Page 94 of Never Let You Go

But he’s so frustrating. “After the way you kissed me. After everything you gave me. The room. The key to the friggin’ hidden staircase. After all that and what I thought it meant, you ignored me. You already gave up on me!”

I blink back tears of frustration. Why am I even upset?

It’s always like that.

“You’re upset,” he says.

“Am not. Just needed to figure out if there was anything wrong with me.”

His gaze deepens travels around my face, down my neck, leaving a burning trail. “You got frustrated with me because you felt I was ignoring you, so you went to that place dressed like that, and what did you find out.”

“There’s nothing wrong with me.”

He closes his eyes. “Of course not. Everything is right about you. Everything,” he growls. He lifts a hand to tuck my hair behind my ear.

I resist the urge to lean into his caress.

And I further pretend to ignore his sweetness and plant my fists on my hips. “Now, if you please, I’d like to get undressed.”

A slow grin spreads across his face. “Sure, don’t mind me.” He steps back to the reading bench, plops on it, his arms splayed on the windowsill, his thighs spread-eagle, and my traitorous eyes rake his bulging pecs and tight abs and stop right where his happy trail disappears under his sweatpants.

“You’re unbelievable,” I whisper, and I mean it in both ways, but I hope my tone says I mean it in the not-good way.

He stands back up, closes the distance between us, and takes my wrist. The pad of his thumb strokes the inside of my forearm. “Of course there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re perfect. You think it’s fun, lying on my bed, resisting you?”

Because of the way he’s holding my arm, my hand falls naturally to his hip. I inch it up to where his skin is naked. My voice is small when I ask, “Why are you resisting me?”

He moves his hand up my arm, to my shoulder, to my neck. Ends up cupping the side of my neck and gently stroking my throat with the pad of his thumb. Desire shoots from where his hand rests down to my center.

“Because… the way your body feels so right under my hands… the way your lips taste so good,” he says and dips his forehead to mine. “Fuck, Alexandra… the way you kiss without holding back.” His hand is up to the back of my head, holding it against his.

My hand rakes up his back. “I don’t kiss without holding back,” I whisper.

His face goes back up. “You do,” he says against my temple.

I close my eyes and deeply inhale his manly scent, cedar and clean laundry and something else. “Maybe I kissed you without holding back. Maybe I shouldn’t have.”

His body tenses. “See, that’s what I mean. Was hoping to get you out of my system. Not happening. Dangerous.”

That hurts a little, although it shouldn’t. My heart stutters.

It’s a good thing, him wanting to get me out of his system. It’s what I want as well. So I tip my head up and volunteer, “You have a few months to get me out of your system.”

He bends, his face to mine again. His stubble grazes my nose, then my chin. “What if I don’t. What if you get so totally under my skin, I never want to let you go,” he says, his lips brushing against mine.

That is so not going to happen. I’m not the kind of girl guys don’t want to let go. I’m the opposite. He doesn’t know it, but it’s in my genes. And if I want to, cynically, get that side fun I’ve been entertaining, I need to enlighten him. Reassure him. We can do this without any consequences for him.

“Not a chance,” I whisper. “Anytime I got under a guy’s skin, it wasn’t the good kind of getting-under-his-skin. You’re safe with me. You’re not gonna get attach—”

His mouth drinks my last word as he leans into me fully and kisses me hard.

So hard.

So good.

See? You tell a guy there’s no chance of getting attached, they give their best.

His hand at my nape is fisting my hair, his other arm is at my waist, forearm the length of my back, plastering me to his length while his tongue captures me. Then his teeth tease my lower lip, and the arm that was at my waist trails down, grabs my dress, bunches it up, and his fingers reach the naked strip of skin above my garter.

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