Read Online The Firefly Cafe by Lily Everett - Free Book Online

her hands on his shoulders and turned him to face her.
    “You stood up for me. You told Trent to shut his mouth before you shut it for him.
     And you helped me clean up the glass.”
    “I helped you.” Everything inside Dylan thrilled toward her, and what she offered
     him—the chance to be a better man, because Penny believed in him.
    She nodded, tugging him closer, and Dylan followed her down to the mattress eagerly.
     “You could help me more, if you wanted,” she murmured, the words soft and hot against
     his cheek.
    “Anything,” he promised roughly, entranced by the delicate shape of her shoulder blades
     beneath his palms as he cradled her.
    “Help me forget the past,” Penny said, arching up to him in a fluid curve that nearly
     blew the top of Dylan’s head off. “Help me live in this moment, right here, right
     now.”
    She was like a flame, in constant searing motion, and Dylan fell into her without
     hesitation. Taking her lips in a deep, hungry kiss, he filled his head with her scent,
     her sounds, the feel of her kicking the thin sheets to the foot of the bed and bringing
     their lower bodies into heartbreakingly perfect alignment.
    Two kisses weren’t enough to get Dylan used to the idea that he was allowed to touch
     Penny, to press himself against the lush, welcoming softness of her curvy little body
     and sink into her.
    The fact that she was trembling too made him feel better—he wasn’t in this alone,
     overwhelmed and overloaded. Penny was right there with him, pushing hard into his
     arms and snugging her face into the bend of his neck, where she fit perfectly.
    There was an astonishing innocence to Penny, despite what she’d been through. She
     made Dylan remember what it was like to be young and eager, too inexperienced to realize
     that every woman who hopped into bed with him had visions of dollar signs and diamonds
     dancing in her head.
    “You make me feel like I’m not any older than Matt,” Dylan growled, nipping sharp
     little kisses along the line of her jaw. “Desperate for it, and having a tough time
     believing I’m about to get it … oh no. Matt.”
    “Don’t worry about him. He’s a teenager—he could sleep through a volcanic eruption.”
     Penny tilted her chin back, baring her throat in a clear request for more biting,
     sucking kisses. Dylan was happy to oblige.
    “I’ll show you a volcanic eruption,” Dylan muttered, just to make her laugh. The sight
     of her, head thrown back and smiling mouth open on a sigh, fed some hunger deep inside
     just as surely as the greedy clutch of her thighs around his hips fed his physical
     desire.
    But even in the midst of the most passionate, intimate lovemaking Dylan had ever known,
     even as both of them clung to the present moment and immersed themselves in it and
     in each other, Dylan felt the future barreling down on him.
    Penny had opened herself to him completely. He couldn’t keep lying to her.
    She’d made him believe he could be a better man. The kind of man who would tell her
     the truth … and once he did, Dylan knew he would lose her.
    No second chances.

Chapter 9
    Penny blinked her eyes open with a start of disoriented wonder. Watery morning light
     filtered through the lace curtains, and she should be shivering under the thin cotton
     sheet, but instead it was approximately four million degrees in her bed.
    A slow, luxurious stretch revealed the culprit behind the humid heat, and the twinge
     in certain seldom-used muscles.
    Dylan Workman. The tall, muscled handyman who had—wow, really lived up to the hype
     about being good with his hands.
    One of those broad-palmed, blunt-fingered hands was still cupped around her hip, as
     if he hadn’t wanted to let go even in sleep, and Penny closed her eyes to enjoy the
     way her heart fluttered.
    With a sharp intake of breath, Dylan stirred awake beside her. “Time’s it?”
    Penny glanced at the antique silver alarm clock next to the bed. “Nine fifteen.