Page 82 of Tempting

“Rest tonight, Sinclair. We’re on a plane tomorrow for Ontario,” he adds, clearly dismissing me.

Thirty minutes later, I’m pulling into our parking garage.

It seems like everyone else wants to know how I feel about Mackenzie Hayes.

It’s about time she knows.

KENZIE

In a world full of twat waffles, be French toast.

—Kenzie’s Secret Thoughts

Ilook around my living room and wonder if it’s too much.

A fire burns in the gas fireplace, and white pillar candles flicker around the mantle while I sing along to my favorite sexy playlist. And when I catch my reflection in the mirror, I almost don’t recognize myself.

My cheeks are flushed, and my eyes are shining.

This woman is happy, not just content.

She’s living, not just going through the motions, surviving.

There’s a difference, and it’s scary as hell.

But Nixon is worth being scared for. He’s worth jumping in feet first because I know he’ll be there to catch me. If Mom and Jules could do it, so can I.

I set a bowl of food and water in the kitchen for Gordie when I hear my door open and hope like crazy it’s Nixon and not Callen or Maddox. I peek my head out, suddenly worried, but my fears vanish as soon as I see him.

Nixon Sinclair makes gray sweat pants look absolutely pornographic, and I’m here for it. “Hey, baby.”

Yeah. I’m here for that voice and those words too. Not just here for them, hungry for them. For him. I walk silently across the room and run my hands under his shirt and up his rib cage. “Hi.”

He takes my face in his hands, and the way he looks at me has me melting into a puddle of goo at his feet. It’s reverent, and my heart threatens to beat right out of my chest.

“You okay, Nix?” I flatten my palms and press my entire body against his.

His thumb caresses my cheek, and he shakes his head. “I love you, Mackenzie Hayes. I’m not sure when it happened. I don’t know if it was last week or last month, or if it was the first time you walked into my house when we were kids. But it happened, and it’s real. Fuck. It’s the most real thing in my life. You. You’re it for me. You’re everything. I’m not sure if you’re ready to hear it?—”

I silence him with a finger pressed gently against his lips, completely overcome with emotion. “I have no idea what I did to deserve you, Nixon. But somehow, you’re still here, standing in front of me. You never rushed me. Never made me feel like I wasn’t enough. You’ve given me the space I needed to come to it all on my own, and I’m there, Nix.”

I look up at him.

Up at his handsome face and kind eyes.

That deliciously filthy mouth I love.

That I love.

I love him, and my God, it’s everything.

“It might have taken me a little longer to get here, Nix. But I never do anything fast. I’m an overthinker. I need to look at something from every possible angle. I need to study it before I can jump in. And even then, I don’t always jump. But with you...” I ghost my lips over his and dig my fingers into his hair. “With you, I want to jump. You’re going to have to be patient with me though. I’m still going to be waiting for the other shoe to drop. But loving you, Nix... loving you is worth the fear.”

He lifts me off my feet and carries me across the room, then drops down into my oversized chair. His big jersey barely covers my white-ruffle, panty-covered ass, and my matching white knee socks slide down under my knees, but the look in his heavy eyes says it all. “Fucking beautiful, baby. You should wear my name every day.”

“Pretty sure they’d frown on that in the operating room, Sinclair.” He anchors his hand in my hair at the nape of my neck possessively, and I swear I could stay just like this forever.

Nixon’s eyes trace over my face like a warm caress, healing all the rough and tattered edges of my soul. “I’m going to need you to jump again, Mac. Take my hand and jump with me.”

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