Page 39 of Just This Once

Still, I yanked her arm, pulling her into me until she was so close the peppermint on her tongue mingled with my breath.

I held her wild stare for a moment. Then two. “Do you want me to kiss you?”

Emily swallowed hard but didn’t answer my question.

My attention raked over her features, her hazy aqua eyes nearly black with desire. “I told you I was going to make you beg for it.”

Emily sucked in a sharp breath. “Whip . . .”

“Beg, Prim.” My blood was white-hot. My fist gripped the back of her shirt.

“I—” Her eyes fluttered closed.“Please . . .”

Sick satisfaction washed over me with a wolf’s grin as my stomach clenched. “That’s my girl.”

I devoured her, surging in with confidence as I took her mouth. My hands slid up her back, then down over her ass. I pressed her into me as my hips jutted forward. I wanted her tofeelwhat she did to me.

She looped her arms around my neck, inching higher up my body as she rose on her tiptoes. Our tongues clashed, rolling over one another as I tasted her. Mint and chocolate made her irresistible. I couldn’t get enough.

It was wrong and we were in the middle of the driveway. Chief could walk out of the garage at any moment and find me with my tongue down his daughter’s throat, but I didn’t care.

That kiss alone was worth my entire career.

Emily was all-consuming and forbidden at the same time—everything I’d ever craved and couldn’t have rolled into one provocative little package.

My mouth traveled across her jaw, and I sucked on the pulse point at her neck. “Tell me to stop.”

“Whip,” she whispered.

My hand coasted up her back, burying into the hair at the nape of her neck as I pulled her head back. I grazed my nose along the column of her neck, committing her scent to memory.

I held her face in my hands. “Tell me to go to hell. That you don’t feel this. Tell me to stop and I’ll walk away.”

Her breath floated across my cheek as her eyes searched mine. “I can’t.”

I groaned as I planted my mouth on hers, taking whatever she was willing to give and praying I survived it.

I needed that kiss to last. If it was the last one I was ever going to get from her, I would make it worth it. I delved into her mouth, exploring and tasting and devouring her. At any momenther father—myboss—could walk out and catch us. Emily didn’t need a man like me interrupting her life, and I sure as hell didn’t need to get fired for dry humping the chief’s daughter.

My head was spinning.

With one last taste, I gathered my resolve and gripped her shoulders. I peeled us apart, our breaths mingling as we panted. I ached for more. If she couldn’t walk away, then I would have to.

“We can’t do this. It’s not worth it.”

Hurt flashed across her face. Emily’s hackles went up before I could explain I didn’t meanshewasn’t worth it—hell, I’d been seconds away from igniting my entire life for a taste of her. I only meant that we shouldn’t expose our connection in the driveway like a couple of horny teenagers. We needed to be smarter than that.

Her puffy lips taunted me before she pressed them into a flat line. “Fine,” she ground out. “I couldn’t agree more.”

She turned, storming up the porch steps.

“Prim—” Her eyes flashed and I lifted a hand. “Emily. Please. I only meant?—”

Her chin lifted and her features iced over. “I know what you meant, and I agree. Good night.”

Without another word, she entered her parents’ home, letting the screen door slap against the frame.

It’s for the best.

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