The Trouble With Love(63)

And that was that.

This is what came of three years of dating, an aborted wedding, seven years of cold war, and one very sexy dance.

Two near strangers staring at each other and exchanging good nights in the hallway.

She’d had more animated partings with her pizza guy.

Emma turned, lifting the electronic fob that worked as a key in this fancy building, to unlock her door.

Cassidy’s fingers closed around her wrist, and her eyes flew to his. He searched her face before wordlessly pulling her in the opposite direction toward his apartment.

She followed, watching as he unlocked his door. He let go of her wrist then, even as he stepped inside, and she knew what he was doing.

He was giving her a choice.

But she’d never really had a choice. Not when he’d offered his hand to her on the dance floor. And not now.

She dropped her key back into her clutch, and then she stepped toward his door.

Stepped toward him.

Emma held his eyes and walked into the apartment, not quite touching him. Cassidy slowly closed the door, perhaps to give her time to change her mind, but Emma didn’t.

She set her clutch on the small console table, and took a deep breath. “I need to take off my shoes. My feet can’t take another second—”

Cassidy kissed her.

No preliminaries, no hesitation—he just stepped closer and dipped his head down to hers, stamping her mouth as though it were his to take.

Seven years.

It had been seven years since she’d kissed this man, but her lips hadn’t forgotten him. The moment she responded, he lifted his hands to her hips, tentatively. And when her hands settled against his chest, his grew bolder, sliding around to her back, pulling her closer until they were touching, chest to chest, hip to hip.

His lips nudged hers open, and Emma responded by reaching for his tongue with hers.

Cassidy groaned and deepened the kiss.

It shouldn’t have felt this good. Not after what they’d been through. But somehow it was better than she remembered. They’d never been lacking for passion, but back then there had been sort of a wide-eyed sense of discovery to their sex life.

Back then, it had been a boy kissing a girl.

This was a man who wanted a woman.

The difference was unmistakably erotic.

He lifted his head when they needed to breathe, brushing a soft kiss against her lips as he pulled back.

“Stay.”

She could only nod.

His hands slid more firmly around Emma’s waist. “For a second there I thought you’d walk into your apartment, and me into mine. I didn’t care for the feeling.”

She smiled and toyed with a button on his shirt. “Such enthusiastic words, Cassidy.”

He dipped his head again, snagging her lower lip between his teeth, scraping it lightly before releasing her. “I’ll show you my enthusiasm in other ways.”

Emma all but purred at the implications behind that.

But first things first. She set her palms on his shoulders and pushed. “I wasn’t kidding about my shoes.”

The corner of his mouth tilted up, and he nodded his head in the direction of the living room. She followed him in, sitting on a chair to free her feet from their stiletto confines as he continued into the kitchen.

“Anything to drink?”

“Water?”

He poured them two glasses from a filtered pitcher in the fridge, and by the time he approached her and handed her a glass, her shoes were discarded.

She wiggled her toes as she raised the glass to her lips, her eyes watching his as she took a sip. He held his own glass of water but didn’t drink. He watched her.

The moment shouldn’t have been sexy. It was water.

And yet they both set their glasses on the table at the same time, his spilling slightly as he yanked her out of her chair toward him.

This time she was ready for his mouth, and the kiss quickly escalated from passionate to carnal. Her fingers made quick work of his bow tie, tugging out the knot and tossing it aside so her fingers could get to the buttons of his shirt.

His hands slid over her back down her hips to her outer thighs, before sliding back up again. He pulled back slightly as she undid the first button.

“Have I told you that you look beautiful tonight?” he said roughly. “It’s all I could think about. I—”

Emma cut off whatever else he was going to say with another kiss. She didn’t want to talk. There were too many things they could say to each other that would ruin this.

But doubt managed to trickle in anyway, and this time it was Emma who pulled back from the kiss, breathing hard as she looked up at him.

“This is just about tonight, right?” she asked. “The proverbial getting laid after the wedding?”

His eyes narrowed slightly, but then he nodded. “Just tonight.”