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“I know.” His chuckle made me squirm. A gal’s wet dream right there.
“Just in case you have a lot of women calling.”
“It’s been a while.” His rueful response made me wonder how much of a player he’d been before he met his wife. A vision of a crowd of hot women trailing him rose in my head. Too easy to picture. I needed to keep it in mind as a warning. When he decided he was back on the market, he would be collecting as many hearts as he wanted.
“I need to check with you about dance lessons with Catherine for an hour or so on Thursday evenings. After a couple of weeks, we may want to do two evenings a week.”
“I don’t know, Tova.” His serious tone heaped stress on my shoulders. “I don’t know if I can do the types of steps Catherine wants to learn. I can’t drop it low quite like you.”
Laughing, I pushed my toes against the ground, so I was swaying on the swing. “You had me in the beginning, I’m not gonna lie.”
“Whatever time you need, we’ll make it work.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
A simple “don’t mention it.” He never said I owed him, but more importantly, he didn’t make me feel that way.
After I hung up with him, I got a message from Thelma.Working a double. Can you water the plants?
Sunday was plant-watering day. Glad to have something to do, I jogged up to the apartment. Cool air with a light, grease-laden scent from the diner surrounded me. I watered her philodendrons and spider ivy plants.
I put the watering can away under the kitchen sink, then leaned against the counter and looked around. I was no closer to figuring out my dilemma than when I first arrived. The clock was ticking down. Once I was released from being a nanny and received my final paycheck, I’d have a month to come up with another five grand to pay for Mom’s care. Then another month. And another.
Stress undulated under my skin, and my brain hooked on to Cody’s deep timbre.
Letting out a gusty breath, I pushed off the counter. Thelma’s bathroom wasn’t the lap of luxury, but I could still take a bath. She was working for eight more hours, and I wouldn’t have to worry about hogging the bathroom.
Within minutes, I was sinking into warm, sudsy water. I set my phone on the ledge in case Thelma needed me to do more for her and slid as far into the water as I could go.
My eyelids drifted shut, and I let the pounding of water filling the tub block out the world. The problem was that once my problems were locked away, a face rose in my mind.
A square chin with a defined jawline I thought of tracing with my tongue. Dark eyes that could twinkle and obliterate my senses. A hard body that was lithe but solid and strong.
I’d felt so safe in his hold.
I shut off the water with my foot and stared at the gleam of the silver faucet. The heat from the water somehow made the vision of Cody vivid, so damn real, I could almost feel the way his big hands gripped me to spin me around his kitchen and dining room.
Tingles increased to a dull thrum. I skimmed a hand down my abdomen, the water lightly sloshing.
This was so wrong.
But who was going to find out?
I could finally get myself off and not worry about someone overhearing.
I widened my legs enough to let my hand slip between my thighs. As soon as my fingertip touched my clit, I let out a moan. A gal shouldn’t go this long without getting off, but dammit, I wasn’t masturbating on Thelma’s couch. This tub was my safe space.
I circled my finger in a rhythm I’d had to use with too many partners ever since I learned that not all men cared whether I came or not.
Cody would care. I bet he made sure his partner’s world was rocked hard before he even entered her—and then he probably decimated her. The tight control he kept reined in all day had to release. I bet sex with him was transformative.
Thinking about Cody was wrong.
Oh, fuck it all anyway. I let out a needy whimper.
He was so hot. Those shoulders of his. They were begging to be footrests while he buried his face in—
