“Your family is pretty cool,” Seth says quietly.

“Sometimes they’re not.” I laugh. Usually they are.

“So, you staying over tonight?” Seth asks.

I shake my head. “No.”

“Why not?” He looks confused.

“Because I respect Sky.” Because I don’t want you think poorly of her.

“Whatever, man,” he says as he gets up. “I’m going to bed.”

“Good night,” I say.

He goes into his room and closes the door. I let out a deep breath. God, there’s a lot to consider when there’s a teenager in the house. He’s impressionable, and he’s going to learn how to treat women from the way his mother was treated, and the way Sky is treated around him in the future. I am determined to be a good influence.

Sky walks out of her room, her hair damp around her shoulders. “Did Seth go to bed?” she asks. She fidgets around the kitchen, like she’s not quite sure what to do.

“Yep.” I stand up and lean against the counter. She turns to set up the coffeepot for tomorrow morning, and I see her ass in those pajama bottoms and I want to just grab it and plump it and sink my teeth into it. But I have to go home. I groan to myself.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, turning to face me.

“Nice jammies,” I say.

She looks down at herself, grins, and strikes a dramatic pose. “You like them?”

I swipe a hand down my face. “I’d like them more if they were on the floor.”

She freezes. The skin I can see through the open vee of her pajama top colors, turning all rosy. “Oh,” she breathes. But then she grins and crooks a finger at me. “I think they would really like to be on the floor.”

I groan again and toss my head back. “I can’t.”

She freezes again. “You’re not staying?”

I shake my head. I’m stupid. I know.

“Why not?” she asks quietly.

I point toward Seth’s room. “Because we have a teenager in the other room, and I need to set a good example for him.” I hate this. But it is what it is.

Her jaw falls open. “You’re worried about Seth?”

I nod and raise my knuckle to my mouth, biting down on it, trying to take some of the ache out of my nuts.

“I think Seth is old enough to understand.”

I shake my head. “I know. But he just said something that hit home with me. I don’t want him to think I’m with you because I want to score.” I do want to score, but that’s beside the point.

She motions from her to me and back. “I kind of hoped to score,” she whispers vehemently. She glances toward Seth’s closed door. “He’s in bed. He’ll never know.”

I point to my chest. “But I’ll know.”

She harrumphs, and her shoulders drop. “I put on perfume and everything,” she mumbles.

I walk over to her and wrap my arms around her, sniffing her neck. I can smell the sweet scent that’s her, but I can’t tell where she applied it. “Where?” I ask, hesitant when I hear my own voice quaver.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” she asks with a giggle. She steps onto her tiptoes and wraps her arms around my neck.

I walk her backward toward her room as I kiss her. Her lips are hungry against mine, and she takes greedy little nips at my mouth. I want to stay. I want to be inside her. But I can’t.

I grab the hem of her shirt and shove her gently through the doorway of her bedroom at the same time, yanking the shirt over her head.

“Change your mind?” she asks, breathless, as she covers her br**sts with her hands. They plump around her fingertips, and I want to kiss her fingers away.

I lift her shirt to my nose and sniff it. “I’m taking this with me because it smells like you.”

“Matt,” she protests, but it’s more of a playful grunt. “Give me my shirt.”

“If you want the shirt, you have to give me your panties,” I say. I glance down.

“I’m not wearing any panties,” she says, taunting me.

I lean forward and kiss her forehead, lingering for just a moment, taking in the feel of her clutching my shirt in her fists. “God, you’re killing me,” I say. I let my hands drift up and down her naked back, and she purrs like a kitten, pressing her tits against my chest.

“Stay,” she says softly.

I shake my head, take her hands in mine, and unravel her fingers from my shirt, then set her back from me. “If it was just us, you wouldn’t be able to get rid of me.”

“But it’s not.”

I shake my head. “Good night,” I say as I walk away.

“’Night,” she calls to my retreating back.

I go out the front door and groan loudly. I want to go back to her. But I also want to do this the right way.

Skylar

Matt’s barely out the front door when I call him. In fact, I can hear the ding of the elevator over the bad reception in the enclosed space when he answers me with nothing more than a groan.

“Matt,” I say quietly.

“What?” he bites out. But I can almost hear the lazy smile in his voice.

“Come back.”

He hisses out a breath. Then says quietly, “If you say the word come one more time…”

My breath catches, and my heart starts to trip. “Matt.” I’m grinning like a fool, and I don’t care. My door is shut, and no one can see me.