More impossible questions. Only this time, I know she doesn’t need an answer. This is Billie looking for reassurance for what she already knows.
We stepped out of the friend zone a while back. Even if all we’ve shared are fleeting glances and the occasional tender touch.
I decide to give her what she needs, accepting that the confusing limbo we’re in is here to stay. “Do you think that if your dad could see the way we interact in private, he would agree that our relationship is purely platonic?”
A sea of deep green looks up at me, like an ocean with no limit to its depth, an undiscovered underworld I’m willingly beingpulled into. I’ve no clue how far my descent will go, and I guess much of that is down to Billie and if I’m prepared to risk my life, exploring a dangerous unknown.
“No.”
Her single-worded response pulls my mouth closer to Billie’s. One dip of my chin, and my lips would feel hers for the first time.
There would be no going back, a kiss that would seal my fate. My friendship with her father would be up in smoke. Scott Quinn would never forgive me.I’dnever forgive me if Billie were my daughter and the man who had insisted on helping out my family by giving money and rides to the hospital made a move.
Even if that couldn’t be further from the truth, that’s the way he would see things—a richer, older guy bagging his vulnerable daughter after the failure of his own marriage and the demise of her relationship.
Do I want Billie in my bed tonight? Jesus Christ. I’ve wanted her in my arms since the second I laid eyes on her for the first time in over three years. Back in February, I thought I could control my desire, convincing myself that Sawyer was right when he told me that my attraction to Billie was a fallout from the divorce.
But that was then, and this is now. And the way I’m starting to feel for Billie has nothing to do with my split from Maria. If I wanted to fuck someone, then I’d pick a girl up in Lloyd’s and bring her back to my place for some fun.
Except it wouldn’t be fun. It would be fucking torturous. All my body craves is Billie Quinn, and all my mind needs is to be around her.
My hand finds her hip, pulling her body into me. It’s likely she can feel my growing cock as it strains behind the zipper on my dress pants. I’m risking taking this too far, but the burn in her eyes confirms that she’s comfortable with me holding her like this.
I fuckingloveholding her like this.
As she reaches up to my face, I feel sure she’s going to cup my cheek in her palm, the bracelet I spent way too fucking long picking out as a gift to celebrate her becoming a mom, shiningbeneath my kitchen lights. It was risky buying her something so personal and expensive, but Scott and Freya saw it as a thoughtful keepsake, even if all I wanted was for Billie to experience what it’s like when a man spoils the girl he can’t get out of his head.
When she pulls off my glasses and sets them on the counter behind her, I wonder what she’s going to do next.
“Your eyes look just as unsure without lenses.”
I press myself into her again, overstepping more moral lines but powerless to prevent the urge. “Do I feel unsure about you, Billie?”
Heat creeps up her throat. “No. But Collins was right when she said that a man’s eyes never lie. That’s something I should’ve paid more attention to when I got with Tucker.”
The mere mention of that fucker’s name douses the fire burning between us. I’m mad as hell about the way he treated Billie and Blake, but his existence also serves as an important reminder as to what this woman has been through. What her body has endured over the past few weeks since she gave birth to her daughter.
She might not be ready for another man, and I should get a fucking grip on myself.
What the fuck am I doing?
I release my hold on her hip, edging back and immediately feeling the loss of her warm body.
Billie gazes at me like she didn’t want me to pull away. Even if we both know it was the smart thing to do. Theonlyoption we should take.
“Is Maria still in love with you?”
My eyes snap to hers. “What?”
Billie hoists herself onto the counter, fixing a few strands of hair that fell across her face, a legacy of pink still staining her prominent cheekbones.
My legs scream at me to move forward and step between her thighs.
“Her comment about the coffee maker at Mom’s birthdaymeal and the way she looked at you all night …” She trails off, chewing on the corner of her right thumb. “I think she still has feelings for you.”
I can see why Billie would conclude that, and it frustrates the shit out of me.
Reaching forward, I pick up my glasses and set them back on my face, the sharpness of her beauty coming back into focus.
