It was everything he hoped for while he was in her presence, but nothing he’d thought would come this soon.
“I’m good to my word,” he said, his lips by her ear. A peck, as she’d allowed, but nothing more.
Not even his tongue that was begging to come out and taste any part of her skin that was exposed.
There were more couples on the floor around them. He’d heard her last name being whispered, the island her familylived on. More about Boston, even her wealth and how someone wasn’t surprised he’d find someone on equal ground.
She’d stiffened at those words.
He wanted to shout for everyone to shut the fuck up and leave him alone.
Gossiping within earshot wasn’t careless, it was calculated, the purest form of tastelessness. Something his family excelled at.
At least Natalie would know he wasn’t lying about what to expect.
“Sorry,” he whispered. “I can’t control as much as I want.”
“It’s not your fault.”
The song ended sooner than he wished. He wanted to hold her all night in his arms, but whisk her away from the ugliness he’d been exposed to.
He shouldn’t have attended.
He did it for his grandmother, but she didn’t need him.
She had never needed him as much as he had needed her.
Maybe he wanted to show her he could make it on his own.
She worried about him. Told him all the time.
That he needed to find a woman and settle down.
The fear that he was incapable of committing to anything tore at his gut, a vicious, consuming thing that left him frantic to prove them all wrong. If only to quiet the voice inside that agreed with them.
Women, jobs, locations.
He’d gone through them all.
The women much less, but living on the road was lonely.
He was tired of the solitude.
“It’s my fault for bringing you here,” he said. “For bringing you into my world.”
Her hands left the back of his neck, grasped his cheeks, her stare firm. “It’s not your world. Never think that or let it consume you and knock you down.”
His eyes shifted around her face, her lips lifting to a smile, him matching it.
“And this is why I needed you here.”
This time she leaned in and placed her lips to his, not just a peck this time, but hanging on a fraction longer than her contract allowed.
18
HOW HE MADE HER FEEL
Her world was tilting more than it had before.
