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“Never,” I whisper. “I could never be afraid of you.”
He looks at me as though the words have struck somewhere deeper than I meant them to. The hand in my hair tightens, just enough to angle my mouth back toward his.
When he kisses me this time, it’s different.
It’s still hot and hungry, but there’s an unmistakable tenderness too. I make a small sound against his mouth and feel him answer it with an unsteady breath of his own, his hand at my back spreading wider as if he can’t bear to touch less of me.
He breaks from me only enough to rest his forehead to mine once more.
“I don’t think I could bear it if you ever did.”
My heart gives a hard, aching thud.
Before I can answer, Maeve’s voice cuts through from the other side of the house.
“Róisín!”
Alex’s mouth brushes mine once more, brief and burning.
“We aren’t finished,” he murmurs.
“No,” I say, trying and failing to sound steady. “We aren’t.”
His hand slips unwillingly from my hair at last, as if he resents every bit of distance forced between us. He straightens, dragging one hand down the front of his coat like that might put him to rights again, but there’s no setting either of us to rights after this.
I smooth my palms over my skirts for the same useless reason.
I take a proper look at his face.
His mouth is swollen from my kissing, his eyes still dark, his whole person altered now in a way I know mine must be too.
I take one step backward, then another.
Alex catches my wrist before I can turn away.
“When you’re done, you’ll come back to me.”
It’s not a question.
The sheer certainty of it sends a thrill low through me that I feel everywhere.
“Now go,” he adds, his voice rougher still. “Unless you mean to give Maeve a show and let the whole house know what we’ve just done.”
That sends a wicked thrill through me.
I wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t take this opportunity to tease him endlessly. Now, I have even more options at my disposal.
I let my hand drift low over the front of him, slow and shameless, and feel him go hard as stone beneath my palm.
His whole body jolts.
“Rosie,” he bites out. “Fuck.”
I only smile wider. “What?”
His jaw flexes. “Don’t start something you can’t finish.”
“Oh, I fully mean to finish it,” I say sweetly. “I’m making certain you have something to think about. All. Day. Long.”
