Page 38 of Pretty Heartache

“Micah?” Adeline says, standing on the ladder about eight feet from the ground. She’s looking down at us, half turned. Every curve of her body is on full display at that angle, while the picture remains hanging on the wall, untouched.

I cut the man in front of me a sharp glare. “I have it handled over here. I’m sure your help could be more useful elsewhere.”

He sighs, pressing his mouth into a thin line, and his nostrils flare. The fucker knows I caught him in the act and now he’s pissed he can’t finish what he started. Fucker.

Without a word, he stalks away, his cheeks red with embarrassment.

Adeline is still looking down at me.

“Get down from there, Adeline.”

“What?” She gapes, her mouth falling open. “Why?”

“Because,” I clip. I know I’m being short with her, but after catching that asshole practically beating his dick to her in front of her, I’m at a loss for words.

Her eyebrows shoot up. “Because…?”

“Because I said so.”

Her eyes flare with anger before she makes her way down the ladder, her feet landing on each rung with deliberate force.I know I’ve taken it too far the second her Converse land on the dusty, wooden floor.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” She glances at the man who was eye fucking her only seconds before, as if he wanted to devour her, and now I’m the asshole.

With a fiery glare, her cheeks flame red.

I step closer to her, closing the space between us. The men filter out of the shed, carrying varying pieces of furniture.

“That guy was about to touch you,” I tell her in a low voice, my face close to hers as she looks up at me.

“No, he wasn’t. He offered to spot me. He was being nice.”

I inhale a deep breath. My neck tightens, and my veins bulge. I step closer, drawing myself to Adeline like a magnet. My resolve wears thin, practically disappearing. I’ve broken a barrier between us, crossing over into her circle. I expect her to push me away or step to move around me, but she doesn’t. Instead, she takes a step back.

I step forward.

She takes another back until her spine lands against the broken ladder, and her hands wrap around the loose rung, pushing her chest out.

I press my chest into hers, towering over her as she looks up at me with wide eyes. Two glassy, caramel-green flecked eyes stare up at me. I get lost in them, savoring the sensation they give me. My anger dulls to a simmer, and the fury I had is replaced with another kind of heat. The type that wants more than the inch of space between us. Her eyes soften slightly, her anger with me transitioning. Her breath deepens. I’m fully aware of how close we are, how this is the closest we’ve ever been, but I don’t care.

“I watched him, Adeline.” I growl. “That guy was a fucking pervert. He was practically jerking off to you.”

She scoffs, blinking and shaking her head in disbelief, naïve to her beauty. “Come on. Why would he do that when you and all the other guys were in here?”

“You tell me.” I pop an eyebrow, keeping the truth to myself because Adeline is stunning. There’s no denying her beauty, but I can’t help feeling this possessiveness over her. Like she’s mine.

“I’m not a child, Micah.” She breathes out, the redness fading to pink. “Not anymore. You don’t have a right to tell me to get off this ladder just because you demand it.”

“Trust me,” I sneer. “I’m fully aware you aren’t a child, Adeline.”

“Then, stop treating me like one.” But the shift in her voice isn’t a simple command. She’s challenging me. Silently daring me to show her the truth of the thoughts I’ve clearly been thinking.

The jealousy. The desire building inside me.

She clouds my thoughts and my judgments. I shouldn’t be feeling this way about my best friend’s sister. I know she’s a woman, but I can’t give in. Heat pools in my lower belly again. The pressure builds, and I want nothing more than to sink myself into Adeline.

My eyes fall to her mouth, wondering what it would feel like to crash mine against hers. I want to devour it and every inch of her body.

I reach up and wrap my hand around the ladder, gripping onto the wood for support. My mind is going a mile a minute. I’m supposed to protect Adeline, not want her. But fuck, how I want her.

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