My sunshine girl, so bright and so fucking good, has a little bit of dark in her too, a littlewild.
She kisses the same way that she did that night, tentative, slightly hesitant, as if she’s exploring a new place for the first time, but with an undercurrent of frantic need.
It’s desperate and patient at the same time, and I don’t understand how a college girl, more than a decade younger than me, a student at my damn school, has the ability to have such power over me.
I’m a grown fucking man, but when it comes to her, I feel out of control.
I’m devouring her whole, and she’s taking it in stride, kissing me back just as hard, her fingers tearing at my hair, nearly climbing me.
I release the hand circling her neck and move it to the back of her thighs, ignoring the wet, cold material of her jeans as I curve beneath her ass and lift her off her feet. Her legs slip around my waist, and she holds on tighter.
And then I feel herlaughingagainst my lips.
Tearing my mouth away, I growl, “What the hell is funny?”
“You just lifted me with one freaking arm,” she murmurs against my lips, her eyes dancing with amusement, and I shake my head, delving back into her mouth, swallowing down her soft little moan.
Her hips are writhing, and fuck, even through the wet denim, she’s hot pressed against me, bare from the waist up.
Anyone could walk in and catch us like this, and we’d be fucked. I might have blown all the way past the line tonight with her, but that doesn’t mean that I want anyone to walk in and see her like this.
To catch us together like this.
For that reason, I pull back, breathing hard. Maisie’s brow pinches together tightly, her face confused.
“What? Why are you…” She closes her mouth mid-sentence as I carefully set her onto her feet with a heavy sigh.
I reach for my hoodie off the chair, then turn back to her and start to pull it over her head. She quickly threads her arms through the sleeves, and just like I thought, it hangs almost to her knees.
She looks too fucking good wearing my clothes. “Maisie…” I say, trailing off, reaching up to rake a hand through my hair.
Before I can say anything else, she’s shaking her head, her eyes narrowing into slits as she glares at me, completely misreading where this was going. She takes a step back, and I watch her throat move as she swallows roughly.
“Let me guess. This was a mistake, right? You should’ve never touched me. Oh, and it canneverhappen again, right? Just a momentary lapse in judgment.”
“I—”
“Save it. I don’t even want to hear it. I don’t need to hear you make more excuses.” She cuts me off, not allowing me to fucking speak, but I don’t try again as she goes off, anger searing through her expression. Seething, she grabs her clothes off the floor and stalks toward the door before turning back to look at me once more. I can see the hurt and the fury in her eyes, and I should tell her that she’s got it all wrong.
But I don’t.
Because maybe her believing it, believing that I thought it was another mistake, maybe it’s for the best.
Maybe it’s stopping something that we both know can’t happen before it ever really starts.
“I’m done with this. I’m done with you not being able to make up your mind. I’m just…done, Wilder.” She pauses with her hand on the doorknob, her mouth opening like she wants to say something else, but then she closes her lips and wrenches the door open, stopping one last time to look back. “You may not lie to other people, but you sure as fuck lie to yourself.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY
MAISIE
It’s been justover two weeks since I’ve seen Wilder. Since that night in his office when I told him exactly how I felt and didn’t hold back.
And I still feel like a bad bitch.
Okay, well… also kind of a sad bitch, but definitely still a bad bitch too.
