I’m suddenly alive again, and the way Annie’s looking at me, I know she feels the same.
She’s standing in front of me in a pair of tight jeans and a simple black tee that hugs her body enough to drive a man insane. A foot away isn’t close enough, and I push her until herback is flush with the door. I rest a forearm above her head, and my free hand goes to her waist as I lean into her so she can’t feel what she’s doing to me. Her eyes get big, and when I slide my fingers up to her neck, her pulse pounds against my palm. It beats nearly as fast as my own. Her cheeks get pinker by the second, and her lips are parted as she peers up at me.
I study her gorgeous face and watch her eyes take me in as well. Rubbing my thumb over her bottom lip, satisfaction roars through me as she touches the tip of her tongue to it. “Jesus.” What I’m feeling is unexpected and undeniable. It hits me fast. The connection we used to have is still here, but it’s stronger, different,better.
And I have to make her see that. “I don’t want you here because I can’t stand behind that bar all night and watch every man in that place fuck you with their eyes.”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
“It already has.” My lips are centimeters away from hers. “But only because they don’t know yet.”
“Know what?”
I dip my head, my nose gliding down hers. “That you were right all this time.”
“About what?”
“That you’re mine.”
“I am?” she whispers like she can’t believe what she just heard.
“Yeah, Annie. That’s what you want, right?”
She answers firmly without hesitation, “Yes.”
“That’s what I want, too.” I sweep a kiss against the apple of her cheek, and she trembles when my lips linger.
“Does that mean you’re mine, too?”
“Fuck yeah.”
“Good.” Her breath lingers with mine.
I run my finger down her arm, her hip, then squeeze her thigh, and don’t even have to pull her leg around my waist because she’s already doing it on her own. She pants when I give her more of my weight, and lust rolls through me when I feel her heat through our jeans. “Thought about what it would be like when I saw you again. Lots of different scenarios played out, but this? I wasn’t expectingthis.” I brush my lips across hers and keep them there when I say. “Better than I ever imagined.”
And then I kiss her. God, that’s it, so sweet, but I need more. The second my tongue touches hers, she makes a noise in her throat and rolls her hips. I tilt my head and deepen the kiss, my tongue stroking hers. She’s tentative at first, but when I pull back and nip her lip, she clenches her fist in my hair and loses the control she’d been holding on to.
Yeah. She loses it. She drinks from my mouth, desperate, faster, harder. Fucking perfect.
She sucks in air and then seals her lips over mine, sealing my fate, but then she screams and falls backward as the door opens. I have a firm grip on her already, so I right myself easily and haul her back to me at the same time.
“Don’t move.” Her ass molds against me, and I wrap my arms around her, crossing my forearms over her breasts to hide her nipples poking through her shirt. Under any other circumstance, I’d pull her behind me, but my dick is still hard, so I need a motherfucking second.
Parker’s right there, and I do not like the look on his face. “Sorry to interrupt, but you’ve got a problem, bro.”
“It better be a really big fucking problem.”
“Where is he?” I hear Tara before I see her. She’s standing just inside the bar, staring out at us in the alley. Unfortunately, she notices me at the same time, but she’s not looking at me. She’s shooting daggers at Annie.
Fuck.
“Who the hell are you? What’s going on, Ben? Who is she?” She starts rushing toward us.
I pull Annie behind me, and Parker hooks Tara around the waist and drags her back a few feet.
“Let me go!” she shrieks. “Ben!”
“Stop yelling, woman,” my brother snarls. “Shit.”
