shoulder. No strap. Jesus. No bra was now a certainty. She was petite and perfect enough not to need one.

Fuck me running.

“My decorator wasn’t available today. Just like my movers.” She hefted two boxes off the coffee table.

“Let me—”

She shook her head. “I got it.” She dumped them on the couch, then rushed back into her tiny kitchen. She popped a pepperoni into her mouth and chewed, her lashes fluttering as her eyes closed. “God, that’s good.”

Much as I wanted to watch her eat, I was stuck on what she’d said. “What do you mean, no movers? Where did you live again?”

“Turnbull. Barely a hop, skip, and two jumps away.” She transferred an extra piece of pizza to each plate and brought them around the counter into the living room and placed them on the coffee table.

Snagging the beer she’d left for me, I followed her in and sat on one of the cushions. “This can’t be all your stuff. How did you get the couch up here by yourself? Family? Friends?” I swallowed the cheese now stuck in my throat. “Boyfriend?”

She snorted as she rummaged in one of the boxes. “The place was partially furnished. I’m not even sure who left that beer behind. Hope it’s not poisoned.”

I glanced down at the can sweating in my hand. Or maybe I was sweating. The temperature seemed to be rising by the minute. “Thanks for the heads up.”

“It’s probably fine. Sorry, I don’t have my floor lamp. Desk lamp is somewhere.” She made a delighted a-ha noise and waved three tiny candles and one of those long lighter things chicks always seemed to have, then set the candles on the coffee table. After lighting them, she picked her way around the boxes to sit beside me. “Oh, and no way Jose on the boyfriend. I’ll probably end up being a lesbian.”

I choked on the experimental sip of beer I’d taken, coughing as she thumped on my back.

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She was kidding. I was almost positive. Even my timing couldn’t suck that much.

“That hard to imagine?”

I plucked up a piece of pepperoni and held it up to her sweet mouth. For fuck’s sake, she even had a freckle on the bow of her top lip. “A loss for my team.”

Her cheeks pinked up and the splash of freckles across the bridge of her nose added an innocence to her that I really didn’t want to think about. The candles didn’t do much to light the room, but added a warm glow behind her. “I was kidding.” Her voice was husky and my hunger for pizza went right out the goddamn window.

“Good.” I nodded to her. This was the worst of ideas and yet, here I was. “Want this or not?”

She licked her lips and opened them. After I dropped the pepperoni inside her mouth, she closed her eyes, chewed, and swallowed. Then she winced. “Probably wrong that I had unnatural flashbacks to church.”

I huffed out a laugh. I never really knew what was going to come out of this girl’s mouth. It could be from hanging with Sage and Ally, but I had a feeling she’d been this way before those two tried to corrupt her.

“Are you a good Catholic girl, Kelsey?”

She opened her eyes, then took my beer and set it down beside our plates. “What would you say if I said definitely not?”

I hooked my arm around her waist and lifted her onto my lap. “I’d say hell yeah.”