The Hottest Ticket in Town. Kimberly Meter Van

her and Kane, even after all these years. Maybe it was stupid to share the same space together, even for a few days. It’d taken her a long time to get over Kane, although if her reaction to him was any indication, maybe she never had.

       7

      KANE STEPPED INTO the shower, his thoughts humming at a fine clip. His muscles ached, his head throbbed, but none of that seemed to matter. He wasn’t thinking straight—that much was evident by the fact that he wanted nothing more than to lift that cute country skirt and slide his cock so deep into that soft, willing flesh that his hands shook at being denied. Sure, he’d played it cool with Laci, but it’d taken everything in him not to give in to those lips, presented so sweetly for the taking.

      Hell, as bad ideas went, messing around with Laci ranked up there with the idea of a four-cylinder truck trying to pull a fifth wheel, but that didn’t stop him from picturing Laci’s pretty mouth doing pretty dirty things to his cock as he slid the soap over his body. Like a good soldier, his cock rose for duty and he wasn’t above palming it with a soft groan. Laci, Laci, Laci...what the hell are you doing to me? He shouldn’t want her—he’d left for a reason—but knowing that soda was bad didn’t stop millions of people from reaching for a bottle of sugary poison. That’s what Laci was—sweet, sugary poison.

      And damn, if he didn’t want a big ol’ gulp.

      But he was an adult. He could govern himself. Just because he wanted her so badly he couldn’t see straight didn’t mean he had to give in to that internal pressure. He could be friendly and keep his thoughts in the PG department. Well, he could try anyway. Keep it together, she’s only here for a few days and then it’s back to business as usual, he told himself as he finished.

      He toweled off and dressed in clean jeans before heading back to the kitchen, where he found Laci dishing up two slices of pizza and pulling a fresh beer from the fridge. She sure was pretty as a picture, he noted as he slid into the seat at the old dining room table. She’d swept her blond hair up in a messy ponytail so that a few tendrils escaped and curled in the summer heat and he licked his lips, not because the pizza was making his stomach growl but because he desperately wanted to taste the salt on her skin as he ran his mouth along the column of that beautiful neck. Did she still taste like rainbows and whispered promises the way she had at seventeen? What? Now you’re a damn poet? Eat your pizza before you do something stupid.

      Obeying the curt order in his head, he stuffed his mouth with a bite and grunted his approval, choosing to keep his gaze off Laci and on his plate, but as luck would have it, Laci was feeling chatty.

      “So tell me what you’ve been up to all this time,” she asked, making conversation as she bit into her own pizza, wiping her mouth with the corner of her hand like a true country girl, more interested in her food than social niceties.

      He bit back a laugh at how stupidly sexy he found that. Was everything she did sexy? Pretty much. He took another bite and answered around hot cheese, “Me and Rian own a business together in SoCal.”

      Her brow went up in interest. “Yeah? What kind of business?”

      Kane hesitated, not sure if he wanted to share personal details about his life, but then his mouth was moving before he could stop it. “We own a company called Elite Protection Services. We provide protection details for high-profile clients.”