Page 47 of After All

“And I was thinking last night that…” She trailed off, wetting her lips, clearly hesitant.

“You were thinking what last night?”

He liked that she’d been thinking about him. About them. She hadn’t just left his house and gone to work and done her thing. He’d been on her mind. And it had been about more than his pain pills.

She nodded. “That after all you’ve done for me, all the times you’ve been there when I needed you, that it maybe wouldn’t be so bad for me to do things the wayyouneed to do them. Or at least try to.”

Scott cleared his throat. He appreciated the sentiment. Except that it meant not sleeping together, of course. “I don’t know that that’s necessary.”

“It is,” she insisted.

“Why?”

“Because that’seasy. Because I’ve wanted to do that since I first saw you.”

“You wanted to pour syrup on my cock since you first saw me? That’s a very specific urge.”

She shifted her weight and Scott let himself believe it was because hearing the word “cock” turned her on.

“I’ve wanted to do fun, crazy, sexy,stickythings with you since I first saw you,” she said. “That’s easy. And easy is my go-to. Instead of dealing with feelings and doing things the hard way—like getting to know you and opening up and risking that this whole thing could blow up and end terribly—I went easy, trying to get you into bed, mouthing off, getting into trouble so you would show up.”

Scott got to his feet. He’d known that some of her trouble was to see if he’d show up again and again. She’d been testing him, because her dad hadn’t shown up every time, her friends didn’t show up every time. No one did. But he’d been determined to be different.

“Pey—”

“And now, I want to do it the hard way. I want to do this for you, the way you’ve wanted to from the beginning.”

“For the record,” he said, his voice low. “I’ve wanted to do fun, crazy, sexy,stickythings with you since I first saw you too.”

She took a deep breath. “But you didn’t. You wanted more. And that was hard—difficult, right?”

He nodded. “It was. Both.”

She apparently decided not to comment on the hard thing. “So, I want to do that for you now.” Her voice went soft. “Because I know how that made me feel.”

“How did it make you feel?”

She held up a hand, holding him off. “Special. Like I was worth that effort. And I want you to feel that way.”

Scott’s heart slammed against his chest. God, this woman slayed him. She had no idea.

“Well, let me tell you something, Trouble,” he said, low and firm. “You wanting me made me feel pretty fucking amazing too. I don’t want you to think that resisting you all of these months wasn’t the hardest fucking thing I’ve ever done. I want you to know that I want you more than I want my next breath. That theideaof touching you, kissing you, wrapping myself around you, makes me hard as a rock and ready to doanythingto make it happen. That your mouth on mine is my idea of heaven. Yes, I want to eat dinner and breakfast with you, I want to text you when I’m out with my friends, I want to nap on the couch while you work on your computer, I want you to slide into bed next to me even if we go to bed at different times. But I also want to know every inch of your body, every sound you make, every place to touch you to make you completelymine.You can walk around this house in hoodies all you want, but nothing will make menotwant you. You got that?”

She was breathing fast, her fingers digging into her arms where she had them crossed. She lifted her chin, but he could see the emotions swirling in her big blue eyes. Those eyes. He wanted to see it all in those blue depths—happiness, desire, contentment, love.

He wanted to give all of that to her.

“Well, you’re going to have to hold all those thoughts,” she finally said. “Because I have to do this. I need to do this the hard way, to prove that I can. That’s it’s worth it.”

“You don’t have to prove anything to me,” Scott said.

“I have to prove it to me,” she said quietly. “I have to know that I have control over my emotions. I’ve never resisted something that I wanted and that felt good before. And I’ve neverinvestedwork and time and energy in a guy before.”

Scott almost snorted at that. He was sure that was an understatement. Peyton was gorgeous and adventurous and fun and oozed a what-the-hell attitude that was addictive. Even to a guy like Scott, who valued rules and laws. To a bad boy, Peyton would be like crack.

“So you’re going to do the relationship thing andI’mgoing to do the seduction thing?” he asked.

She raised an eyebrow. “You’re not going to honor my wishes and lay off the sexy stuff?”

---