Free Not Quite Mine (Not Quite series) by Catherine Bybee Page A

you since before you wore a training bra.”
    Katelyn glanced down at her ample cleavage and purposely tugged her shirt a little lower to reveal more skin. “Are you telling me you’re looking out for me like I’m
your
sister?”
    Dean opened his mouth and then closed it.
    That was the moment she knew that Dean didn’t look at her as a sister. His gaze had heated and desire flashed over his face.
    Katelyn’s knees suddenly felt weak. As if sensing her inability to stand, Dean slid into her personal space and cupped the back of her head. She froze, hardly believing he was touching her. Then his lips met hers in a kiss that defined the art of kissing. He was soft and warm and made her tingle. Her eyes closed while she opened to him like a flower did to sunshine.
    It ended too soon. Both of them were stunned by the kiss.
    Neither of them acknowledged what had happened the rest of that day.
    Not twenty-four hours later, Dean knocked on the door of her suite. When she asked what he was doing there, he told her he wanted to kiss her again. To make certain he hadn’t imagined the experience.
    Suddenly Katie was a young girl again, giddy with his attention. He left her suite the next day, and she knew her life would never again be the same.
    “We didn’t date in public. When we were with friends, it became a game to tease each other without anyone noticing,” Katie explained to Monica.
    “How long did this go on?”
    “A few months.”
    “What happened to break it up?”
    Katie’s gaze slid to the floor where she had been lying next to Savannah for the last hour as she talked about her past. Savannah had fallen to sleep, her pouty lips moved with every breath.
    “We fought…things ended.” She wasn’t about to tell all her secrets. About how she’d ended up pregnant with Dean’s baby only to have a miscarriage. About how the awful monthly cycles she’d endured were actually a severe case of endometrioses that messed up not only her fallopian tubes, but made her uterus inhospitable to carry a pregnancy to term. The fact she ended up pregnant to begin with was a small miracle. “Six months after our breakup Dean was engaged. He obviously wasn’t heartbroken.”
    “But you were.”
    She shook her head. “No…please. We had a fling. That’s it.”
    Monica was sipping her second glass of wine. “A fling? You sleep with your teenage crush and you think it’s a fling?”
    “Yeah, I do.”
    “Hmm. Do the two of you ever talk about your affair?”
    “No.” Not out loud anyway.
    “Is it awkward? Working with him?”
    “As much as can be expected. I’m sure it would have been worse had we told the world about us.”
    Monica moved off the couch quietly and placed her wine glass in the sink. “I’m sure you think what you had is over, but Dean watches you whenever you’re in the room. I noticed it at the wedding. He obviously still cares.”
    “He nearly married another woman. If he felt anything for me, it was lust and that’s it.”
    “Time will work that out.”
    “Time will work what out?”
    “Whether he only wants you for the crazy-hot sex or something more.”
    “I didn’t say it was crazy-hot.”
    Monica rolled her eyes. “You didn’t have to. The temperature in the room rose five degrees while you talked about it. Listen, all I’m saying is this. If you’re going to be working beside him for the nextfew months, and he still has a thing for you, you’re going to find out about it. My gut says he does.”
    Katie started to shake her head.
    “And…my gut is also saying you have a thing for him.”
    “
Had
a thing.”
    Monica waved her hand in the air, dismissing everything Katie was saying. “Whatever!
De’Nial
is a river in Egypt yet you’ve parked your brain right next to it. Deny you care about him all you want. But when he starts sniffing around asking where you’re spending your time, you’ll know without a doubt that he’s thinking about you.”
    Monica slipped past her and