Winning Moves (Stepping Up 3)

“I didn’t run.”

“You’re running now.”

“I am not!”

“The other night you claimed this was all sex between us and that a few bedroom romps would get it out of our systems.” He whispered, “But you backed off when I called your bluff, didn’t you? I’m guessing that’s because you’re afraid that no matter how many ‘romps’ we have, your plan won’t work. And then, KandyKat, you’ll have to face what’s really between us, be it good or bad, once and for all.”

She stared at him, unmoving, her expression intense, before she stood up. “Let’s go.”

He followed her to her feet. “Where exactly are we going?”

“Your place,” she announced. “And I’ll follow you in my car.”

“I can live with that.”

He tossed money on the table, finding her choice interesting, and knowing her well enough to know why she’d made it. She actually thought that keeping him outside her world, her personal space and home, would let her hide from the truth. That home was with him.

“I get a head start,” she added. “I’ll leave first and meet you at…the burger joint on the corner that everyone orders lunch from all the time. In the parking lot.”

He reached for her and pulled her close, pressing his lips to her ear. “As long as you remember that I’m the cat and you’re the mouse, and I will catch up to you. Even if it means showing up at your doorstep.”

Kat had already made the decision to cave to desire. She wasn’t holding back. She flattened her hand on his chest, pressed to her toes, and brought her mouth to his ear. “I’m counting on it.”

6

KAT FOLLOWED JASON as he turned his motorcycle into the long driveway of his gorgeous stucco home and then into a garage, shocked that he lived only a few miles from her. Maybe she shouldn’t have been shocked. They both gravitated toward the same things, as much as they did to each other.

She killed the engine on her rental. She couldn’t believe she was about to have her wicked way with Jason. She watched him swing a powerful thigh over the bike to dismount and edited that thought. She couldn’t believe she’d ever kidded herself into thinking she could resist this man. Seriously, that had been certifiably nuts. The man did it for her in every possible way.

She grabbed her bag and shut her car door. He’d removed his helmet and was there when she stood up. He reached for her bag, his fingers brushing her shoulder and sending chills down her spine. Her gaze collided with his and her body reacted instantly to the sizzle in the depths of his stare. They stood there, not touching, but yet her skin tingled as if they were. She resisted reaching for him when it was all she wanted and everything she needed. He didn’t reach for her either, and she was pretty sure he knew what she did. If they caved in to the burn right here, right this instant, they’d end up on the hood of the car, rather than on a soft bed.

They moved at the same time, in tune even without words. Kat inched out of the way from the door, and Jason shoved it closed. She followed him to the house, and let him motion for her to enter first. The anticipation of touching him tingled deep in her nerve endings. She entered the house, the air conditioning chilling her ultra-sensitized skin in a way it might not otherwise have done if she wasn’t so aware of Jason on every level. Of how tall and broad, how raw and male, he was. How easily he read her needs, her pleasure, how long she’d ached for him, for this.

Kat immediately walked up a flight of carpet-covered steps to a second level with a tiled foyer, and she continued up the next set of stairs. The lights came on behind and in front of her and she stepped to the room above, taking in a massive living area with an open kitchen and dining area to its left. More expensive tile covered the entire floor, and a brown and cream rug sat under a sleek brown leather couch and love seat.

Kat softly inhaled against the pain pinching her chest. What had she been thinking by coming here, taunting herself with the life he had without her? No. No. No. She wasn’t going to think about things like that. Not now, not anymore. And maybe, just maybe, sex would cure all. Maybe distance and random good sexual encounters had built her and Jason up to more than they were. Tonight, a few nights, and they both could see that there was a reason they had divorced.

Kat turned at the same moment Jason cleared the top step, and she shoved him against wall, desperate to focus on him, not the house. To touch him, to feel him, to forget everything but pleasure.