One Night Stand novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Greenhouse

"Then I'm cancelling it," I said.

Mateo went completely still.

"Rule three?"

"Rule three. Effective now."

"Callie, if I take this hand off the wall, I will not be able to put it back."

"Then don't."

His eyes went dark.

He turned, and I heard the bolt on the greenhouse door slide home.

He came back across the brick floor in three strides.

I was already pulling at the wet hem of his sweater.

He helped me drag it over his head.

His skin was hot under my hands.

I put my mouth against his collarbone and tasted rain.

"Slow down," he said, and his voice cracked.

"No."

"I want to do this right."

"You did it right the first time. I've thought about it for four years."

He made a low sound and lifted me by the backs of my thighs.

My legs went around him.

He carried me to the long potting table and set me down.

He shoved the clay pots and a tray of seedlings aside first.

Something fell over and rolled.

Neither of us looked.

He kissed my neck, and my jaw, and the corner of my mouth, with a slowness that was almost cruel.

I got my T-shirt over my head myself.

"Look at me," he said.

I looked.

He had my face between his hands, his thumbs on my cheekbones.

He was breathing as hard as I was.

"I am not going to forget this one," he said. "Understand me. I didn't forget the first."

"Mateo."

"Say it again."

"Mateo."

"Again."

"Mateo, please."

He undid my jeans and I lifted my hips so he could drag them down.

His palms ran up the outsides of my legs, rough and sure.

The glass above us was streaming with rain.

I could hear it drumming on the roof, and the thud of my own pulse, and nothing else in the world.

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