Finding Katie

Chapter 18

Ben

"You win the lottery or somethin'?"

I looked up from my phone and met the taxi driver's puzzled gaze in the rear-view mirror. "Nope," I replied, doing absolutely nothing to temper the grin I'd been wearing since I'd woken this morning and realized what the day would bring. "I'm just going to see my girlfriend."

The man's eyes narrowed. "You been away long?"

"Since Sunday."

The driver concentrated on the late afternoon traffic around us before he glanced to the back again. "She hot? That why you're looking so damned smug?"

"Yes, she definitely is." My grin only grew as the driver barked a laugh at my unambiguous statement. It was the grin Liam had dubbed my shit-eating grin that day Katie had first come to my office with lunch. I'd practically been wearing it ever since, and Liam was mostly right. But I'd enjoyed these three weeks since then too much to care or do anything other than smirk at my friend's teasing.

Things were good. Very good.

"Ah, mate, you don't leave a hot babe alone for days," the driver said, mournfully shaking his head as he stopped the taxi outside Katie's building. "It ain't a good idea."

"I agree," I told him as I swiped my card, "but sometimes you don't have a choice when work calls. And going away makes it that much better to come home."

The taxi driver chortled and gave me a wink as I opened the back door. "Amen to that, mate. Amen. And good luck greeting your girl hello."

I stepped out of the taxi with my weekend bag. I'd been in Manchester for a couple of days of meetings and had originally planned to go home and call Katie from there, but when the taxi driver had asked where to at the train station, I'd given the man her address.

We had texted several times since I'd left London on Sunday afternoon, each text making me laugh and miss her more, and now I didn't want to wait any longer. I wanted to see her. And kiss her.

Apart from these last two nights, Katie and I had spent every night together since the day she'd come to my flat for dinner and we had ended up spending the weekend mostly in my bed.

She was fast becoming a habit I didn't want to give up.

I took the stairs two at a time and knocked on her door. It was but a moment before it opened, and Katie's eyes widened when she saw me, her smile curving into a happy grin.

"Ben! You're back," she squealed and threw her arms around my neck.

She was in a skirt and a tank top, her hair gathered loosely in a bun on the top of her head and with no hint of make-up, and she was just about the most welcome sight I had ever seen.

Her exuberant greeting was all I needed to drop my bag and hug her back. My arms knew their way around her and I tugged her close, the length of her plastered to me as I burrowed my face in her neck, inhaling the sweet, sun-soaked scent of Katie.

It was enough to make my heart skip a beat. God, I'd missed her.

I lifted my head to tell her so, but before I could get a word out, Katie cradled my face and kissed me.

At the first touch of her lips, the words flew from my mind and all sanity flew out the window. I could do nothing but kiss her back. It took no time before the electric current between us ran strong, before the kiss turned heated. Katie moaned and I groaned.

But it wasn't enough. It had been too long since I'd had my hands on her. Too long since I'd touched her.

My hands fell to her arse and each cupped a glorious globe to lift her higher. I just wanted to align our lips, but her legs twined around my waist and her arms around my neck. Her lips moved down my jaw in the direction of that place where a single one of her kisses could bring me to my knees.