“Understood. And while we’re talking about it. Your safe word is red. If you need to stop for any reason, you say that word, and I stop no matter what. And like I said last night, the word stop will get my attention, too. You always have the power to shut things down.”
“Okay,” she said, nodding even though he probably couldn’t see that from all the way on the other side of the fence. The safe word really did make her feel better. She’d learned what they meant from her research and knew that it was respected above all else. She had no doubt Colby would honor it if she called her word.
“You have fifteen minutes to get dressed and over here. Then we eat. After that, you’re all mine.”
She shivered. “I can’t wait. I’ve heard Barcelona has excellent food.”
He laughed. “Smartass. You just earned an extra swat for that one.”
“Look forward to it.”
With that, she hung up, shut her curtains, and collapsed onto the guest bed with a smile so big it hurt her face.
All these months she’d been sitting in the dark, watching the erotic tableaus of Colby Wilkes through that window, wondering what it must feel like to be so free, how heady it must feel to be the center of that man’s attention. Tonight, she’d finally find out.
Tonight she’d be his.
—
Keats should put in his earbuds. The voices and laughter from the kitchen drifted through his door like a siren call. He knew Colby and Georgia were on a date. Colby hadn’t told him to make himself scarce—telling him this was his place right now, too—but Keats knew it’d be a dick move to hang around and insert himself into their evening. But part of him was dying to go in there.
Something about those two drew him like a mosquito in the summer, dazed by the buzzing electric light that would zap it dead. He knew it was bad for him to even pay attention to what was going on between Georgia and Colby. He had a good thing going at the moment. Georgia had given him a job to help him get on his feet while he looked for something more permanent. Colby was giving him a place to stay where he didn’t have to sleep with a damn gun under his pillow. He’d be stupid to fuck it up with dumb things like his lust for Georgia and his mixed-up feelings for Colby.
But his good sense was fighting a battle with all the things the last few days had kicked up. And before long, he found himself climbing off the bed and heading out of his room. He was thirsty. That was all. Yeah, and if he could convince himself of that, he really was as stupid as one of those mosquitoes.
He was lost in his whirling thoughts, walking with his head down, when he nearly careened right into Georgia.
“Whoa.” She put her hands up to block him.
Keats tried to stop, but his momentum carried him forward, and he had to grab her arms to keep from knocking her over. “Shit.”
Her hands landed against his chest, and he held her there. For a second, there was silence, both of them looking at each other, her brown eyes searching his. The overwhelming urge to kiss her hit Keats like a fist to the gut. He managed to force out a “Sorry.”
She backed up a step and lowered her hands, smoothing them over her dress. “No problem. Everything all right? You look like you’re in a hurry.”
“I—” He shrugged, feeling all kinds of awkward now. “I was thirsty.”
Her eyebrow quirked.
“Really thirsty.”
Lame. So lame.
“Okay.”
He couldn’t keep his eyes from roaming downward. Georgia looked so different than she had a few hours ago when he was working at her house. The casual jeans and sweater had been traded in for a wine-red dress with a deep V neckline. His gaze lingered and as if on cue, her nipples hardened beneath the thin fabric. He nearly groaned aloud. No way she was wearing a bra.
He imagined crowding her against the wall and sliding his hand inside that neckline, feeling the weight and warmth of her in his palm, running his tongue along her nipple until it was ripe and wet, pressing his teeth into her flesh.
She cleared her throat, snapping him out of his own personal porn reel. “Well, come on, I was heading back to the kitchen, too. We have food left if you want anything.”
Oh, there was something he wanted. But it definitely wasn’t dinner.
He adjusted the front of his jeans and followed her into the kitchen, where the other object of his tormented thoughts was clearing the table. Colby looked up from his task and seemed surprised to find Georgia and Keats walking in together. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Keats said, wishing he’d just stayed the hell in his room. After the encounter in the hallway, his whole body felt flushed, his senses edgy. He had to be wearing his frustration like a fucking billboard. He walked over to the fridge.
“Keats was thirsty,” Georgia explained.