Page 249 of New York Love Stories: Vol. 1

“Thursday night. You said you came back for me. I went back inside the club.”

“Oh,” she replies, seeming surprised. Her hands lower to her sides, and she takes a step back. When I lose sight of her eyes, and her arms cross over her chest, her walls start to return. “I guess shame on me for thinking that something was building between us.”

I step closer and tilt her chin up with two fingers. “It was.” Before she can ask the questions populating her mind, I continue, “I went to say goodbye to the guys and thank Kaz for the tickets. I went back in thinking I would have another drink and that would help get you off my mind.”

“Did it?” Her tone turns harsh, her eyes cold. She jerks her chin away, and asks, “Or did someone?”

“Alcohol can’t keep you off my mind, and no woman has captured it like you have, Tatum.”

“See?” she asks through tight lips with aggravation in her tone. “There you go again, Harrison. Why do you do that?” When her hands reach out to push me away, I grab hold and keep them pressed to my chest. “I don’t want to fall for you again. I did that once, and it didn’t end well for me.”

“You didn’t fall for me. You had a good time one night, but what scares you more, Tatum? That you might fall for me or that you might like it?”

Her hands stay firm against me. “I don’t understand the difference.”

“Then give me a chance to show you. We might be good for each other.”

“We might be bad.”

I smirk. “We were always bad, but I haven’t lost all hope just yet.”

She closes the gap, her shoes between mine. “What makes you so confident?”

“I know a good thing when I see it.”

“And you see the good in me, Decker?”

Our breaths begin to mingle when I angle my head and whisper against the shell of her ear, “So much good.”

“What if . . .?”

“What if?” I whisper, matching her tone.

Tilting back just enough to look me in the eyes, she cups my cheeks again. “What if we had another night together. What would you do?”

“I wouldn’t waste a single second of it.”

“Then don’t.” Her lips crash into mine, and when I take her in my arms, I won’t let this second chance get away.

8

Tatum

Breakingthe rules never felt so good.

Or maybe that’s Harrison’s lips on mine that feel amazing. God, how I missed this. Him. He makes me feel like he’s been craving me more than the air he needs to breathe. “Harrison,” I say, not sure why I’m even saying it but feel it purr through me again.

His hands run down my ribs to my hips and then up to my waist as if checking that I’m real. Pulling back, he looks into my eyes, breathing heavily. “What are we doing?”

“I don’t know.” I run my hands over his jaw, feeling the rough edges of a recent shave. I’m famished for his touch, to feel like nothing else matters and lose myself in the abyss of the bliss he brings my way, even if for just a short time.

He says, “We should?—”

“I don’t want you to stop.”

This time when he kisses me, the backs of my thighs hit the windowsill. When my back reaches the glass, he pulls me forward and takes my hand. “My room on the top floor will be better.” We’re fast out the door.

“I know it well. I’ve been in that bed many times.”

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