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Her shaky inhale tore through him. Her cheeks and neck, so pale moments before, flooded with heat. Just the way he remembered.
She very quietly said, ‘We need to do something about this. We can’t travel together for months with all … this.’ She waved one hand as if to clear the air of the thick heat between them.
TJ stilled. His heart slammed in his chest. He very carefully asked, ‘What exactly did you have in mind?’
Skye turned those big blue eyes on him. ‘Once. To get it out of our systems.’
‘Once won’t be enough,’ TJ countered instantly. ‘You know that.’
‘Once,’ she repeated.
He didn’t argue further, though he wanted to point out that there were only two possibilities when it came to them: love or hate. And TJ had only ever loved her, even when she had hated him. Once might hold them over for a day or two, but it wouldn’t last.
Still, he was too afraid that she’d baulk if he pointed that out. He was terrified that she’d run. So, he said, ‘If that’s what you need.’
‘Deal.’
When she stuck out her hand, TJ took it, but because he’d never shake on a deal he didn’t mean to uphold, he didn’t. Instead, he closed his hand around hers, used his leverage to pull her the rest of the way into his arms.
He lowered his head, but he didn’t make a move. He wanted her to close that distance between them, wanted her to need him as much as he needed her.
Skye ran her hands under his shirt, touching his bare skin, not in pity but in pleasure. She stood on her tippy toes and, without hesitating, fused her mouth to his.
The kiss was like coming home after a year on the road bull riding. It was safe and right and good. Her taste teased him, whipping his senses into overdrive.
Unable to resist, TJ lowered both his hands and slipped them beneath the waistband of her baggy sweatpants, to find nothing but soft, naked skin. He groaned into her mouth, broke the kiss to murmur, ‘No underwear?’
‘I’m out. I need to go to the laundromat,’ she explained breathily.
‘Jesus.’ He gripped her gentle curves, said, ‘Don’t. I like finding you like this.’
His urge was to slip his fingers around to her front and take, right there in a public park in broad daylight, but TJ resisted. He leaned down slightly, ready to pick her up, but the moment she sensed his intention, Skye said, ‘Don’t.’
He stopped immediately, terrified that she had changed her mind. But instead, she said, ‘You’re not supposed to lift more than twenty pounds outside of a controlled setting.’
TJ froze. A rusty chuckle left his lips. ‘That’s what you’re thinking about right now?’
Skye pouted. ‘One of us clearly has to.’
His humour faded rapidly beneath the despair. It bothered him that he couldn’t do all those little things. Normal things. Things like picking her up, carrying her twenty goddamn feet, and throwing her around a bit. Because she’d liked those things once.
Skye placed her palm on his face and turned his eyes back to hers. ‘Where did you go?’
‘I want to be who you need,’ he said.
‘Mighty arrogant of you to assume I need a man.’
TJ didn’t laugh as he knew she’d hoped. ‘Wanting to carry you sometimes doesn’t mean that I think you’re incapable of carrying yourself.’
She sighed. ‘I know, TJ. But, maybe, letting go of your pride for just a little while will help you to heal in the way you need. Maybe, being humble enough to let another person carry you for a while is something you were always supposed to learn.’ She shrugged. ‘It was for me.’
‘You make it so hard to argue.’
‘Only because, in your head, you know I’m right. And in your heart, you want to get better.’
‘I’m not so sure about that.’ He thought it imperative that she know that. ‘There are still moments when I’m not sure that I do want to get better, not sure that I can. But, since I saw you outside of Dave’s, leaving doesn’t hold the same appeal. Because, if there’s nothing on the other side, logically that means there’s no you.’
Skye slapped her hand over his mouth, her panic clear. ‘Stop saying shit like that.’
