Underneath It All (The Walsh Series #1) by Kate Canterbary Page B

over his shoulder, avoiding his eyes. I didn’t do this sort of thing for a reason. “Mr. Walsh. Thank you for everything. I’m going to go.”
    Never make eye contact with the manwhore. He’ll turn you into an irrational swoon-puddle concerned only with getting your hands on his rear end.
    As I turned away, my narrow heel wedged between the cobblestones and this sack of potatoes hit the ground.
    I couldn’t even walk away from the hottest, manwhoriest body I’d ever touched and stand behind my principles without going splat. Apparently the universe wasn’t granting me any graceful exits this evening.
    I heard the manwhore swearing under his breath before his arm circled my waist and he lifted me from the ground. “Easy there,” he said.
    He ignored thin rivulets of blood trickling down my bare legs and staining his dark gray trousers while I brushed the pebbles from my palms. “This seems to happen a lot, sweetness. Let’s get you upstairs and take care of those scrapes.”
    “I’m fine. Just a skinned knee, no big deal. I’m going to get a cab,” I insisted, staring at his shirt’s buttons.
    He dipped to meet my eyes, his brows furrowed. The pads of his thumbs brushed across my cheeks, my lips, and down my neck. “What is your deal? Are you with someone?”
    “No!” I laughed at the definitive tone in my voice. I didn’t mean to sound so emphatic, and any minute Matthew was going to realize I wasn’t the kind of girl he wanted to take home. I didn’t do this—I didn’t know how —and this entire exchange was stepping far beyond my sphere of expertise. He’d feel it or sense it or taste it, and he’d send me on my way with a pat on my naïve little head. “I mean…no, I’m not seeing anyone right now.”
    “Good. Good.” Matthew framed my face with his hands and brought his lips a breath from mine. “I’m going to kiss you again,” he murmured, sliding his fingers along the base of my neck. “And I’d rather you not run away this time.”
    I dodged his mouth. “Is this some kind of thorough, manwhorish customer service?”
    “Hell no.” He bent his head to my level and found my lips, and it wasn’t a kiss—it was an experience. Kissing involved lips and tongues, but this was teeth and growls, fingers carving notches into my ass and impatient hips bumping against mine for more friction. This was my heart crawling all the way up my throat and pounding there, suffocating me in these breathless seconds.
    He groaned when my nails scraped under his collar and over his scalp, and that sound unfurled something tight, something desperate inside me.
    “Do you do this a lot?”
    Matthew’s hands moved to my shoulders and he edged us apart. “I never do this. My sisters are the only women who have seen the inside of my place. Okay? This is about you. You’re hot as fuck, all sexy and bossy. That strict teacher voice? I’ve been hard as a fucking stone since yesterday because of it, plus the fact you’re so insanely fucking hot. I don’t like the implication that this is happening for any reason other than you.”
    Lifting my chin, I glimpsed the rise in Matthew’s trousers. It was amazing, really, how everything changed in a blink of an eye. Perhaps it wasn’t that quickly, but it didn’t take long and I was watching from a distance again, willing myself to be brave, be bold.
    My boundaries, my hot mess, my control freak, my crazy thoughts, my good girl, even the blood drying on my leg…all gone. Now it was me, bare without all that noise, and I couldn’t stop the brazen smile from pulling at my mouth.
    I heard the words and I sensed them vibrating across my lips, but I didn’t believe them as mine. “So that’s what you like, Mr. Walsh?”
    He growled and seized my hips, grinding me against his hardening length. His mouth hovered over my ear, and he whispered, “You wouldn’t believe the long list of obscene things I want to do to you.”
    My response was ready on my tongue, but