But this time, she doesn’t just kiss me, she claims me.
Her hands in my hair pull just enough to cause a tingling through my body. One hand settles on her naked ass and the other around her slender shoulders, plastering her to me. Her tongue glides inside my mouth and we fight for control, my hand squeezing her soft, pillowy butt.
“Clem. I’m out. You can use the bathroom.”
We jerk apart at Merida’s loud holler.
“Fuck!”
My eyes open to find Clementine bent before me, grabbing the towel. She looks up at me and this posture makes it all bad, all wrong.
I can see everything, dammit.
“Jesus, Clem! Just get up.”
She realizes the same and quickly stands. “I… I’ll leave before Mere comes looking for me.”
Pulling the towel in front of her in a rush, she turns to leave the room and I get a perfect view of her naked ass, along with my red fingermarks.
This image will be burned into my brain for a very long time.
I’m doomed.
24
CLEMENTINE
After dropping Mere at her school, Keith parks his car outside Vanshionista.
I’m about to step out when he stops me. “Clementine, about this morning—”
“Um, sorry, Keith, but I really have to go.” I grab my handbag and dash out of his car.
I hear him calling me when I march toward the building, but I don’t turn around. I only have so much courage.
When Mere suggested I use her dad’s shower, I’d hoped he’d find me and kiss me. What I hadn’t dared to imagine was he’d ask for another kiss, or me flashing him.
In the last two days, I’ve seen an unexpected vulnerable side of Keith. A man hidden behind the frustrated, irritated dad.
A man who has been waiting a long time for love.
When I step out of the elevator, still half-dazed, Ann rushes to me. “Vanessa wants to see you.”
“Um…okay.”
So much happened over the weekend that I’d forgotten my new role and accompanying responsibilities in the company. I knock on Vanessa’s door before entering her office.
“You asked for me?” I tiptoe toward her desk.
She looks up from her laptop. “What happened to your neck?”
“Um…I had an accident.” My hand goes over the fresh bandage Mere applied this morning. I didn’t realize the cut was this deep. Remembering the events that led to it sends a shiver down my body.
Keith assured us multiple times before leaving the apartment that both fuckers are in jail. His words, not mine.
“On your neck?” Vanessa narrows her eyes on me in her typical menacing style. “Did your mother—”
“No!” I rush to answer. My mother would never hurt me…physically. I’m surprised she even thought that.