“Youdonotice how good looking I am.”
That gets her. Her eyes flick over me. They catch on my chest, on my flexed arms, and linger. Her breath stutters, cheeks blooming again with that traitorous, beautiful flush.
I smirk, thinking I’m in charge of this game, but she doesn’t look away, just keeps staring, unblinking. Time elongates, stretches out, until I’m the one holding my breath because damnit, I like it. Her eyes on me.
A lot.
Laurel’s fingers fidget with the edge of the comforter like she doesn’t know what to do with her hands. She licks her lips, her fucking gorgeous plump lips, and the gesture causes a slow molten heat to rise in me. It rolls through my body like the tide. My cock twitches under the waistband of my pants, straining, aching.
For a second, the air in the room feels too thick. Too heavy.
What does she sound like when she comes?
What does she taste like between those pretty thighs?
Fuck,I want to find out.
But I can’t. She’s not here because she wants to be, and I’d rather set myself on fire than take something she didn’t offer, especially after everything she’s been through.
So this is how it’ll stay between us. Close, yetout of reach.
“Stop twisting my words.” She huffs and scoots further away on the bed, but her cheeks stay pink, and that bottom lip? Caught between her teeth.
I can’t have her, so I tease her instead. “You looked worried. When I went down.”
“I wasn’t,” she lies, fast and defensive.
“Really? Sticking with that story, are you?” I tilt my head and put a finger on my chest, right over my heart. I grin and say, “Pretty sure your eyes burned a hole right here.”
Laurel huffs and her lips twitch, trying not to smile. I walk toward her, each step slow and measured. She watches me approach with wide, almost apprehensive, eyes. I sit down on the edge of the bed next to her. Then I lean in, making my voice low and as serious as possible, like I’m about to share something important. I pause for effect and say, “Tell me what you thought when I took my shirt off.”
“You’re insufferable.”
“Mmm.” I let my gaze drag down her body slowly, intentionally. “Pretty sure I caught you staring, though.”
I smirk. The cocky smile I know annoys her.
She jerks her blanket up to her neck, like it’ll shield her from my grin. “I wasn’t staring.”
“Oh, Kitten.” I let out a low chuckle. “You totally were.”
“God, I hate you.”
She grabs a pillow and smacks me in the face, but she’s laughing now and it’s the most beautiful sight. Shy, radiant, completely unguarded.
If that fight won me her smile?
Totally worth it.
Chapter twenty
Carrson
The apartment complex is on the outskirts of town, just shy of the line that marks the edge of my territory. Run-down, two stories, with a dilapidated stairwell and rust-streaked screen doors, it reminds me a little too much of the place Laurel used to live with her father.
Crap. I’m thinking about her.Again.
When I was younger, I saw the world through one lens,his. What would my father think? Would he approve? Be proud? Punish me?
