Page 87 of Between the Lines

He stiffens. My stomach somersaults immediately.Oh, I’ve gone and messed this up before it could even get started, haven’t I?

But maybe that’s for the better. I’ve never been allowed to hold onto something that was wholly my own. Letting go of Nathan seems like something that will only grow tougher as time goes by. Better now than when my grip on him is so visceral that I’ll leave claw marks when they have to tear me away from him.

I swallow, my hands flat on his chest, and peer up at him.

“Isn’t this what you wanted?”

“No,” he says gruffly. “That is not why I invited you over here tonight, or why I did all of those things.”

Shame and guilt wash over me like high tide, and I look away,biting my bottom lip. I’d be high tailing it out of here if it weren’t for the forceful hand beneath my jaw, guiding me back to the steady mossy green behind his glasses.

“Let me rephrase that: Idowant you like that, Claire. More than I care to admit. But I invited you over here tonight so that I could cook you dinner and check in with you. I bought you those things because they bring you comfort. You’ve had your world upended, and I haven’t even gotten to ask you how that’s made you feel. I haven’t seen you in two weeks, and the breathtaking pain of being without you made me realize just howbadI am at following the rules when it comes to you.”

Oh.

Slowly, I close the gap between us again, one hand sliding from his belly up to his chest.

“Okay. Well, me too,” I nod. “Same.”

Fucking smooth, Claire.

He exhales, relief dripping off of him like summer rain, and palms my waist, inching us together again.

“But Nathan.” It comes out as a whine, and damnit, I’m perfectly fine with that as I wind my hand behind his neck and pull his face down to mine. “What if I wantyou,too?”

A short moan catches in his throat.

“Sweet Claire.”

A hand slides up the column of my throat. When his thumb pauses over my pulse and presses down, my lips part. I gasp, and a quiet moan escapes. His fingers tighten on my throatjust slightly, and wait, am Iinto that?

By the way my hips arch? I guess so.

His thumb slides along the edge of my jaw before catching over my bottom lip. He tugs it down, hissing when my body presses against his again, when his erection juts against my stomach.

“You want this, sweetheart?”

I nod, my jaw still slack, my pulse back to racing again beneath the press of his thumb.

“Words, Claire.”

“Sobadly. Yes, Nathan, I want you.”

“Breakingallof my rules for you.”

He nods once, and like that simple phrase has initiated a transformation, the man of resolve switches into one of command.

My back hits the wall of the study.

Or, rather, the bookshelf, just inside the doorway.

I can’t say Ihaven’timagined us having sex in here. I just didn’t think we’d get to this particular fantasy so soon.

His mouth covers mine and it is an instant plunder. His hands in my hair, his tongue devouring, his hips effectively pinning me to the bookshelf. I’ve unlocked the wild side of Nathan Harding and I never want him inside that cell again.

“You have,” he says, then cuts himself off with a full-lipped, wet kiss. “Noidea.” Another kiss, this time ending with a nip at my bottom lip. “How often I think about you.”

I whine because his lips leave mine, but it trails into a moan when he sucks without preamble against my pulse.Oh shit, that sensation. Can you come fromnecking? Because I swear, my throat and my clit are directly connected.

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