Page 76 of The Rogue

He looks into my eyes like he’s not hearing me. “What happened to you?” he asks, already breaking his own promise.

Pools hit my eyes, and I draw back, hitting the wall. “I don’t like confined spaces. Jesus, Cowboy, paranoid much?”

The irony.

He catches my wrist before I can turn away and the touch makes it even harder to resist him. To not press myself into his warm, safe, chest. To not yearn for that husky voice telling me all the ways he’d wreck me if I broke my walls.

“I don't like lies, Tess, but I'll let you lie all you want if it keeps you from walking away right now.”

Like that.

“You could make an ice queen melt with that mouth.”

“Are you an ice queen?”

I laugh with a snort. “Pepper's the ice queen. I'm a bowl of mashed potatoes.”

He doesn’t find the humor as he threads his fingers with mine. “I like potatoes.”

I smirk and he uses the opening to pull me close. “I like you,” he clarifies before sweeping his tongue over my lips, parting them.

I wrap my arms around him, opening, whimpering as our tongues meet again. His body is strong, powerful, gentle and secure; I want it to consume me.

I moan when his hands slide up my short shorts, calloused fingers gripping my flesh. “Levi. God, yes.”

His hips roll forward and I feel how much he wants it too. I'm ready for him to carry me upstairs, shut the door and keep me wrapped up in his arms. I want him to fuck me in ways I’ve denied wanting him to for the last three years.

I—

Feel cold.

Levi tears his lips from mine and pulls back, raking his fingers through his hair.

“Shit.”

I’m breathless and afraid of the inevitable answer this hot, brooding cowboy is going to give me when I ask. “What’s wrong?”

I hold my breath. Waiting for thewe can’t…this is wrong…I shouldn’t have led you on…

He shakes his head, then closes the gap between us again, holding my face like he can’tnottouch me. “I’m sorry,” he grits out. “It’s been a while since…I've done this.”

“Oh.” My eyes stretch. Was Lilly the last woman he’d been with? How long ago was that?

Reading my expression, he sweeps a thumb over my cheek, a grin playing on his lips. “That’s not what I meant, beautiful.”

“Okay...”

“You’re not just…I want to do this right. Cook for you. Maybe a little whiskey, candles.”

I nearly melt into a puddle.

But that’s not my image. That’s not who I am. I’ve melted for a man before and it got me a bullet above my ass.

I grip his shoulders and twist us so that he’s against the wall and press myself into him. “Indie. Look, I’m sold on the whole gentleman thing, okay? I don’t need wining and dining.”

I lift onto my toes to kiss him but he flips me back over. “I’m not selling anything, baby. But I am a gentleman, and you’re getting dinner tomorrow.”

I bite the corner of my lip, and he tugs on it with his teeth. “Quit it.”

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