She looked at me with soft eyes. "You're a great person, Dylan."
"Thank you. Does that change your resolution in any way?"
She laughed, tilting her head and biting her lower lip. I captured her mouth, moving closer to her. She opened up to me right away, surrendering even faster than this morning. She tugged at my hair and my shirt, and I nipped her tongue lightly. I pulled her in my lap, groaning when she suddenly collided with my cock. I kept kissing her, tasting her, exploring her. I couldn't get enough.
"You're bad for my resolution," she murmured when we paused. "But you kiss so well." She touched my lips, looking at me intently. "Just kissing, okay? Nothing else."
I took that as an invitation to kiss her some more. I needed it. It was like I was possessed with the need to taste her again. I captured her mouth, slipping my tongue between her lips, coaxing her tongue until she moaned against me. I felt it reverberate through my throat and go straight to my cock. I was already hard. I pressed my fingers into her ass cheeks, bringing her center even closer to my erection. She moaned again, then paused the kiss, laughing as she climbed off me.
"Okay, I changed my mind. Your kisses are so good that they'll mess with my mind. They already mess with my hormones. I think I should go."
“Mmm, no. Bad idea.” I touched her lower lip with my fingers, kissing the corner of her mouth. “But if that’s what you want, I respect that.”
“Well, the pup is sleeping, and we’ve established you’re a danger to me. I think it’s the smartest thing to do.”
We both rose to our feet, and she started walking to the door. I waited for a beat, trying to rein in my hard-on and clear my mind before going after her.
“I’ll drive you home,” I said.
“No, no, no. We need to work on your gentleman streak. It’s going to be my kryptonite.”
“Tell me more.”
“You wanted to make me do something outrageous, and you did. I think it’s enough for one evening, don’t you think?” she asked in a teasing tone.
I opened the door, leaning in a few inches as she slipped out. “When it comes to you, I’m not sure there is enough at all.”
Chapter Ten
Dylan
The next morning, Ian came into my office with a shit-eating grin that told me his mind was not on business. He sat on my couch instead of taking the seat in front of me.
"So, I heard you’ve got a dog."
I grinned. "Isabelle already told you?"
He confirmed with a nod. "Obviously. She told Mom and Dad too."
I leaned back in my chair, lacing my fingers on top of my head. That was bad. They might reach all sorts of conclusions. Our parents liked to read into everything.
“She did tell you it’s a present for her, right?” I asked.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t explain what it’s doing in your apartment.”
“I didn’t want to leave him at the shelter until Isabelle moves.”
Ian cocked a brow. “I see. You wanted to impress Mel. Did it work out?”
“That’s not why I took him home.”
"If you say so."
"I do."
"So, you're dating her now?" he asked.
"No."
He rose from the couch, slowly approaching my desk, pointing at me.
"Holy shit! But you want to, don't you? Finally. I was afraid you were turning into me after the breakup. It really did a number on you.”
I stared him down. "Really? You want to talk about that?"
He held his hands up in defense, finally sitting in the damn chair. "No, no. We buried that hatchet."
My brother and I were close. I'd always looked out for him. I'd never seriously gotten pissed off at him until I found out he knew Lina was cheating and didn't tell me anything. It was the first time we had a falling-out. He claimed he'd only found out after we'd broken up, so telling me would have only been rubbing salt in the wound, which was true. But I always liked to know all the facts, especially if they concerned me. Isabelle talked me out of being pissed at him. She told me Ian had tried to protect me, which I wasn’t used to, considering I was the older one.
"Okay, so let's talk about this, then,” I said, pointing to the stack of documents in front of me.
"Just so you know, the fact that you're evasive about it proves my point," Ian said. His shit-eating grin was back.
"Ian. Work. Now. We only have forty minutes before our phone call with the first client."
"That’s enough time to get the scoop from you and discuss the agenda."
I shook my head. "There's no scoop. There's nothing."
"Yeah, I don't buy it. But whatever works for you, man."
We started talking about the documentation for project Z, and maybe because we’d just been talking about her or maybe because I hadn't stopped thinking about her since she left my apartment, an image of Mel popped up in my mind. I hadn't gotten to kiss her neck last evening, and I was still beating myself up over it. I’d fantasized about it the whole night.
"No, no. You're not allowed to space out if I can't tease you about Mel," Ian exclaimed. "Holy shit, you were thinking about her, weren't you? You don't have it bad. You have it very, very bad."
My family was getting a bit too good at reading me.
“Just wait until our parents get wind of this,” he went on.
“They won’t,” I said. “Unless you blab.”
He held up a finger. “You forget we have two sisters.”
I laughed, sinking lower on the leather seat, glancing at the stack of papers in front of me.
“I can’t believe I have to review these today,” I said.
“Don’t remind me. I’ve got a stack too, and I didn’t even start.”
“You think we’re crazy for taking on project Z?” I asked him. We were very well off just by offering our programming services to our existing clients, as well as licensing a virus protection software we’d developed.
“Probably, but we’ve never backed down from a challenge. And it’ll be worth it if it helps people not go through the same thing our parents did.”
The same thing motivated both of us. Josie had already been in New York, so she didn’t get wind of our parents’ troubles, but Isabelle, Ian, and I grew even closer during those hard years.
My phone started buzzing on my desk.
“It’s Mom,” I said, checking the screen. “That’s weird. She never calls in the morning.”
Ian chuckled. “Unless she got news from a certain sister last evening. And that’s my cue to go to my own office.”
I answered the phone as he left the room. I checked in with my parents a couple times a week, but maybe this was an emergency. As a rule of thumb, I always picked up the phone.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Darling, how are you?”
“Busy,” I replied.
“You always are. Well, I won’t keep you for long. Isabelle told us you got her a puppy.”
Right. So it wasn’t an emergency. Ian was right. I had to laugh. At least they didn’t know about Mel. I should consider myself lucky.