Page 102 of Decidedly Off Limits

My lips parted and I welcomed him in. Welcomed his minty taste. Welcomed his familiar scent.

Welcomed every part of him into my heart—without any reservations or fear.

The thunderous applause filled the room—along with a few whistles that I suspected came from my table.

“I guess I don’t need to introduce you two,” Jodi said into the mic.

40

Trent

After we paidthe “cashier” for the winning bid, we left backstage to return to the ballroom. Although Kelsey had won, I insisted on paying. It was the least I could do.

Did you recognize the woman who had tried to outbid Kelsey? She was Beatrice Peterson, or Reese, as she preferred to go by.

And trust me when I say I owed Kelsey a lot more than a date to thank her—something I had every intention of doing once we could sneak away from the event.

Unable to wait that long, I glanced around the hallway. A few people were milling around, but they were mostly the staff waiting for the auction to finish so they could start serving the food. I grabbed Kelsey’s hand and led her in the opposite direction of the ballroom.

“Don’t we have to go the other way?” she asked.

“Not for what I have planned.”

“What exactly do you have planned?”

Nothing close to what I wanted to do to her once we were back at my apartment. Fortunately, I was very well acquainted with the hotel.

On the second floor, I pushed open the door to the women’s bathroom. Unless you knew where you were going, you could easily miss it. The room was small and elegant, and had a lock on the door.

Very convenient for moments like this.

As soon as the door was locked, my lips crashed against Kelsey’s and I kissed her the way I couldn’t onstage. There, it had been about making sure people knew she was mine. Now I wanted to prove it to her.

My tongue flicked against hers and every cell in my body hummed with electricity. It had been a very long two weeks without her.

And in case you were wondering, the dream date I’d described onstage hadn’t been the one I’d originally planned. The original date had been a five-star dinner cruise around the bay, but the moment I saw Kelsey—the moment I saw how she was looking at me—I knew I had to take a chance and tell her how I felt…in front of everyone.

I had to tell her that I trusted her with all my heart—something I had thought would never be possible after my past relationships.

What I had really wanted to do was tell her that I loved her, everyone be damned. But I couldn’t do that because of the charity, as much as I had wanted to. Luckily for me she figured it out on her own.

“The dream date,” she said, “you changed it, didn’t you? You changed it at the last minute because of me?”

“How did you know?”

She giggled. “Because, one, you threw Jodi for a loop. And two, everything you said and the places you planned to take the winner…well, it was like you had planned the date for me and only for me.”

I ran my lips against Kelsey’s soft, sweet-smelling jaw. “I wanted to add one more item, but I didn’t think the organizers would be too thrilled with what I have planned. Too scandalous.”And the last thing I had wanted was to give Beatrice the idea that sex with her was on the table in the event that she won the bidding.

“I’m going to make love to you,” I said, my breath against the shell of Kelsey’s ear. “That’s how our date will end.”

She shuddered in my arms. “I’m not sure I can wait that long,” she murmured.

“Hmm you might have a point.” I certainly couldn’t wait that long before tasting her.

Hell, I couldn’t even wait until later tonight to taste her.

My mouth was on hers again, and I slowly backed her up until her calves hit the cushioned stool against the far wall. But before I took things further, I needed to know one thing. “Have you been with anyone else since I last saw you?” Her ex-fiancé came to mind.