Tonight, I pull Colby’s face to mine and I inhale his kiss. I kiss him so hard and so long that I can’t see straight. I can’t think straight. I am no longer bound by logic or reason or rules. I don’t care what his name is right now, Colby or Shade or even Cat in the Freaking Hat. I only want him inside of me.
He slides me off of the bar and lays me on the floor.
There is a brief rustle of foil and then I get my wish.
Chapter Fourteen
(Or: It’s all fun and games until you wake up naked)
We wake up in the light of day in my bed. I don’t remember making it to the bedroom at any point and quite possibly, Colby carried me here.
I lean up on my elbow and study him. He’s sleeping and he looks so young while he’s asleep.
Because he is young, my mind reminds me devilishly. He’s almost young enough to be your kid.
No, he’s not! The other half of my brain argues. Not even close.
Great.
I sigh. Now I’m arguing with myself. I’m pretty sure that’s a sign of insanity. All I need to do now is start rocking in my seat and begin mumbling and Sophie can get me committed.
Sophie!
I glance at the clock and sigh a breath of relief. It’s only 10:00 am. She won’t be home for a few hours.
“Good morning,” Colby says, stretching beside me.
I look over at him again. He’s adorably cute when he just wakes up. His hair is tousled and his eyes are glassy with sleep.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him. “Did I wake you?”
He shakes his head. “Nope. I’ve been awake. I was just lying here with my eyes closed listening to you snore.”
“I don’t snore!” I protest with a giggle. “I don’t.”
“Oh, you do,” he insists, leaning over to kiss me. “But it’s cute.”
His kiss is soft and gentle. And scary.
We shouldn’t be kissing or na**d right now in the light of day. Or in bed together naked. And kissing. He’s Colby and I’m Allison. He’s way younger than me. And this isn’t cool.
I draw back.
“Is everything alright?” his eyebrows knit together. I shake my head.
“I don’t know. We shouldn’t have done that. You’re Colby right now. And I’m Allison. And this isn’t something we should be doing.”
Colby is still for a moment, then sits up. I have to ignore the way his abs flex when he moves if I want to continue any kind of cognitive thought.
“You’re right,” he agrees. “We got carried away. It happens. It tends to happen a lot when body shots are involved,” he adds wryly. He turns to me.
“But it’s not the end of the world, Alli. It was a slip. No big deal. It was fun. We’re friends. And last night, we were friends with benefits. Don’t freak out, okay?”
Don’t freak out. What a young thing to say. I am reminded for the fourteenth time today already how young he is. I nod.
“Okay.”
Colby swings his leg over the side of the bed and stands up. I can’t help but look. I’ve got amazing fortitude, but I’m not a freaking nun. And then I wish I hadn’t looked. He’s standing there in the sunlight in all of his twenty-two (or twenty three?) year old perfection and I immediately want him to come back to bed. But I swallow hard and suppress that thought.
Get thee back to hell, Satan, where you belong! I silently chastise my thoughts.
“Since I’m here now, though, do you want to take a shower with me?” Colby asks impishly. He turns and I see the full profile of his body now, semi-erect member and all. Mother Nature at her finest. I decide that she very probably is a woman, after all. She made men like Colby as gifts to the female species.
I nod, against the will of my logical thoughts. “Yes.”
He hauls me to my feet and drags me to my shower.
Apparently, Satan didn’t get himself back into hell, like I demanded. He controlled my thoughts in the shower instead, because Colby and I have sex in every conceivable position known to man in there... along with a few more that Satan invented on the fly.
When the mirrors are all fogged and we are completely spent and finished, we stumble out into the cold air.
“Well,” I sigh wryly. “I won’t need to go to Yoga this week.”
Colby laughs and towels off.
“I like you, Alli. For real. And not just because you pay me to.”
My heart stops. I think. His expression right now is so sweet, but this isn’t what I want. I can’t ‘date’ a twenty-something. I can’t have a real relationship of any kind with him…not even a friends-with-benefits arrangement. I look at him and he immediately sees it on my face and he backpedals.
“I didn’t mean… I meant…” He is stammering now and it’s the first time that I have seen him in any way other than cool and collected. For once, he seems like the twenty-two (or twenty-three!) year old that he actually is.
“It’s okay,” I say, interrupting him. “I don’t know where you were going with that, but it’s fine. I’m just not ready for a relationship yet. You’re amazing and awesome and I like you, too, though.”
“That’s what I meant to say,” he says and I can’t tell by his face if that is the truth or not. “I only meant to say that I like you. That you’re awesome and I consider you my friend.”
I smile, warm rushing through me.
“I consider you my friend, too. This is one idea that Sara had that was actually a good one.”
“So I was Sara’s idea?” Colby asks with a grin as he pulls on his clothes.
I nod. “Who else’s?”
He laughs. “Good point. That friend of yours is something else.”
“That she is,” I agree. “She gets me into all kinds of trouble. But this particular trouble… well, I like it. But I like it how it is now. I don’t want it to change.”
Meaning, I’m not going to date a twenty-something kid. Even if he is sexy as hell and taught me how to bring a man to his knees in five minutes flat.
He smiles at me. “Message received, Alli Cat. We can be friends, though. And you’re still my client, right?”