“You’re not,” he says, still unmoving from where he stands. “You’re doing that thing.”
“What thing?”
“The thing where you pretend you don’t feel anything.”
My fingers tighten on the door I’m still holding. My skin is too aware of everything right now. It still feels the warmth lingering where he touched me earlier.
I want to tell him I can’t handle this.
I want to tell him Ican.
But my voice is lodged somewhere between my ribs and my pride.
He shifts a half step forward, barely anything, but my body reacts like it’s a full lunge. My instinct screams to close the door, lock it, and go to bed. But my feet don’t move—they can’t.
I’m quite literally frozen in place by the same stupid thing that always gets me in trouble.
Want.
“Maybe I don’t feel anything,” I snap, keeping an even composure.
His gaze drops to my mouth for a fraction of a second, and my breath catches like I’ve just been caught stealing from the grocery store.
“Bullshit.”
Tucker fills the doorway like he was made to. Broad shoulders, dark shirt, jeans, and work boots. His hair is mussed like he’s been dragging his hands through it. And his eyes…they aren’t teasing. They’re stormy and focused on me like I’m the only thing he can see.
“Are you done?” he asks.
“Why do you even care, Tucker?”
The words hang between us.
He narrows his eyes. “Do you really want me to answer that?”
My entire body goes hot and cold at once while my chest rises too fast.
“I want you to leave,” I lie, and my voice wavers at the end.
“Then tell me to.”
I swallow hard as his gaze flicks over my face, reading me like a blueprint.
But I can’t say the words. I’ve held myself back a dozen times, and every time he gets close, the only thing keeping me upright is sheer willpower and the fear of what wanting him will cost me. I’ve been restraining myself since the second I got into town and he looked at me like I was something worth having.
Restraint when he drove me home from the bar.
Restraint when I found the porch swing he put in for me.
Restraint when he stood too close in the kitchen and I could feel the heat rolling off him.
Restraint with every look in my direction.
Restraint today when his hand slid to my waist under the camera lights and my breath stuttered like my body forgot how to function.
Every fucking time, I’ve held back.
Every time, I’ve saidnowhen I wanted to sayyes.
