Crossing the Line Read Free

hot.
    “Jesus, fuck…” His head fell back as he hollered, his pulse pounding in his ears, stars blinding his tightly closed eyes. “I love you, baby. So much,” he said, collapsing on her back. “You know that, right?”
    “I do. Pretty sure the neighbors know it too, since I can smell their barbecue through the open window.”
    He laughed against her hair, burying his face in its scent and silkiness. Wouldn’t be the first time their sex sounds had escaped the house. “Want me to wander over and tell Brian I hit my finger with a hammer?”
    “I think you’ve already used that excuse—more than once. Not to mention how unbelievable it is since you work in construction.” She wiggled free of his body and headed toward the main-floor bathroom. “But if you want our hot, hulk of a neighbor to think you’re a klutz instead of a stud, go for it.”
    Was that a clue? Derrick followed her, braced himself casually in the doorway and watched her freshen up. Once finished, she soaked a second washcloth with warm water, wrung it out and handed it to him. Always taking care of him. He was the luckiest man alive.
    “You think the neighbor is hot?”
    She rolled her eyes at his waggling eyebrows. “Well, duh.”
    Of course she thought the guy was hot. Tall, loaded with muscles and charming, the type all women drooled over. “Is that whose dick you were thinking about sucking?”
    “No,” deep-pink tinted her high cheekbones, “not him.”
    He caged her as she attempted to scoot by him. “Then who? Somebody I know?”
    * * *
    Heat rushed to Hanna’s cheeks. She and Derrick had always had a fantastic sex life. Great communication, too. They talked about everything. No judgment, inside the bedroom or out. But telling him she thought the neighbor was hot and divulging the identity of the man whose cock she’d imagined sucking a few minutes ago were two different things. Doing so would push fantasy too close to reality.
    “C’mon, baby. Tell me.” The pads of Derrick’s work-roughened fingertips grazed her cheek, tipped her chin upward. “Promise I won’t be mad, no matter who it is.”
    Anybody could make that claim, but in Derrick’s case, a promise was the real deal. Regardless of the topic, when he promised something, not only did he mean it, he stood by it without wavering. If she named her imaginary lover, Derrick was more likely to tease her than anything else. But the name would be out there.
    “Remember that singer at The Pulse a couple weeks ago, the dark-haired one? Him.” So she’d fibbed. No good could come of telling her husband she harbored lusty thoughts about his best friend. They had a very open relationship, but not that open.
    “Yeah, I remember that guy.” He dropped his hand from the wall to cup her breast and toy with her nipple—a soft, effortless touch that sent a new round of sparks through her system. “Was it his looks or the musician thing that turned you on?” The question might have been random interest, but the wheels turning behind Derrick’s blue eyes hinted otherwise.
    “Does it matter?”
    “It might.” A smile tugged at his sculpted lips—he had the ‘I’m going to do bad things to you’ look she’d fallen head-over-heels for a decade ago. “Get dressed so we can talk without me getting sidetracked again.” A kiss on her forehead and he left her there, naked and a little confused.
    “Talk about what?” she called after him, but he’d already disappeared from sight and, obviously, from earshot. She slipped into her silky robe and cinched the tie around her waist. Things were great between them. Solid as granite. Whatever he wanted to talk about, it couldn’t be negative, right? The butterflies in her stomach didn’t necessarily agree.
    She hadn’t kept him waiting long, yet he’d managed to sprawl out on the sectional. Due to the living room’s furniture arrangement, and Derrick’s love affair with the corner spot, he faced away as she approached. Not