“Yeah?”
“Whydidyou touch me last night?”
The question hung heavily between us; my heart was pounding so loudly that I was surprised you couldn’t hear it. His touch had set me on fire, like an arsonist, which was rich considering what my father had done.
Nix cast me a glance, his tongue darting out to lick his lips, and a crack of electricity ran up my spine. Was he reliving it? His reply gave me goosebumps. “As I said, I wanted to, and because I’ve thought of nothing else for days, Harper. And that’s the truth.”
Pleasure pumped through me, and I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the headrest. That felt nice. Phoenix was admitting something to me.
As he roughly changed gear, I turned my head and looked at his side profile. God, he was good-looking. “So, we should talk about it then. About what’s going on here?”
He caught me clearly checking him out, and his jaw clenched.
“Yes, we should. But not—not right now. For now, I’d like us to be friends again. Turn back the clock, and start again. I think anything happening between us whilst we live together at Ma’s isn’t a good idea. But that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you. You know I do. For the time being, we need to put the brakes on. Can you do that?” His voice dipped at the end.
I thought about what he was saying. I didn’t like it, but understood. It wasn’t the best feeling, sneaking about behind everyone’s back. And no matter what I said,Nix was stubborn. If he decided that we needed to calm shit down, then that is what would happen. I was just pleased that he was talking to me again, and in a normal, non-bossy way.
“OK, I can do that. If that’s what you want.”
“It’s not about what I want, it’s about what’s right. Can we start again, please?” And there it was, Phoenix Carter turning on the charm. He could probably melt the polar ice caps with that,please,alone.
My insides start to shrink like a deflated balloon. Chewing the inside of my lip, I nodded my agreement. “Yes, I’d like that. Friends.” Although I did feel disappointed, there was a level of relief, considering I had shit to deal with. The thought of Phoenix finding out about my nasty habits was mortifying; the one man I cared about the most seeing me as a freak would probably finish me off. I needed to take his offer of a timeout and sort my shit out ASAP.
If you stop stealing shit, he never needs to know.
“So, we’re friends again,” I began, casting a glance over his perfectly chiseled features, fuck, he was hot. How would I keep someone as sexy as Nix at arm's length?
“Yes, friends, and so, you need to stop looking at me like that,” Phoenix said with an arched brow.
“Like what?” I replied with feigned innocence.
“Like you want to be fucked.”
Every muscle below my waist clenched, the directness of his comment causing my stomach to flutter. I blinked back at him.
Nix’s mouth split into a sexy grin. “The way you flinch when I drop the F-bomb is so fricking cute.”
I huffed out a sigh, shaking my head. “You’re incorrigible.” One minute, he was friend-zoning me, and the next, he was being as flirtatious as fuck.
“You love it, baby,” he replied with a wink.
Fine. I could play his game, for now.
I rolled my eyes at his cockiness. Shuffling back in my seat.
“So now we’re down with the pleasantries. You can tell me where we’re going.”
My question altered the mood in the car to one that felt more serious. I faced forward again, dragging my gaze off that infamous vein that pulsed in Phoenix’s neck when he was tense. The air between us was anything but clear, with so many things left unsaid, but it was apparent at that moment that Nix had other things on his mind. I wondered when he was going to tell me what the fuck was going on.
He cast me a glance before refocusing on the road.
“You said last night that I had been distant, and you’re right. But there was a good reason for that?
“And that is?”
“I haven’t got my own head around it yet.”
“Head around what?” I questioned before hastily adding. “Your agency file?”
