Release Day Launch: After This Night by Lauren Blakely + Teasers, Excerpt & Giveaway!

          "I wish I were there wearing your clothes right now."

          He laughed. "That's what you want to be doing? Because I'd like to be fucking you if you were here."

          "Well, that too. But then I'd put on your shirt."

          "You like that, don't you?"

          "I know you do too," she said.

          "I do. Seeing you in my shirt and your heels is my kryptonite."

          "Oh, is that it? That's your kryptonite?"

          "Or maybe it's just that you are," he whispered, admitting more than he wanted to.

          "I think the same could be said here."

          There was a pause, and though they were three thousand miles apart, the silence was heady. He was in a drugged-out state tonight. This woman was his pill, and closeness with her was what he craved most even as he feared she would destroy his heart. Smash it to a million tiny pieces and eat it for lunch. But he had a built-in barrier in distance, and with no trips to San Francisco on his immediate calendar he saw nothing wrong with this temporary moment of relief from the pressure inside of him from wanting her. They couldn't be together in any meaningful way, and he couldn't get hurt if he didn't actually see her. Right? Right, he answered for himself.

          "What are we doing, Julia?" he asked, and he was sure she could hear the longing in his tone, but he didn't care. There was no need to hide it after they'd just broken down and pleasured themselves together.

          "I wish I knew," she said, her voice wistful and full of yearning. "I really wish I knew."

          He heaved a sigh, trying to sort out his thoughts, but his brain was a mixed-up mess and he didn't know how to untangle all the threads. Or if he wanted to remain tangled up with her instead.

          "What are you going to do when we hang up?" he asked, changing direction.

          "Read a book."

          "What are you reading these days?"

          "A crazy story about a guy who treks across Antarctica."

          "That does sound crazy."

          "Yeah. He's kind of hallucinating and talking to penguins right now," she said with a small laugh.

          "Can you blame him? I have to imagine if you're stuck in the polar ice cap that talking to penguins might be a rare source of comfort."

          "As long as he doesn't eat the penguins I'll keep reading it."

          "Here's to no penguin meals in the books we read."

          "What will you do?"

          "I suspect I will fall fast asleep and dream of a beautiful redhead on the other side of the country."

          "She would like that dream very much," she said in a sweet voice, the kind that worked its way beneath all the hard edges in him, and settled deep in his heart. "Will I talk to you again soon?"

          He took a fueling breath, and put his armor back on, steeling himself. "I don't know the answer to that."