He blinks at me for a couple of seconds and I watch as awareness slowly returns. He runs a hand through his hair and looks away, breaking eye contact. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
I take a tentative step forward. “You don’t look fine.” A part of me longs to soothe him, to hold him against my breast and ground him. But I hold back. “You were having a nightmare. Do you want to talk about it?”
“I said I’m fine!”
I jerk at his harsh tone as hurt replaces concern. “Right, uh, sorry. I’ll just go.”
I’m almost at the door when a hand grabs my wrist and stops me.
“Wait. I’m sorry, Elena,” he says from behind me, and something in his voice has me turning around to look at him. “I’m sorry, that was rude of me. I should be thanking you instead, not taking out my frustrations on you.”
“It’s okay.”
He’s wearing a white T-shirt that clings to his chest. He runs a hand over his face. “No, it’s no reason for me to…” he stops and glances down at his chest. My eyes follow his and I feel my cheeks redden when I realize how much of the T-shirt is soaked through from the water. I can see his massive pecs and nipples, and the dark ink that runs all over his chest and arms. “Why am I wet?”
I bite my lip and resist the urge to look down at the sweats riding low on his hips. “I… It’s the only thing I could think of to wake you,” I tell him, raising the hand still holding the glass. “Sorry.” His eyes lift to mine, and the blush in my cheeks deepens. “What?”
“You’re blushing.”
“W-what? Of course not! Why would I do something crazy like that?”Oh Jesus.
His mouth lifts into a cocky grin as that gaze sears into me with such hunger and need that my knees nearly give out. “You like what you see, don’t you?”
“Yes…I mean, no.” Christ, why is it so hot in here? “Don’t flatter yourself, Roarke. I’ve seen bodies sexier than yours.”
“So, you think I’m sexy?”
“I…I don’t…I need to go to bed,” I say, my eyes lighting up with horror at my words. “My bed, not yours, of course. Imean, it is yours because it’s in your house, so that makes it your bed, but...”Kill me now! A spear to the heart would do the job.Anything!
“You’re nervous,” he says with a laugh. “You weren’t this nervous last night when I touched you.”
Right.“Maybe it’s because I fear you’ll abandon me again if I let you touch me.”
“Elena.” The smile on his face drops instantly, and my stomach flutters with nerves.
I guess we’re going to talk about this now. We’ve been avoiding the topic all day, and I was set on ignoring it completely.
“You want to hear me say that I find you sexy?” Deep breath. “Yes, I do think you’re sexy, and I thought so last night when you walked into my room and kissed me, but you ruined it all when you left.” He was the last thought in my mind when I fell asleep and the first when I woke up. “I thought you would stay.”
“I couldn’t stay. I crossed a line, one too many, and staying would have meant crossing more. Elena, you are my client, and last night, I did things I shouldn’t have.” He lifts a hand to my cheek, and I resist the urge to nuzzle his hand. “I was trying to do the right thing.”
“Leaving me alone and confused didn’t feel right to me.”
“No, you’re right,” he says with a sigh, brushing his thumb over my cheek that burns into my skin. “You’re right. I’m sorry. You deserve better than that, Elena, better than me.”
“I can make my own choices, don’t you think?” I drop my gaze, taking him in. From the way the wet T-shirt molds to his body, stretching across his wide shoulders and down to the largebulge outlined by his gray sweatpants. “I am allowed to choose who I want to marry.”
My body aches for him. Even being close to him, my nipples are already tight little pebbles against my T-shirt—his shirt— with a flaming heat lighting the spot between my legs. There is desire in my eyes when I lift them back to his. “Unless you’re like my father and don’t think I have a right to make any choices for myself.”
“Elena...”
“If there were parts of me that I wanted to keep closed off to you, I would’ve said something, but I didn’t because I wanted you to touch me.” I finally give in to the urge to touch him, brushing my fingers over his chest and trailing them down to his abs, loving the feel of him under my fingertips. “I still do. I want you to touch me. All of me.”
It takes every bit of courage I can summon to lift my eyes to his, swallowing at the stark need I read in them.
“My virginity. I want you to take it.”
“A chroí,”he rasps, running the back of his hand over my jaw and down to my collarbone, stopping right above my aching breasts.
