Page 35 of Keep You Close

When it was done, I went ahead and loaded up her second favorite as she continued to plow through a ton of the desserts.

I only picked at some, aware of how inactive my body was in this healing journey, and not wanting to have a ton of weight to burn off when I was mobile again.

At some point, she must have started to doze off, because the next thing I knew, as I was watching Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant talk circles around each other, her head fell gently onto my shoulder.

Little by little, she leaned into me as she fell deeper into sleep.

There was a strange as fuck tightening sensation in my chest as my arm slid around her, curling her closer.

I’d never had an urge so strong to pick up someone and carry them to bed before as I did right then. And, of course, it was the one time it was physically impossible for me to do so.

Eventually, she shifted herself so her legs draped over mine, and I had to have a talk with my body about not reacting to her.

She nuzzled into my neck and I couldn’t seem to talk myself out of reaching up to remove her hair from her claw clip, feeling the silky strands move over my hand.

I couldn’t tell you how long she rested against me, but the movie finished and a regular channel came back on, playing some action movie I’d been meaning to watch for ages. But I couldn’t seem to focus on it.

Not with her so close.

So fucking tempting.

But then there was a scene in the movie full of bullets and then, finally, an explosion, that had AJ shocking awake.

The problem was… the position of her head on my shoulder.

Which meant when she shot up, her head whacked under my jaw, knocking my teeth together, sending pain shooting up my temples.

“Ow. Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry,” she said, eyes huge as she shifted up onto one knee, the other halfway over my lap. Her hand moved to my jaw, framing my face.

I don’t know.

I just lost all my control, I guess.

My fingers dug into her hip, pushing until she moved fully over me, straddling me.

Her breath sucked in as her lips parted.

And there was just no way for me to fight it anymore.

My hand lifted, grabbing the back of her neck, pulling her forward, and sealing my lips to hers.

CHAPTER EIGHT

AJ

I honestly don’t know how it happened.

One moment, there was a noise that had me snapping awake, and there was pain slamming through my skull as I collided with something I quickly realized was Atlas’s jaw.

The next, his hand was guiding me to move over and straddle him. And his hand was lifting, slipping behind my neck, and his lips were on mine.

I’d been fantasizing about it almost since he appeared in the living room. I’d imagined it happening a hundred different ways.

Yet this still somehow caught me by surprise.

In the best way possible.

It wasn’t soft or sweet.

---