Probably?

I knew Lane had misunderstood me because her lips parted and she didn’t take her eyes off my mouth, other than a brief glance at my cock. But she was still pretty horizontal, and if I didn’t pull her up soon, the laws of physics were going to kick in, and we’d both go into the water.

Probably. What did that mean? I should probably kiss her. If I was really lucky, it would probably go further. Hopefully all the way to where I definitely wanted to be. Or was it just that I should probably get her out of the bath before we both fell in?

Then, even if I begged for more, would the ‘probably’ turn back into a ‘no’?

Fuck, ‘probably’ could mean anything. I straightened, keeping her in my arms, as close as I could even though she was sopping wet. I watched her expression, recognized it because I’d seen it on a lot of women’s faces.

But Lane’s was different—it was hers. And I wanted to make sure I saw it constantly because knowing she trusted me was… I’m not sure anyone had ever trusted me before, not in the way she did. And it made me feel—

Drop the sap and stick to what I’m good at.

I shook off the weird connective element and focused on the physical. That’s what I wanted. Just the physical. I moved slowly, knowing she could balk at any moment, and I’d have to take my hands off her. I’d gotten hard the second I grabbed her ass, and I was only getting harder. She had to feel me. And she stayed in my arms long after she had to.

“Are you ready for this?” I asked again, knowing she’d understand and praying she’d say—

“Yes.”

My lips were on hers instantly, my hand moving lower on her ass and pulling her tighter to me. I’d stop if she said stop but I was going to go for as long as she let me. I’d never wanted a woman even close to this much before. Probably because she’d made me wait so damn long. Her hands went around my neck, and she moaned into my mouth. So I took the opportunity to deepen the kiss.

Wait. Maybe I should slow down. I didn’t want to slow down. Honestly, I was torn. If I didn’t say anything, we could be together now and all the damage would come out later. And later was really far from now. But if I said what I should say, she might want to stop.

Shit. I didn’t want to, but if we didn’t make things clear right now, it was never going to happen. Any second my brain would turn off and let my cock take over.

Not too slow, just enough to be able to speak in between swipes of lips or tongue.

“How you doing?” I asked.

She made a noise I’d never actually heard before. Something in between what she sounded like when she ate chocolate and the sigh she made whenever the couple finally got together in one of those horrible movies she made me watch.

God, she felt good. Everywhere, every part of her that was in contact with any part of me felt so fucking good.

“Lane, tell me you’re doing okay.” Both of us were in uncharted territory. She’d never handed herself over to an idiot she didn’t have feelings for, and I’d never been this close to sleeping with someone I knew even moderately well and liked a hell of a lot.

In my experience, there was a point when the flirting and conversation went on too long, crossing from “I really want to get you under me” territory into the “I really want to get to know you” zone. Lane and I were way past that point. I was counting on us being so far beyond that point that things had looped around again. But that was somewhere I’d never dared go.

She still hadn’t answered.

I pulled away from her, catching her chin in my hand to hold her back. “Talk to me. No emotions, right?”

“Right.” Is there anything sexier than a breathless woman? “Am I not allowed to like you, either?”

“You can like me all you want, as long as you remember this is nothing more than two people who can make each other feel good.”

“You keep saying that, but I have yet to see any proof you can actually do it.”

“Oooh, you have no idea what you’re in for.”

Her eyes flashed wide, and her fists went limp and fell from my collar. “We’ll go slowly, right?”

“Yeah.” I caught her hands and put them back around my neck where they belonged, waiting until she understood their place before I let go. “As long as we’re going in the right direction, we can go as slowly as you want. What’s my stopping point gonna be?”

“No sex. Not now, and later...”

“No sex now. Got it. We’ll figure out later when it comes.”

“I’m all wet.” That’s hot.

When her arms slid off my shoulders again, I cursed, the word drawn out until I understood what she was doing.

She pulled up her soaking shirt, exposing her smooth, curvy, feminine belly and waist. When the shirt got stuck on her shoulders and she couldn’t get it over her head, I helped. Her pants were next. I helped with those too. Shoes came off with them.

Beautiful.

“Not yet, okay?”

“Huh?” I yanked my eyes away from her body. “Sorry, lost focus there for a minute.”

“Sex. Not right away. Is that okay with you?”

“It’s your call, Lane. I’ll take whatever’s offered.” Was my look of disappointment as bad as I thought it was? “We’d better stay away from the bed and the couch though.” I was only so strong, and lying on top of her would pretty much negate all of it.

“And the shower.”

I loved her mind. I really did. “Okay, that means we could go table or counter or wall. Lots of possibilities here, Lane. Pick one.”

“Whatever’s closest.”

Deep breath. “You said slow, right? If I forget, just smack me.” I scooped her up into my arms and carried her to the door, my feet momentarily getting wrapped up in the pile of her wet clothes.

When we got to the doorway, she shouted. “Carson, stop! The bath!”

“Shit.” I turned around just as the water crested the edge of the tub and poured down the sides. I looked at the woman in my arms with regret for another second before cursing, putting her down, and running to turn off the faucet.

“Okay, where were we?” Just about to get to the good stuff.

“We need to clean up all the water.”

“No. No, we—” Yeah, we did. Fuck.

Instead of doing what we should’ve been doing, we spent the rest of the evening sponging water off the floor, making sure it hadn’t gone down into the apartment below mine, and doing all sorts of other shit I didn’t want to do.

And then my time ran out. “I need to leave for the airport.” Yet another episode of my mother ruining my life. I’d put off the trip as long as possible and booked the last flight of the day. I would’ve blown it off completely if the trip was just to spend time with Renee. But I also had to talk to a few of the Foundation’s board members to discuss my fuck-up in the bar.

“Don’t worry about the water, Lane, we got most of it. The rest will dry eventually.”

“I want to use the tub.” She was on her hands and knees using a towel to mop up the last of the water, wearing a t-shirt I’d loaned her until her stuff dried. “And I don’t want you to be able to blame the water damage on my bath instead of your distractibility.”

How the fuck did she expect me not to be distracted? It would be so easy to get on my knees behind her and forget all about taking things slowly.

I was so tempted to ask her to come to L.A. with me. While I was talking to people I disliked, she could visit her parents in San Diego, as long as she was back in the hotel room and naked by the time I escaped. But unfortunately, Lane had work to do and her own life to live. Not to mention that going out of town together was way over the “This is getting serious” limit.

“Come here.” I fucking loved that she did it without question. Everything masculine and alpha in me eating it up. It wasn’t a big deal, but it was a sign of trust, and that’s why we were doing this, right? I grabbed her and kissed her for a good couple of minutes—too long and not long enough.

“I’m going to fantasize about you in that tub for a week, and we’re going to revisit this as soon as I get back.”

A shadow of fear passed over her face.

“Stop thinking,” I grumbled. “That’s the kind of shit that gets you in trouble.” And the kind of thing that would make me have to back off, which I didn’t want to do.

“I’m going to revisit these, too,” I said, taking one last taste of her lips. We could have a good thing together, a really good thing. Something I’d never tried before because I’d never had anyone I liked enough to try it with. But only if she played by the rules—no attachment, no expectations, no commitment, no feelings.

I hoped she could do it.

She pushed on my chest to separate us. “Go away, or you’re going to miss your flight.”

“Yeah, okay.” I kissed her again because I couldn’t stop myself.

“Go away.” She shoved me backwards, laughing.

“I’ll see you soon, beautiful.” One last kiss—a small one—and then I was out of there.

Oh fuck. Maybe she wasn’t the one I should be worried about.