You can hide from him, but you can’t hide from your feelings.
“Shut up,” I scolded myself. “Don’t think about him. Not anymore.”
“If it’s me you’re thinking about—I command you to ignore your advice.”
My heart flew into my mouth. I spun around.
Big mistake.
Jethro stood behind me. Scuffs stained his tan jodhpurs and mud splattered his polished high boots. He’d rolled up the cuffs of his billowy sleeve shirt and removed the velvet waistcoat revealing the shadows of his stomach beneath the translucent fabric. His five o’clock shadow was rough and ragged while the bones of his face spoke of stark desire and even starker emotion.
My entire body stiffened. My lungs refused to operate, suffocating me inch by inch.
His eyes met mine and everything we’d been avoiding crackled with uncontrolled potency. The unseen force was tangible, powerful—almost visible with ribbons of lust that pebbled my nipples and sent a clench of furious desire through my core.
His breathing escalated as we stood locked in place, bound together by the swirling cloud of need. We didn’t speak—wecouldn’tspeak.
His tongue licked his bottom lip.
Our eyes refused to unlock. The more we stared, the deeper our connection became.
I couldn’t look away.
His smell of musk and leather shoved me from my dangerous precipice, and I slid down and down into scandal.
I’m not falling for him.
I’ve already fallen.
Jethro sucked in a breath, his fingers opening and closing by his sides.
I couldn’t go on like this. Feeling this way. Hating and loving this way.
I couldn’tlieanymore.
My heartbeat drummed in my ears, behind my eyes, in my every fingertip. My tattoo blazed, the diamond collar tightened, and I knew out of everything that had happened, after everything the Hawks had done, this was the moment where I lost.
Right here.
Right now.
This was why I couldn’t run.
This desire.
This fate.
I fell in love.
I turned my back on everyone but myself.
I gave up any notion of ever leaving.
I moaned low in my chest.
Such a simple, subtle whisper.
But it was the starting gun to the explosion that was imminent between us.
