Page 61 of Contentious

“Carson,” she said softly as she rested her head on his chest, “you’re making my knees weak.”

He tightened his hold on her. “Is that a good thing?”

“I’ll have to let you know. I’ve never had weak knees before.”

They stood there for a long time, wrapped up in each other, breathing the same air, their lives changing with every second that passed.

He could feel it happening. Everything shifting, one heartbeat at a time, and him standing there letting it happen, as if that wouldn’t turn his well-ordered existence on its head. The only time he’d ever felt like something bigger than him was taking him over was when he’d battled addiction. That comparison sobered him the way nothing else ever could. “We need to get you to your meeting.”

“Uh-huh,” she said, but continued to hold on to him.

“Cres…”

“Yes?”

“You have to let go.”

“I really don’t want to.”

Neither did he, and that was becoming a bigger problem by the minute. “Your meeting.”

“They’ll wait for me.”

“But…”

“One more minute of this, and then we’ll go.”

He was afraid that one more minute would take him straight past the point of no return, but he couldn’t bring himself to pull away as long as she wanted him there.

Damn it all straight to hell.

Was this what’d happened to Julian when he met Isla? Did he experience every emotion any time she was in the room? Did it get a thousand times “worse” when she touched him or kissed him or…

Don’t think about that, or you won’t be able to function.

By the time she finally let him go, he was a totally different person than he’d been when he crossed her threshold. That guy had been determined to keep his life exactly the way it had always been—uncomplicated, unencumbered and governed by his own set of rules.

This new guy wanted as much of her as he could get and didn’t care what he had to do to make that happen.

“Why are you staring at me?” she asked.

“Have you seen you?”

A rosy flush overtook her stunning face. “What’re you doing to me?”

“I was just about to ask you the same damned thing. I was minding my own business, and now it seems…”

“What?” she asked, sounding breathless.

“Everything has changed.”

“How do you feel about that?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

“Can you get back to me when you figure it out?”

“You’ll be the first to know.” He checked his watch. “We have to leave, or you’re going to be very late.”