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And that’s all that matters to me.
When she asks me to show her the proper firing stance, I don’t hide how proud she makes me. We keep the gun unloaded and the glass up. But it’s another step in the right direction.
I position her as she faces the range. Standing behind her, I nudge her feet into the proper stance. Then I wrap my arms around her, my hands cupping hers as she grips her gun. I breathe her in. Without our earmuffs on, my face is beside hers, my nose so close to her floral-scented hair.
She sucks in a breath. With my chest pressed to her back, I feel her sharp inhale as much as I hear it.
“Soft knees,” I whisper in her ear.
Together we bend our knees slightly, and now my legs are also pressed against hers. Blood threatens to rush to my cock. I will it away, focusing on the paper silhouette twenty-five yards from us. Imagining it’s Harrison.
“Bend forward a little,” I tell her.
She hunches her shoulders forward. Without thinking, I lower one hand to grip the side of her hip.
“Bend from your hips,” I command.
She shifts so she’s bending from her hips. I bend with her. I keep my grip where it is, my right hand on the soft fabric of her pants and two of my fingers through her belt loop.
Now we’re both breathing hard. There’s no space between us. I feel her trembling again and the gun starts to wobble. Slowly, I take it from her with my left hand, my right still on her hip. She lets it go. And I smell something new as she shakes in my arms.
Sweat.
If her hair were in a ponytail, the wisps at the nape of her neck would be curling. But with her hair down and loose like this, I’d have to push it aside to see. I’m tempted to. The scent of her overwhelms me. Not just floral shampoo, but Brioni. I can’t stop all the blood to my cock this time.
My urge to see her bare neck is overpowering. I want to see her sweaty curls, to taste the salt of her skin, to feel her heartbeat going wild under my lips. But I have to put down the gun first. I lean forward to reach the shelf.
Brioni gasps. She’s felt my hard cock against her ass. It’s throbbing now. I keep my movements slow as I set down the gun. She stays pressed against me, and I slide my fingers deeper into her belt loop, pulling her even closer.
With my left hand free, I push her curtain of hair over her shoulder. The wisps at her nape are curled like springs. They’re even darker than I expected, her sweat as uncontrolled as her breathing. I press my nose to her damp patch of hair. And inhale.
All of my animal instincts scream for me to take Brioni immediately.
We’re both shaking now. I keep my right hand tight on her hip and smooth my left hand around her ribs, just beneath her breasts. Her inhales turn ragged, and I feel every millimeter of her juddering breaths. I take another deep inhale, brushing my lips along the soft skin beneath her ear.
“Liam…”
The way she says my name makes my cock so hard it’s painful.
“We shouldn’t,” she whispers.
The faint sound douses me in ice. I step back, away from Brioni. My fingers fall out of her belt loop and my arms drop to my sides.
When she turns to face me, her innocent doe eyes are full of regret. Suddenly I’m filled with it too. Of course we shouldn’t. She’s my best friend, and I can’t betray her trust like that.
“We’re okay?” she asks softly, but I don’t trust myself to speak.
All I can do is nod, then press my finger beneath my eye. We’re okay, and I can swear to that. We’re Liam and Brioni.
But I’m not okay. I’m too far gone for this woman.
Chapter 12
Brioni
Tension weighs the air between us as Liam drives us home from the gun range. While he focuses on the road so intently he’s barely blinking, I text Cora. She agrees to my suggestion immediately, which shouldn’t make me feel disappointed. But my chest tightens all the same.
With his face in shadow, I can sense more than see Liam’s intensity, his grim determination not to look at me. It’s the ferocious version of what I felt during our dinner out, when I couldn’t meet his gaze because I was afraid of my own desire for him.
