Chapter 9: The Roof

His mouth moved down my jaw to the side of my throat.

My breath went ragged.

I still had his tie wound around my fist.

"Lucas," I said. "The driver."

"Can't hear us."

"Can he see us?"

"Not unless he's very brave."

He kissed the place under my ear that had wrecked me at the altar, and I arched off the seat.

His hand was on my knee, then above it, sliding up the denim, slow.

His thumb pressed into the inside of my thigh and stayed there.

I pulled his face back up to mine and kissed him hard enough to knock his head against the window.

He laughed into my mouth.

It was the first time I'd ever heard him laugh.

The car stopped.

The driver tapped twice on the partition, very politely.

We broke apart, breathing.

My hair was everywhere.

His tie was ruined.

The doorman held the door and looked at the ceiling.

【I need a cold shower and I'm not even IN the book.】

【Kitty got five years and never once got kissed in a car.】

【Because he was scared of her being scared of him. Oh my god. I get it now.】

That night I found him on the roof terrace.

It was cold for November, wind coming off the park.

He was sitting on a lounge chair in a heavy coat with two mugs of tea he'd made by microwaving water.

He held one out.

"I made it myself," he said, with real pride.

"It's lukewarm."

"I'm learning."

I sat down beside him.

Manhattan was lit up all the way to the bridges.

"Can I ask you about the boathouse?" I said.

He didn't answer for a while.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Stand-In Wife and His Only Obsession from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.