Page 69 of Guarding Bristol

Chapter Twenty-Four

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Heart thudding, Bristollowered her arms as TJ stepped in behind her, the sheer size of him dwarfing her and making the shower suddenly seem cramped.Her pulse raced out of control at the intense look on his face, the unmistakable heat in his dark eyes.He looked so different clean-shaven, all the planes and angles of his face revealed.

God, he was gorgeous.

He wrapped a steely arm around her stomach and drew her back against his equally hard body, his mouth dropping to kiss the spot where her neck and shoulder met.“You left.”

Yes.Sometime in the middle of the night she’d woken up, realized she was already falling too fast and hard for him, and decided to make her escape.She had planned to walk out of the bedroom and pretend last night had been a casual, one-time thing.No big deal, just a momentary lapse in judgment caused by all the fear and stress of last night.

It would all have been a lie.And she was pretty sure TJ knew that.

“I have to go,” he said, interrupting her thoughts.

“Go?”The way he said it sounded so final.She pushed down the spurt of panic.“Where?”

“I need to meet in person with another CI.”

“What about me?”

“You’ll stay here.CPS will move you to a new location.”

She turned around to face him, ready to ask what would happen after that.But she already knew.The guarded look in his eyes told her everything she needed to know.

She’d been right to leave the couch, because it was clear where she stood with him.

“Okay.”She was proud of how steady her voice was, how nonchalantly she said it.With no hint of the disappointment and devastation filling her.

Oh, but he didn’t like her answer.

He frowned, wrapped his other arm around her and drew her close.“It’s not okay.It’s not even remotely okay,” he ground out, frustration pouring off him.“I told myself to just walk away.Told myself not to touch you again, but I can’t do that.Not after last night.And there’s no way you don’t feel this too.”

She stared up at him, hope forming a burning knot in the middle of her heart.“What makes you so sure?”

“Because I know you.I know what kind of person you are, and there’s zero chance you would’ve let me in that far if you don’t have feelings for me.”

He was eerily on point about that.All of it.It shook her.

He slid one hand into the back of her hair, squeezing the wet strands gently.“If you don’t feel anything for me, then tell me to walk away right now.Say it.”His eyes burned like fire, challenging her to deny it.

She couldn’t.And he knew it as well as she did.

He growled low in his throat and captured her lips in a searing kiss that made her head spin.A heartbeat later she was pressed flush against the cool, wet wall, pinned in place by more than two-hundred pounds of hard, hungry man.

Bristol wrapped around him, clung tight to his slick shoulders while his tongue stroked hers.He tasted of desperation.Radiated it from every pore as he held her there, imprinting her with his scent and the feel of his body.

He slid his hands down to cup her breasts, eyes darkening as they fixed on the tight points of her nipples.His mouth closed around one, sucking gently, the flick of his tongue bringing her up on her toes, a gasp slipping free.He stayed there for another few moments before treating the other to the same attention, each luxurious pull of his talented mouth intensifying the need inside her.

His hands moved to her waist.Slid down to grip her hips and squeeze while he sank to his knees in front of her.

Bristol steadied herself on his shoulders, struggling to catch her breath, and thankful she was nearsighted so she could see every glorious detail of him even without her glasses.The sight of him like that, on his knees before her with his water-drenched hair slicked back from his face, the muscles in his arms, shoulders and chest standing out in sharp relief...

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