Hot Under His Collar - Andie J. Christopher Page 0,86

Patrick deserved to live someplace beautiful.

Without thinking too hard, which would make her not say what she was about to say, she said, “How about my place?”

“Do you think it’s too soon to move in together?” It was, but nothing about them being together was prudent or well plotted out.

“It’s definitely too soon.” But it didn’t feel wrong. “But I’ve been dating the wrong guys for me, and you spent ten years doing the wrong thing for you. And I just think that we’ve wasted enough time doing what’s right for everyone else, and I’m done wasting time. I think we’re both done wasting time.”

Patrick was silent for a long beat, and Sasha worried that he was going to turn her down flat. Everything about this made her feel as though her skin was flayed open. It was just so raw and real. She felt like she had been made partly of metal before falling in love with him. She’d gone through life like a robot. Nothing could get in, and she processed emotions like a computer instead of really feeling them. Now, everything had the potential to hurt, so everything did hurt. Even if it was anticipation. Joy hurt. She didn’t want to imagine what him turning her down would do.

But then he tentatively reached over and grabbed her thigh, squeezing it as though he knew that she needed to be reassured. “I think you’re right. We have a lot of time to make up for.”

The way he lowered his tone about the second thing made her think that they wouldn’t be leaving her bedroom, much less her condo, for the foreseeable future. Everything below her waist got hot and tight. Her toes curled in her shoes, and she had to brace herself from punching the gas.

“You can’t say things like that when I’m driving.”

“Noted.” He moved his hand, and the lusty fog that had washed over her ebbed in part. The rest of it wouldn’t ebb until they’d gotten back to her place, all their clothes were off, and they were lying in a sweaty pile of limbs for at least the fourth or fifth time.

“Seriously, what are we going to do?”

“You mean, what am I going to do for a job?”

That was one of her questions. She personally didn’t care if he wanted to stay home and massage her feet every night, but she doubted that would make him happy. And him having some sort of plan might lessen the blow to her parents of her shacking up with a defrocked priest.

Not much, but a little.

“I was thinking of going back to school to become a therapist.”

Sasha could see that right away. He’d be able to use his already existing skill set, and he’d look really hot in those sweaters with patches on the elbows. She was about to tell him to make a list of local graduate programs from her phone when they arrived.

As soon as she pulled into her parking space, he reached over her and unhooked her seat belt.

“Can we talk about that later?” he asked.

From the look in his eye, it would be much, much later.

* * *

—

PATRICK HADN’T EVEN GIVEN a whole lot of thought to what he and Sasha were about to do before Sasha had started prompting those thoughts a few months ago. He hadn’t seen a naked woman outside of a piece of Renaissance art in well over a decade, and he was afraid that he’d forgotten everything he ever knew about sex.

His palms were sweaty, and he felt as though his heart could beat out of his chest at any moment. Probably so attractive to someone like Sasha, who could have anyone she wanted. Even though she’d said she was in love with him, he couldn’t quite wrap his head around it.

No one had ever said that before and meant it. He’d never believed that anyone loved him, and he didn’t know that he liked the feeling, even now. It was too much stimulation, almost. As they walked up to her second-floor place, he almost stopped on the stairs.

He loved her, and he was sure he wanted to be with her, but this was crazy. Maybe they should be moving things more slowly. But then his gaze caught on the sway of her ass as she made her way up the wooden stairs, and he thought that they had moved slowly enough for long enough.

She stopped at the top of the stairs, turned to unlock the door, and