‘No. God no!’ I drag in a breath.‘Why would you think that?’
Damn stupid question, Tay.
The silence stretches. Thick and loaded. Both of us reliving last night. Both of us wondering what the hell happens now. Neither of us saying it.
Until I can’t stand it any more.
‘I figured maybe you needed space,’ I say. ‘Or maybe… maybe you’d changed your mind about what we agreed…?’
His eyes don’t ease; neither does my heart that’s getting faster by the second.
‘Have you?’
He takes a single step closer as he asks, and my heart gallops into the stratosphere. I open my mouth. Close it. Open. Nothing.
Where the hell is my famed nerve when I need it?
Burnt to smithereens, clearly. By him.
He reaches out and my breath slips past my lips, failing to return as he removes my shades. The sun is blinding, but not as blinding as the man stepping into its path. Dark brows knitted, wet lashes heavy, and his eyes…Fuck, those eyes.
‘Words, Tay. I need words.’
Holy crap.
‘No.’ It pulses out of me.
His brow quirks. ‘No?’
‘No, I haven’t changed my mind,’ I breathe.
Because I haven’t. I still want a baby. And… so help me, God, I still want him. With a thirst no amount of denial or fear can drown. And it wasn’t supposed to go like this. It was supposed to be a known quantity.Axelwas supposed to be a known quantity. Safe. Easy. Contained.
Okay, not contained in the physical sense. No man or woman could contain a guy like him. But the feeling inside me,thatshould be containable. Instead, it’s running wild. My blood racing with it, my heart too.
Because the moment he looked at me that way – the way he’s looking at me right now – those eyes I’ve known forever but not like this… He didn’t just gift me the answer I wanted; he inspired a need so fierce, I don’t know how to kill it off. Unless…
‘Have you?’ I blink up at him. ‘Have you changedyourmind?’
Axel
Changed my mind?
Is she for fucking real?
I’m out here, punishing myself with exercise, doing everything I can to exhaust the fire in my veins. Because I can’t stopthinkingabout her. Aboutit.
And now she’s stood before me in a skimpy black bikini, a draped white cover-up that hides sweet FA, and a frown that plumps her blood-red lips like they weren’t already impossible to ignore.
And the only thing I can think of doing is?—
‘Axel?’
Fuck it!
I toss her shades onto my towel and tug her flush to me. Her hat hits the deck. Her gasp sweeps across my mouth. And damn, I could kiss her right now.
But then what would be left? Nothing.
