“I’m your kryptonite?”
I glance over, and before I can talk myself out of it, I reach for her hand, threading my fingers between hers. She lets me, but she’s tense. Like she’s not sure if she should pull away or relax into it.
“You’ve always been Clark’s kryptonite,” I say, giving her a sideways grin. “But me?” I shake my head, thumb brushing across her knuckles. “You’re not my weakness, Alley. You’re my fucking rock. My anchor.”
She goes quiet. Her eyes flick to our hands, then back to the windshield. I let the silence hang, and her fingers soften around mine.
Relief floods through me, tangled with desire, as I chub up. Jesus, what am I, fourteen? I’m just holding her hand. But even that, the skin on skin, the fact that she’s letting me touch her—it wakes up the part of me that misses our deeper connection. The part thatfeelsher. All of her.
And sure, it involves sex, but it’s more than that. Do I want to rip her pants off and bury my face in her pussy? Yeah. Of course I fucking do. But more than anything, I want to show her how much I love her. I want to worship her—in every way. Make her feel seen. Desired. Safe.
Make her feelloved.
Alley won’t sleep with me until she trusts me again. She doesn’t just give that part of herself away. No—I’ll have to earn it. Just like I did the first time.
I give her hand a squeeze. “You took your ring off.” My pulse kicks up a notch as I say it. I’ve been holding that in for over a week.
She looks down at our hands, then back up at me. “Yeah, I did. About a month ago.”
She doesn’t expand, and I don’t press. I just dig my heels into the sand and dive in headfirst. “What can I do to get that back on your finger?”
Her lips tug upward, but fall just as fast. “I don’t know. I don’t know yet if it’s going back on.”
Jesus, she isn’t going to make this easy, not even a little. This is a goddamn marathon—uphill, a thunderstorm brewing ahead, and nothing but rough, muddy terrain to trudge through.
I turn into the harbor and follow the map to the exact location Matt sent me. “Are you at least open to dating me again? Letting me take you out, earn your trust back?” I throw the carinto park and look at her. “Because here’s the thing, babe. Eight billion people in this world—and I only want you.”
She leans back into her seat, head falling to the side to meet my gaze. Her chest rises and falls with a deep breath. She doesn’t say anything, just looks at me like she’s trying to decide if she can trust me or if I’m full of shit.
“All on your terms, of course,” I add, because the silence is killing me. “You say jump, I sayhow high. You say kiss me…” I throw a smile her way. “I’ll fucking kiss you. Tell me to go to hell…” I exhale, jaw tightening. “That one’s gonna be tough, but if that’s what you want”—my gaze drifts forward, nodding slowly before I look back at her—“then I’ll fuck right off.”
A sad smile pulls at her mouth. “I don’t know what I want, Jensen.” She shakes her head. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Pressure builds in my chest, but I nod anyway. “That’s okay, babe.” I lift her hand to my mouth, pressing my lips to her skin. “I do.”
Chapter Seventeen
ALLEY
“That’s okay, babe.”He lifts my hand to his mouth, pressing his lips to my skin. “I do.”
My pulse skips a beat. It shouldn’t turn me on the way it does—him taking control, not afraid to go for what he wants...
But when the thing he wants is me?God, that’s hot.
I take a shaky breath, holding his gaze as his thumb moves slowly over my skin. Goosebumps ripple up my arms, anticipation swirling low in my stomach. My heart thunders in my chest—confusing the absolute shit out of me. I’m scared. Every instinct says to run.
But I want to run straight into Jensen’s arms.
I want to climb into his lap and lose myself in him. I want him to throw me into the backseat and do all the things I know he’s thinking about. The things he’s so damn good at.
IwishI could forget the last six months ever happened and justfeelhim again. But even when I try to forget, I can’t.What the hell am I supposed to do with all that?
“Let’s go back to that thing you said about a kiss,” I say softly.
His lips pull into a smirk—the one that’s owned me from day one. His confidence and charm? They’remykryptonite.
And tonight? He showed up fully charged with both.
