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“Either way, you literally saved the day,” Carmela said with a smile.

The lack of snark was disarming, and all Rhiannon could do was grin. She liked being Carmela’s hero, she realized.

Instead of heading back to the foyer to wait for their first appointment, Carmela stepped closer, her glance darting between Rhiannon’s eyes and her lips. The moment had a familiar heaviness that made her heart beat faster and her stomach flutter.

“Why are you making this so hard on me?” Carmela asked quietly, sounding pained as she studied Rhiannon’s face.

“I’m not trying to,” she admitted as she closed the gap between them.

“You need to try so much harder,” Carmela said, her warm breath on Rhiannon’s lips as she hooked her finger in the waistband of Rhiannon’s pants and pulled her closer until their bodies were pressed together.

“I know it’s a cheap trick, and I promise I’m mostly reformed from those, but if I’d known all I had to do to reel you in was sweat in a cami, I would’ve done it way sooner.”

“Shut up,” Carmela demanded before wrapping her arms around Rhiannon’s neck and claiming her lips like she’d done by the pool.

This time, Carmela’s kiss was rushed and urgent. Nothing like the smooth, languid moves she’d put on her at the pool.

It was messy and uncontrolled, matching the clumsy attempts to pull

o Rhiannon’s camisole.

Rhiannon loved every exhilarated second as she walked her backward to the bathroom without breaking their kiss. In a clash of teeth and tongue, she gripped Carmela’s hips and eased her onto the counter.

The moan she received as a reward was worth the strain to her biceps. Desire pulsated through her like a living thing as she pressed herself between Carmela’s parted thighs, earning a deeper even more passionate kiss from the woman who was now a few inches above her.

“I want you,” Rhiannon whispered as she ran her open palms up Carmela’s exposed legs. Her skin was so smooth and warm, all she could picture was them wrapped around her naked body.

Carmela clamped her hand over hers when it snaked under her skirt. “We have to stop,” she said panting. “For like a hundred reasons,” she added, struggling to catch her breath as she continued to press kisses to Rhiannon’s very receptive lips. “But most pressing are the clients arriving any second and I must look a state.”

Rhiannon stepped back to look at the disheveled woman.

“I don’t think you’ve ever looked better.”

Instead of snapping at her, Carmela smirked before sadness crept into her being. The change was a bucket of cold water to the face. Rhiannon recognized the regret in her eyes like a flickering neon sign.

“We can’t keep doing this,” she whispered, extinguishing the lingering desire racing through her body.

“Oh really? Then why the hell did you maul me?”

Rhiannon countered before pulling on her shirt, careful not to wrinkle it.

Carmela closed her eyes for a moment before finding the strength to respond. “Words can’t describe how ashamed I am. I’m not trying to play games with you, but you’re so damn. . .”

“Irresistible?” Rhiannon suggested, her eyebrows raised and expression mischievous.

When Carmela slipped o the counter and straightened her skirt instead of responding, she knew she’d guessed correctly.

“So how about you don’t resist me. . . or this? You’re attracted to me, I’m really into you. Stop fighting it for no reason,” she said, her hands on Carmela’s hips as she watched her fix her makeup in the mirror.

“It’s not no reason, but I understand why you’re frustrated with me. You have every right to be angry with me, and I promise this is the last time,” she said, spinning around in her arms when she looked composed again.

Rhiannon studied her face, her heart pounding even harder than when they’d been kissing. Why couldn’t Carmela just let go and see what might blossom if she just gave it a chance to breathe?

“But what if I want it to happen again?” Rhiannon asked as she tucked a strand of glossy black hair behind Carmela’s

ear.Carmela’s eyes softened just as the doorbell rang.

Rhiannon hated punctual people.