“That’s—that is not what I meant or said. You asked…” He brought his fingertips to his eyeballs behind the lenses of his glasses. If he kept his eyes closed, he wouldn’t be hypnotized by those breasts that seemed to be begging for his hands, his mouth. “You asked if I still loved Mellody.”

“Yep,” Cat said, clearly not thrilled with the outcome.

“I said yes.”

“Oh, I remember very clearly,” Cat said picking up the remote and flipping through the channels as if she didn’t have any stake in the conversation.

“You didn’t ask if I was in love with her,” Noah pointed out, rising out of the chair.

Cat’s eyes narrowed. “What’s the difference?”

Could the woman really know so little about love? he wondered. “You love your nonni, right?”

“Uh, duh.” Cat rolled her eyes at the stupidity of his question.

“But you’re not in love with her… although I could see why anyone would be. She’s a firecracker.” He was digressing and forced himself to reel it in. “What I’m saying is, I love my ex-wife as the co-parent of my daughter and within the awkward friendship we’ve been cobbling together since the divorce.”

Cat blinked, frowned. “Well, why in the hell didn’t you say it that way in the first place?” she demanded.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you get me a little tongue-tied when you look directly at me,” Noah pointed out.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m serious, Cat. You’re the color in a gray day. I don’t know how else to describe it. I look at you, and I see all this passion and joy and fun and excitement. I’ve never met anyone like you. Including my ex-wife, who I care for and respect but have no desire to be married to anymore,” he clarified.

Noah didn’t know how he’d expected Cat to respond, but it certainly wasn’t jumping into his arms and locking her legs around his waist.

“Let’s try less talking,” Cat suggested, a millimeter away from his mouth. “Less room for misunderstanding.”

He gave his assent by gripping her sweatpant-clad ass and squeezing.

She brought her mouth crashing into his in a tangle of teeth and tongue and want. Blindly, Noah stumbled forward, pressing her against the entertainment center cabinet.

She tasted like danger. And for once in his life, Noah wanted to slide a toe over the line onto the wild side. He squeezed her hips, her ass, yanking her tight against him. She responded with a muffled moan against his mouth.

Noah whirled and pressed her hard against the closed door, losing himself in a ravenous kiss. The way she moved against him, writhing and sliding. The sexy noises that clawed their way up from the back of her throat. He wasn’t going home tonight. Unless she wasn’t sure…