Page 19 of Off-Limits Mate

I look up. Amara looks like she wants to disappear. Her face is white as a ghost, and her eyes are screwed shut. I stand up, holding the picture.

“Where did you even get this?”

“I filled out the paperwork for you and Nolan.”

My eyes widen. “So you requested… a headshot of me?”

“I was a teenager. And it’s normal to have a crush on your older brother’s best friend when you’re a teenager.”

In that moment, I realize that while she’s protesting it hard, Amara isn’t talking about something that’s in the past. Because she didn’t have a crush on me then. She has a crush on me now.

The realization hits me like a sack of bricks. I step closer. Amara is practically vibrating with tension, and I gently put the picture down on the dresser next to me.

“Amara,” I whisper.

She doesn’t respond.

“Amara. Open your eyes.”

“No,” she murmurs.

Gently, I put my finger under her chin and tip her face up to mine. “Please.”

Her eyes snap open, and I smile.

Chapter 9

Amara

When I meet Jasper’s gaze, I don’t know what to expect. I guess I’m expecting him to make fun of me. I mean, who wouldn’t? I would if I found a picture of myself that someone had drawn hearts on and written stupid things.

The soft plea is what makes me look at him.

Jasper’s steel-gray eyes peer into mine. “Why are you shaking?”

“I didn’t want you to find that.”

“Find what?”

“The stupid picture that I…” I stop talking. He doesn’t need to know that I not only doodled little hearts all over this picture, but I slept with it near my bedside pretty much every night. And that I kept it. For years. Clearly.

“I don’t think it’s stupid,” Jasper murmurs.

I blink at him.

“It’s kind of flattering.”

“Flattering?” I’m so close to him that I can feel the heat radiating off of his chest. I should step back. I really should. I really, really don’t want to.

“It’s not every day that you find out someone took the time to make a picture of you look even better.”

I roll my eyes at that. “I hardly made it better.”

“You did. Because it’s you,” he says softly. His finger is still under my chin. I’m so intensely aware of Jasper right now, it makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

I want him. His lips are so close to mine. He’s taller than me, but if I just hopped up onto my tiptoes, then I could put my lips right on his…

Jasper freezes. I feel his body stiffen, and I step back.

---