Susanne grinned. “Just looking to see if I could make your toes curl.”

Anja fell against her, laughing, and it only took that contact to have them tumble into another kiss.

When it ended several minutes later, Susanne was breathless. For her, kissing hadn’t been this intense in a very long time. She glanced down at Anja’s cute toes. “Yep. Definitely curled.”

“What about yours?” Anja’s husky voice sent shivers through Susanne’s body.

“You could take off my socks and kiss me again.” Susanne invitingly lifted one foot. “And I wouldn’t mind if you don’t want to stop at my socks.”

One hand already on Susanne’s ankle, Anja stopped and glanced up at her with wide eyes.

“Hey.” Susanne put her hand over Anja’s, pulled it away from her sock, and held it in both of hers. “I was just kidding. Well, mostly.” She gave a wry smile. “I admit I wouldn’t put up much of a struggle if you wanted to drag me to bed right now. But I know you’re not the kind of woman who jumps into things like that, and that’s perfectly fine.”

Anja searched her eyes. Whatever she read there seemed to reassure her because a smile eased across her face.

Muesli jumped onto the coffee table as if to check whether they were done kissing.

Susanne pointed at the floor. “Get down!”

The cat sat and looked at her without blinking.

Anja laughed. “You’ve never had a cat before, have you?”

“No. And I don’t have one now either.” Susanne picked him up and carried him toward the bathroom. “Come on. Let’s clean him up.”

She sat on the edge of the tub, holding him, while Anja took a cloth, wet a corner of it at the sink, and gently ran it over his fur to remove the traces of lipstick.

The cat nestled into Susanne, trying to escape the wet cloth, and Anja had to step closer to reach him. She stood between Susanne’s spread legs, her knee resting against the inside of her thigh. A tingle rippled through Susanne, and she couldn’t decide if this was heaven or hell.

She distracted herself with one of the questions they still needed to talk about. “How are we going to handle this?”

“Oh, I think it’s working the way we’re doing it. Look, the lipstick is all gone.” Anja took away the cloth and nodded down at the cat.

“No, I meant…” Susanne waved her hand between them. “This. Do you want to tell people? Tell…Uncle Norbert?”

“I don’t know. Do you want to tell him?”

Hell, no. She was fairly sure her uncle wouldn’t like their day-by-day arrangement. “I’m not saying I want us to sneak around and make each other feel like this is our dirty little secret. But maybe we could be…discreet.”