Free Old Enough To Know Better by Carolyn Faulkner Page A

than Clint was.  You always had much more of a potty mouth than I would have let you get away with.”  He leaned down a little towards her, but not enough to do her any good, damn him.  “Than I will let you get away with,” he corrected.
    Each swat made her wish – more than the one before - that she had just eaten the blasted sandwich.  Why couldn’t she just have eaten the friggin’ sandwich?  She always ended up regretting it when she got stubborn like this.  Always.  It never ended well for her – or her backside - and yet she always let herself get her back up about something stupid, not that she’d ever admit that any of her various causes were stupid.  On the contrary, she would defend them to the death.
    But she ate the blasted sandwich.
    Standing up.
    While glaring daggers at him.
    As he stood there, smiling beatifically back at her, and making her several more sandwiches for later.
    And it didn’t help that he was so darned pleasant about it all.  He did a good job blistering her bottom, at least as well as Clint would have in the same situation, she hated to admit, and then he’d helped her up very carefully, pulled up her pants and panties, although she’d brushed his hands away, whereas she wouldn’t have with Clint since he would never have let her get away with that, but then, he was her husband.  Finn poured her a glass of milk and was disgustingly solicitous of her the entire time.
    He was awful, and she hated him.
    Well, she wanted to hate him, anyway.  That counted for something, as far as she was concerned.
    “Finish the milk, too,” he prodded gently, poking the cup towards her.
    If she didn’t stop frowning, her face was going to set into that expression permanently.  She had half a mind to take the big mouthful of it she had in her mouth right now and squirt it back out at him, but then she caught him looking at her as if he knew exactly what she was thinking, with his eyebrow all raised expectantly, and then she remembered how that right hand of his, that was right now cradling a can of soda, had felt against her bare rear, and thought better of it and swallowed it all down.
    It sucked to realize there were consequences to her actions, again.  It sucked big time.
    “Thank you.  You’ll feel better for having something in your stomach.  I’ve left you with mom’s stuff and two more sandwiches.  When I come back tomorrow, I expect it all to be eaten.”
    Who did he think he was, laying down the rules for her, telling her what to do?  He was just the neighbor’s kid –
    She was hauled up against him in an instant, her feet dangling well above the floor, her body plastered against his, and he was only using one arm to hold her at her waist and seemed entirely unfazed by the added weight, as if she weighed no more than a housefly.  Cat could feel the entire length of him against her - both of them - and knew he was fully capable, and probably had been from the moment he’d stepped in the door.  Come to think of it, she knew he had been.  It had been hard to miss when he’d come into the house, and then he’d put her on his lap where it had been extremely blatant, and now, here he was again, in all his turgid glory.
    His mouth sought hers, and, to her shame, she didn’t even try to avoid it but rather joined his kiss eagerly, so much so that he leaned back a little and looked at her, as if verifying that it was still her, then bent to her again, deciding he didn’t want to consider his luck too closely.  Finn’s free hand claimed her everywhere he wanted; he gave it free rein.  He clenched what he knew had to be a tender bottom cheek that fit his hand just perfectly at its rounded peak, then let it travel up the curve of her back, under her shirt, reveling in the soft skin of her back, then diving into that sweet smelling hair of hers to hold her head still for his plundering tongue.
    Finally, he had to set her aside or he’d take her right then and there, on