Page 24 of An Indecent Longing

So he took a step inside the room.

Wrong way, asshole.

Except it didn’t feel like the wrong way. His lungs actually felt a little looser, like he could get more oxygen. The weight on his shoulders lightened.

And his fingers twitched with the need to touch her.

He didn’t give in to that urge. Instead, he forced himself to head for the chair by the window. Turning it slightly so he could watch her, he sprawled into it, propping his elbow on the arm and setting his chin in his hands.

She looked so much younger asleep. Not that twenty-seven was old but right now she looked like a teenager. The fact that he knew she wasn’t… Shit, that just made his dick harder.

And hearing Ben say she still wanted him… He felt like she’d wrapped one of those slim hands around his erection and began a tight pump.

Are you seriously going to sit here and watch her sleep?

He shouldn’t because with each passing second it became that much harder to leave.

He wanted to sit on the edge of the bed and weave his fingers through her hair and let the soft strands brush against his skin. Wanted to run his thumb over her lips and feel the rush of her breath.

Yeah, he had it bad.

He’d thought he had this longing for her controlled.

Apparently not.

Didn’t change a damn thing between them, though. He shouldn’t be anywhere near her feeling the way he did. Because it didn’t change the facts.

She worked for a man he despised. A man Ian would gladly shoot down like a rabid dog. The man who’d killed Ian’s father.

And still, here he sat, watching her sleep like a man obsessed.

Had Ben been right? Did she still want him?

He thought back to the first time they’d met at that hospital fund-raiser. They’d talked for hours. She’d told him how she hated fund-raisers but she needed to talk up the board members here for money for the clinic where she volunteered.

He hadn’t known then that she was the granddaughter of one of the board members, that she was a Society Hill socialite with a medical degree.

He’d been as close to a street rat as he could’ve been growing up. Without their grandmother to take care of them, Ian and Ben would’ve ended up in the system or homeless. And Grammy had barely had enough to keep both boys fed and clothed.

As it was, Ian had ended up working on the gray side of the law more often than he could remember. At the time, it hadn’t mattered. It’d only mattered that they’d had money to eat and pay the bills. Then he’d gone into the service and left that life behind.

How the hell did this woman manage to look so fucking innocent when she worked for the head of the Philly Russian crime family?

The sheets rustled as she shifted, curling more tightly into herself, a quiet whimper that hit him somewhere in the center of his chest.

Was she worried about Blank? He knew she cared for him. He’d seen the way she smiled at him, the way she looked at him. Not the way she’d looked at Ian, with heat and fire. No, she looked at Blank with the affection of a sister.

According to Ben, she’d operated on Blank herself. That had to have fucked with her head.

For Christ’s sake, don’t be a prick. Just do it.

His jaw tight, he pushed off the chair to kneel on the bed beside her. When she didn’t wake, he stretched out on his side behind her, wrapped one arm around her waist, and pulled her tight against him.

After several long seconds, where he held his breath waiting for her to realize who’d crawled into bed beside her, he relaxed enough take a deep breath. And another.

With each one, he drew her scent into his lungs. She wasn’t wearing perfume but he detected something lightly floral. Fresh. Enticing.

Because he really wasn’t a decent guy, he shifted until he could press his aching erection against her lower back.

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