“You go home,” I said. “Go home and work things out with Jeremy.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll go home to Julia and pretend like I didn’t just stand here for fifteen minutes and fight the urge to take you right here.”
“Okay,” she said, a soft blush rising on her skin.
“Okay.”
“I’ll be going then.” She reached for the keys and unlocked the car door, sliding into the driver’s seat.
“You shouldn’t be driving,” I said. She looked at me and smiled, but there was something behind that smile that wasn’t real. A sadness she wasn’t ready to tell me about.
“I’m not yours to be concerned about. Goodnight, Captain.”
“Paisley, wait.” I put my hand in the door to stop it from slamming, then pushed my body between her and the open door. “Let me give you a ride home, yeah?”
“I’m fine, Cap.”
“Whether you truly believe that or not is irrelevant, P. You’re a member of my crew, and it’s my duty to take care of you.”
“We’re not on duty.”
“Doesn’t matter.” I reached over her body to grapple for the keys in the ignition, catching the subtle scent of cigarette smoke from the bar and the sweet odor of her shampoo. I paused halfway across her lap, suddenly realizing how close we were. My heart leaped into my throat, and I had to focus on taking a breath, breathing through the desire to pull her into me and ravage her where she sat. As I jimmied the keys loose and began to pull back, Paisley turned her face towards mine, and I noticed her eyes were damp with tears. Without considering the consequences, I took her chin between two of my fingers and pulled her head slightly in my direction, then leaned in and met her lips with my own.
Paisley closed her eyes, and I did the same. A soft moan escaped her throat, and her hand grabbed my arm, holding me tight as though afraid to let go. I kissed her, deep breath quickening with every passing second. One hand shot out and tangled a bit of her hair in my fingers, pressing her close, lost in a flurry of ecstasy that could have kept going all night, never-ending, never wavering.
Paisley pulled back first, her eyes still on mine. She touched her lips with the tips of her fingers, then drew them between her teeth anxiously.
“Hansen—”
“I know,” I said, and Paisley fell silent. “Come on. I’ll drive you home.”
Chapter27
Paisley
Jeremy was sitting at the kitchen table when I got home. He looked up as I came in, his eyes red, his hair even more disheveled than usual. I kicked off my heels and yanked the clip out of my hair, wanting nothing more than to crawl into bed and forget everything.
“Paisley,” Jeremy said as I crossed the floor.
“I don’t want to look at your face right now.”
“Sit down. Please. We need to talk.”
The last thing I wanted to do was talk, especially to Jeremy, but I was too tired to argue with him, so I took a seat at the kitchen table across from him and took a long drink of water, hands quivering. The last thing I wanted to do was sober up and face this disaster, but I had no other choice, not if I wanted to find the underlying cause.
But did I even want that?
“Paisley, please.” Jeremy reached out to take my hand. With a cringe, I withdrew from his touch and cradled the glass between my fingers.
“Please don’t touch me.”
“Let me explain,” he begged. I stared at him and studied the sad lines in his face and the soft brown eyes I knew and loved. He was the man I’d been prepared to marry, whom I’d said yes to many months ago. He was my friend, my confidant, my lover. He was…
“Explain what, Jer?” I was impressed with how I held it together, considering all I wanted to do was break his goddamn arm and smash his face with a wine bottle. “Unless you plan to go into intimate detail about the sexual positions you tried, I’m not entirely sure I’m keen on hearing it.”
“Don’t be like that.”
