Catch

I try to piece together everything he’s saying.

“So, you saw me with Royce, and then you found out that Fletcher chose Finn over you?”

“Us,” he corrects me.

I smile softly. “Us. Do you know why he chose Finn?”

His gaze drops. “It doesn’t matter at this point.”

It matters to me, so I tell him that. “Tell me.”

He gathers both my hands into his lap, holding them firmly in his grasp. “Some friend of Patrika’s overheard you talking while you were having a coffee at a café in midtown. You were discussing the fact that the Newmans assumed we were dating, and that got back to Patrika pretty fast.”

“Shit.” I close my eyes. “I blew it.”

Keats lets out a loud chuckle. “You didn’t blow it. It happened. It’s over.”

“You wanted him for a client, Keats.”

“I want you, Maren,” he counters. “Fletcher was work. This right here is life.”

“You’re not upset?”

“About losing Fletcher?”

I nod.

“Hell, no.” He shakes his head. “Finn will do right by him. He’s in good hands.”

I move his hands to the center of my chest and hold them there with mine. “I’m in the best hands.”

He darts up to his knees. “Damn right, you are.”

My gaze falls to the waistband of his jeans and beyond to the outline of his erection beneath the denim. “That’ll cost you.”

“Name your price.” He slides his hands to my shoulders. “I’m not talking money, Maren. Tell me what I owe you.”

“Show me how much you love me, Keats.”***The chill in the air races over my skin, tempering the heat that is blooming there as I near my second orgasm of the night.

I drag my hands through Keats’s hair, reveling in how soft the strands are and how rough the scruff on his jaw is as it scrapes against my inner thighs.

I arch my back off the bed when he hones in on my clit with the tip of his tongue.

“Coming,” I whisper. “I’m so close to coming.”

He hums his approval sending a vibration through my core that lures a deep moan from somewhere inside of me.

“You like that,” he whispers.

“So much.” I groan.

He applies more pressure. His head moves as he eats me ravenously.

I let go. I close my eyes, and I come with a soul-wrenching cry that brings tears of pure joy to my eyes.

Keats slows his movements. He licks my cleft with long, leisurely strokes of his tongue.

When he looks at me, I see tears in his eyes too.

“I love you, Maren,” he whispers as he crawls up my body.

“I love you,” I say breathlessly. “I want you.”

He rests his forehead against mine. “No condom. I didn’t think about bringing any. I just wanted to get to you.”

“I’m clean,” I offer.

His eyes search mine. “I’m clean too. You’re sure you want that?”

The thought of him sliding inside me bare sends a jolt of desire through me. “I want it so much.”

He slowly spreads my legs and climbs between them.

With a glance over my body, he lowers his lips to the center of my chest. “You are my life.”

I hold my breath as he slides his cock into my channel in one painfully slow movement.

“You are my everything,” I whisper. “You will always be.”EpilogueOne Month LaterKeats“Why the fudge am I not sneezing around you?” I hold Dudley in the air, so we’re face-to-face.

“Dr. Hunt thinks you were allergic to his old shampoo.” Arietta stands next to me. “Not him.”

I turn to look at her. “I guess this means he can move back in with me.”

I watch as her smile drops into a frown. “I don’t mind watching him a little longer. Maren said your sister is coming back soon.”

Maren is right.

Sinclair is due back in New York next week. I’ve missed her. My life has completely changed since she’s been gone. I can’t wait to tell her that I’m in love.

I want to do it in person to see her face when she hears the good news.

“I’m going to drop him off at doggy daycare.” She scoops up an oversized black tote. “Tell Maren that I hope she has a good day at work.”

I laugh as I take a sip of the coffee I just poured. “She’ll be with me, Arietta. How can she not have a hell of a good day?”

“You swore, Keats.” She smiles. “You owe a hundred to the fund.”

I nod as I watch her walk away. We met for the first time the day Maren and I came back from Tupper Lake. That was a little more than a month ago. Since then, we’ve spent time together, and we’re slowly building a friendship.

“Don’t work too hard,” I call after her as she nears the door to the apartment she shares with the woman I love.

She turns back to face me. “I wish Mr. Calvetti said those things to me.”

“You wish he said a lot of other things to you.” Maren comes out of her bedroom dressed for the day.