Laughing, she tells me, “See…that’s why it just wasn’t that big of a deal to camp out on Mark’s couch, and it’s also why Ben is a piece of cake. Try watching three boys that are all going through terrible twos and threes around the same time.
I shudder because I can’t even imagine.
And Christ…she fucking slept on a couch for four years of her life and she laughs about it.
Un-fucking-believable.
We finally put on the last coat of paint and Kate stretches her neck left and right as she lowers the roller in her hand. “I’m going to be feeling that tomorrow.”
I bet she is. Even I’m a little sore from all of it, and I’m in far better shape than Kate is.
“You did a great job,” I tell her as I skirt around the cloth-covered dresser to take the rolling brush out of her hands. “I’ll clean up if you want to go take a shower. You have quite a bit of paint on you.”
“I do?” she asks as she looks down at herself.
“Yeah…right here,” I say as I reach out with my free hand and brush the smudge of dried paint over her right cheek. It’s an intimate move. I didn’t have to touch her, just tell her she had paint on her face, but I couldn’t fucking help myself.
Kate goes absolutely still, and she looks at me with wide eyes, the blue in them swimming with uncertainty.
“And right here,” I say in a soft voice, my fingers now touching a spot on her forehead.
Kate inhales sharply and her reaction to my touch has my body tightening. Her eyes deepen in color and a small pulse at the base of her neck starts thumping. She’s affected by my touch as much as I am by giving it, and now I know…she definitely hasn’t moved past that kiss the other day.
This is so wrong.
So very wrong, I tell myself again.
I can’t be encouraging something between us when I just put a stop to it—for very valid reasons.
My hand falls away from her and I search for some measure of fortitude within me. With a tight voice I say, “Go on. Get in the shower and I’ll clean up here.”
And Christ…that’s disappointment filling her eyes. I see it only briefly, though, because she gives me a nod of acceptance and lowers her gaze. She turns sideways and starts to slide her way past me. I can’t back up to give her room because her dresser is pressing into my back and a wet painted wall is just on her other side.
I hold my arms out wide so she can ease past, and I close my eyes in frustration.
Which is a bad idea because my sense of touch becomes immensely heightened when her breasts brush innocently against me…just below my chest.
“Sorry,” she blurts, and my eyes fly open. She’s frozen in place, her eyes staring at me with confusion and yearning.
I immediately turn my face away from hers and toward the window that looks out over the front of the house. In a low voice and through clenched teeth, I say, “Just go get in the shower, Kate.”
She hurriedly scrambles past me, leaving tingles across my chest in her wake and the beginnings of a hard-on in my jeans. I hear the door to her bathroom slam shut behind her.
Fuck!
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
What in the hell is wrong with me? Lusting after Ben’s nanny? Craving just a slight touch to her face? Getting a hard-on from the barest graze of tits against me?
I feel like a damn teenager.
No, that’s not quite right.
I feel like a man who hasn’t felt anything for four long months, and who is just now starting to wake up. And because these sensations are so foreign and new once again, they are magnified.
They feel fucking fantastic.
And I want more, God help me.
God help Kate too, because I know she wants it as well.
I don’t give my conscience another chance to weigh in, instead turning in place and circling around the covered furniture toward Kate’s bathroom. I don’t hesitate when my hand reaches toward the knob and I throw the door open.
The only thing that’s going to stop me is if Kate says “no,” but until such time, I’m going to reach out and grab on to more of these new feelings. Like a fucking magnet to metal, I don’t have any choice but to be led to where my nature tells me to go.
Kate whirls around to face me, her hair flying around her shoulders. Thank fuck she took her hair down, and I let my eyes roam over the soft locks as they float and finally settle over her shoulders.
Kate’s eyes are wide with uncertainty and her head tilts to the side. “Zack?”
I don’t answer her. I just walk into the small bathroom and draw her into me, one hand curled around the back of her neck and my other arm around her waist. She doesn’t try to back away or pull free. In fact, she only gives a startled gasp before my mouth descends on her.