Like she was mine to claim.
Or maybe drag her into my room and peel her out of those flimsy clothes to get to the sweetness underneath. Glut myself on what I’d been dreaming of for what felt like a hundred years. Memories spiraling back to all those times when she’d sneak intomy room. How she’d curl up beside me on my bed. The way she blossomed each day.
My best friend.
My friend who somewhere along the way I’d realized was meant to be so much more.
But it would be the greatest crime. An unforgivable offense.
She peeked over at me.
Her cheeks flushed red, like she felt the need boiling my insides.
“Are you hungry?” she asked, her voice raspy.
“Starving,” I grunted.
Famished.
Depleted.
Empty.
And somehow, she was here, filling me up in a way I shouldn’t let her.
The woman had me making promises I never should make. Confiding things in her that I was forbidden to speak.
Laying my sins out like she could be the keeper of them.
It was reckless, but I refused to go into this without her knowing who I’d become, even though I couldn’t give her the details. Couldn’t drag my brothers into my mistakes.
But it was true, what I told her last night.
I had never been able to tell her no, and I had no idea how to start then.
A soft smile edged her sexpot mouth. “Good. I made enough for an army.”
I was a fucking fool because I inched deeper into the kitchen. Drawn to her like she was the gravity I’d been missing. When I’d been floating out in the nothingness without a destination, she’d become my target.
My intent.
My heart’s resolution.
“Can I help with something?” It was low and pocked with the need she incited.
“No. Go sit down, and I’ll bring it to you.”
“I am capable of feeding myself.”
“But wouldn’t it be a whole lot more enjoyable if I did it for you?” She peeked over at me. Something coy crept to her expression.
Fuck me.
She had every intention of doing me in, didn’t she?
I kept moving closer, and my voice dropped lower. “You aren’t here to take care of me. It’s the other way around.”
She turned to face me, which meant I basically had her backed into the counter.
