I catch her wrist in my free hand. “I’m not playing, Tessa.”
Her eyes narrow. “What makes you thinkIam, Holt?”
The question stops me, but before I can answer, she continues. “You seem to have the idea that I’m a little girl playing games,” she says with a glint in her eye. “But please, let me assure you,” she drags one finger down my chest. “I’m most definitelynota child.”
Fuck.Do I know it.
“I am very much a woman,” she continues, her fingers dancing on my belt buckle. “And I know exactly what I want.”
I swallow hard. “And what is it you want, Tessa?”
Her gaze drops, just for a second, and then back up. “You.” Her answer is simple, but it hits hard.
I should walk away. Right now, before this gets even more complicated than it already is.
But she sees it on my face. The hesitation. The control I’m clinging to as if it’s the only thing keeping me upright.
“You held back,” she says quietly.
I stiffen. “I?—”
“You did,” she cuts in confidently. “I felt it. You were too careful. Too controlled.” She shakes her head. “Like you were protecting me from something.”
“I told you,” I tell her, “I’m not who?—”
“No,” she stops me. “You were protecting yourself.”
I go still.
“You keep telling me it’s a bad idea, and you’re trying to protect me,” she continues, pressing up against me. “As if I’m some little girl who needs to be saved from the big bad broken wolf.” Her lips flicker into a sly smile, but she’s not finished. “But you don’t get to decide that for me.”
“I’m trying to keep you from getting hurt,” I snap, but even as I say it, I can’t be sure any longer who I’m protecting.
“Let me make that choice,” she says. “But only after I get the real you.Allof you.” She waves a hand. “Not this restrained, careful, holding-back version.” Her voice drops. “Therealyou.”
My pulse kicks hard.
“You’re going to try to tell me again that it’s a mistake,” she goes on. “Fine. But you don’t get to say that again until I know exactlywhoyou are and what I’m saying yes or no to.”
I stare at her, my chest tight, my control hanging on by the slightest of threads.
More than anything, I want her again. I want to show her the real me. For better or worse.
“After that, I get to decide.” She’s so close, I can feel the heat of her words on my lips.
There’s no fear in her voice. No doubt in her eyes.
And that’s what undoes me, because she’s right. Ihavebeen holding back. If it’s the real me, the full, unrestrained version of me that she wants, then that’s what she’ll get.
I stop thinking and reach for her, curling my hand around the back of her head, dragging her to me so I can take her mouth.
She wants the truth?
She has no idea what she just asked for.
Chapter Nine
Tessa
