He’d been street racing, drinking, and then there’d been that pregnancy scare.They’d simply been too young with personalities that were too big.Passion that was too intense.
Together, they’d imploded.
She let out a whimper, and he fisted his fingers in her hair.The softness nearly sent him to his knees.
The repercussions still hurt, but he couldn’t stay away.He kept coming back forthis, for her.She knew him.She got him.He couldn’t stay away, even knowing he’d get hurt in the end.
She was like his drug.
The thought jolted him out of the erotically charged moment.
His drug.
Oh, holy Jesus.
He pulled back as if he’d just put jumper cables on backwards.He stared at her, his mouth going dry even as her kiss was wet on his lips.
Her hands stilled on him, hesitant.“Billy?”
He’d joked about it before, but all that talk earlier about his mother was suddenly reverberating in his ears.She was an addict, too, one he hadn’t forgiven for her weakness.Was he the same?Had the apple not fallen far from the tree?Was he hooked on the highs that only Roxie could make him feel?
“What’s wrong?”she whispered.
When he didn’t—couldn’t—respond, the haziness of arousal left her face.Her soft brown eyes turned hard.She jerked away and her shoulders slammed against the wall.
He took another step back and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans.Was it true?Was that the reason he kept coming back and putting himself through the wringer?He’d dated other women, but none of them had made his heart pound and his gut knot in need.None of them had let him feel the ecstasy of the highs and the crushing darkness of the lows.
Every time he came here, he left worse for the wear.There was something about the two of them together; they just weren’t good for each other.He knew it in his head, yet that had never been enough to keep him away.
He jonesed for her too badly.
He pushed out a breath of air.
Shit.
She watched him warily, her hands bracing against the wall behind her.
Billy turned away.His gaze landed on two things, his bag and her computer.Everything inside him told him to grab his stuff and go, yet he’d promised to help her with her search for her parents.
“Are you leaving?”she asked, her voice flat as asphalt pavement.“As always?”
“I said I’d help you.”And that meant staying.
Being around her.Smelling that entrancing lavender scent she always wore.Watching her hips sway as she strutted around in those ridiculously sexy boots.
Heaven help him.
He faced her again, every muscle in his body tight.The look she gave him so jagged, he couldn’t meet it.He knew he was giving off mixed signals, but he was having a hard time wrapping his brain around the truth that had just slammed into him.
He was addicted to her.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said in a low tone.“You’re the one who jumped me last night.I’m just stopping it before it goes too far.”
She muttered something unintelligible under her breath.
He stepped back, disengaging further.“I need to get out of here.”
Her jaw hardened, but there was disappointment in her eyes.A sadness she didn’t want him to see.He grabbed his duffel bag and swung it over his shoulder.“We’ll start the search tomorrow.”
