“I think as long as you’re in the room with him, he’d be comfy anywhere.”He put his hands on his hips and faced her, giving her an up-close view of every mouthwatering inch of him and the way his muscles filled out his shirt and the thighs of his jeans.“You need anything else?”
“No.”Well, nothing she was going to come out and ask for.He was so hard to read, had never once acted on the desire she was certain she’d seen in his eyes a few times.She knew she hadn’t imagined it.“I really appreciate everything you?—”
He held up a hand.“Stop.You don’t need to thank me.”
“Fine.Then by the way, you scared me tonight.”
He frowned.“Scared you how?”
“When you went charging after that guy over the fence.He could’ve had a gun.”
Something like amusement flickered on his face.“He could’ve, yeah.”
She didn’t see anything remotely humorous about it.“And you were unarmed.”
“I was,” he allowed with a nod, then stood there studying her.
The way he watched her sent a delicious shiver down her spine.He hadn’t moved.Was close enough for her to see the lighter flecks of brown in his dark eyes.
“Tough to hit a moving target, especially in the woods.And it was dark out there,” he finally said.
She took a step toward him.Drawn by that invisible force pulsing between them.“I was worried about you.”Scared for him.
The thought of anything happening to him made her feel sick to her stomach.Strong and trained as he was, he was still just made of flesh and bone, and he’d already suffered so much.
“I don’t want anything to happen to you.Especially because of me.”
“You don’t need to worry about me.And I’m going to make sure nothing happens toyou.”
“Too late,” she whispered.Way too late.He’d reawakened all the old feelings she’d tried to bury, and intensified them.Proving that she’d never really gotten over him at all.
Tripp didn’t move.Didn’t say anything, just watched her as the tension thickened, charging the air between them.
She took another step.Stopped in front of him, heart pounding.Lifted her hands and settled them on his chest.Praying he wouldn’t reject her.
His nostrils flared slightly, the muscles under her palms contracting.
A wild thrill shot through her at the sheer power of him.The emotion simmering in his dark stare.
Her heart thudded hard against her ribs as they stared at each other.Both of them teetering on the brink of the unknown.
She wasn’t sure which one of them moved first, but the next moment his hands were in her hair and she was holding onto his wide shoulders.The instant their lips met, a torrent of heat flooded her body.
Willow pressed closer, flattening herself against all that warmth and strength.Tripp groaned and banded a thick arm around her back, holding her close while he kissed her.
Her head spun, the kiss unlike any she’d ever had.She could feel the raw hunger driving him as he held her locked to him, yet he kissed her with such reverence, like he was trying to memorize her.As if he had wanted this forever and was savoring every single moment.
His lips were firm yet soft as they moved over hers, his fingers urgently gripping her hair.The velvet stroke of his tongue against hers made her gasp, igniting a desperate throb between her legs.She clung to him as time stretched out, endless and elastic, lost in the feel of him, in the inescapable tide of desire he’d unleashed.
But then without warning he pulled back.
She blinked up at him, disoriented, her breathing unsteady as her legs.“What?”she whispered.
His jaw flexed, the force of his stare burning her.“I can’t.”
She frowned.“Can’t wait?”
He shook his head and expelled a hard breath, the internal battle he waged reflected in his eyes before he groaned almost helplessly and kissed her again.
