“I didn’t want to freak you out.”
“You didn’t think finding you sitting in my apartment would freak me out?”
“You weren’t supposed to be home,” I said.
“I wanted to get some things to bring to the house.”
We stared at each other and it occurred to me that for the first time since Cassie had come to live with us, we were alone.
Completely and totally alone.
She surprised me when she spoke first.
“Why don’t you like me?”
She sounded so sad I wanted to pull her into my lap, stroke her hair, tell her only someone as crazy as I was could not like her.
“I never said I don’t like you.”
“You never want to be around me,” she said.
“I'm around you now.”
“Because I caught you snooping in my apartment.” I wanted to kiss the adorable pout off her lips.
“It’s not snooping if you don’t mind being caught,” I said.
“You’re avoiding the questions, but fine, whatever.” She got up and started for the door. “Have fun snooping inmyapartment.”
I willed myself to stay put, but the truth was, I never had a chance.
I reached her just as she opened the door, and I slammed it shut, her luscious ass nestled against my dick as I braced my hands on either side of her head.
“I don’t hate you.” My nose was in her hair, that sweet, creamy scent of hers occupying my body like deadly vapor. “I hate that I want you.”
She didn’t turn around, but I could feel her shallow breathing through the rise and fall of her back against my chest. “Why?”
I lowered my head to her neck, exposed by her ponytail, and murmured against her skin. “Because I’m not good at this.”
I closed my eyes as I pressed a kiss to her throat, and she sighed as my tongue darted against her neck.
“Because I don’t want to hurt you.” I pressed another kiss under her ear, then caught the whisper of her breath, minty and warm, on my face when she turned her head in my direction.
I kissed her cheek, closing my eyes at the sheer pleasure of her velvety skin against my lips. “Because I got used to feeling nothing.”
She turned in my arms and met my mouth with her own, sliding her hands around my neck and molding her body against mine when our tongues met in a storm of heat, tangling as she grabbed onto the hair at the back of my head.
I grabbed her hips and pulled her even more tightly against my hard dick, and she moaned into my mouth, a primal, needy sound that only made me harder.
I held her face in my hands as I took the kiss deeper, wanting to own very piece of real estate in her mouth, wanting to find all the unexplored corners and crevices and make them mine.
I could have stood there kissing her forever — a danger sign if there ever was one — but she pulled away, her lips pink and swollen as she looked up at me.
“Take me to bed, Hawk.” She pressed her hips into mine and the friction of her curves against my dick was almost enough to send me over the edge. “Please.”
I was never one for reason. For caution.
But if I’d had any left it would have evaporated under the soft weight of her pleading eyes, the promise of her sweet flesh.
