Free Not For Me by Laura Jardine Page A

the station. I can always talk to Brady if I need to. I think he’s cowering in the corner on the other side of the room. I’ll make up a movie called Poisonous Brick , and it’ll drive him nuts that he’s never heard of it. Good luck.”
    Kristy hurried out of the pub and ran as fast as she could to Queen Station—well, as fast as she could run in her new black heels. She looked up and down the platform, but he wasn’t there.
    Damn . She didn’t want to wait another minute to be with him after all this. The trip to his place would seem like forever. But it would be totally worth it.

Chapter 7
    Grant had received a bottle of expensive whiskey for his birthday back in January. This seemed like a good time to open it. He poured himself a double shot of whiskey on the rocks, sat in his recliner, and picked up the novel he was reading.
    One of the books he’d bought the day he met Kristy.
    He tossed it onto the couch and gulped some of his whiskey. What an evening. He’d had to watch an irritating, poison-obsessed, beret-wearing, look-at-me-I’m-talking-about-existentialism sociology student try to pick up Kristy. Which made Grant so jealous that he’d kissed her. In public. Yeah, he’d done that, and he’d enjoyed it immensely, the way she responded, the promise of more. Until he realized everyone in the pub was looking at them. Worse, she’d been pissed afterward, which still confused him. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d gone through such a rapid seesaw of emotions.
    If that kiss hadn’t been so exquisite, so perfect, then maybe he’d be able to think of something else, but—
    His phone rang, and he shot up. Because maybe it was Kristy, though she hadn’t even spoken to him afterward.
    But it was Kristy. In the lobby of his building. She said she was sorry and asked him to buzz her up.
    He abandoned his drink and waited for her outside the door to his suite. Kristy. Here. His imagination went into overdrive—he couldn’t help it.
    He could set her on the kitchen counter—there would be no bar patrons staring at them around this counter—and kiss her again and again while he got to work on her clothing. He’d touch her bare shoulders, wiggle off her jeans, kiss her breasts.
    He ran to his bedroom, where he stuffed a condom in his back pocket. He’d bought a box of condoms a couple weeks ago. Just in case.
    But perhaps he was getting ahead of himself with his counter fantasies—all she’d said was “sorry.” He paced the hall in front of his unit, and tried to calm himself. One Mississippi…Two Mississippi…
    There she was. Practically flying toward him.
    And now she was here , inches from him, throwing her hands around his neck, and he knew he hadn’t been getting carried away. She wanted to be with him.
    “I thought you’d lied to Maya,” she said. “Then she told me—”
    He cut her off with a kiss, and they continued kissing as he lifted her up. He kept one hand under her, opened the door with the other, and carried her inside. “I’m taking you to bed.”
    “I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.”
    He started toward the kitchen counter. “Bed can wait. I need you here first.” As soon as he put her down, he reached for the bottom of her pretty brown shirt and pulled it over her head. “As lovely as it looks on you, it has to go.” He unhooked her bra and dropped it on the ground beside her shirt.
    “I was expecting you to fold my clothes and place them in a neat pile on a chair.” She cupped her breasts in her hands and arched her back as she pinched her nipples. “It was all for you. I wanted to look nice for you tonight. What do you think?”
    He was unable to speak. He pulled one of her hands away from her breast and replaced it with his mouth. She shook as he circled her nipple with his tongue. He needed the rest of her. Needed to see and feel and taste all of her. Needed to feel her shudder when he was buried deep inside her body.
    *
    Kristy was naked and lying