Page 77 of Sweet Thing

I called out again. She pivoted and made an urgent gesture at the room behind me. “Hush now, the baby!”

Sarcasm noted. “We need to talk.”

“Do we?”

“In your room. Now.”

Those moss-green eyes grew wide, and she backed up as I practically stalked her into her room and closed the door behind me.

“Get it all out, Adeline.”

“You’re the one who said we needed to talk.”

“Yeah, but I have a feeling you have plenty to say. I don’t think you’re used to that, are you? I think you’re the quiet daughter in a rowdy family and you’re used to keeping your feelings under wraps. You don’t have to do that with me.”

She shook her head. “You’re unbelievable.”

“Okay. I’m waiting.”

Hands on hips, she started to pace. “You already made it clear how you feel and then you waltz into that club like-like-like you …ownme! You don’t like MacFarlane, so you came to put a stop to it. But it’s not about me. It’s about him. And now you want me to talk, tell you what’s inmyhead? What’s the point? I tried that and look where it got me.”

“Rejected,” I whispered, feeling every ounce of her pain.

“Yeah. Rejected.” She blew out a breath. “And I know why. Not all the reasons you said—my dad, my age, how complicated things are in your life—butme. I’m not the kind of girl who attracts a guy like you. You could have anyone.”

She thought that? “Jesus, woman, did you not hear me jerking off to the fantasy of you?”

There was that pretty blush again, and instantly I was hard.

“That-that was just recency bias. I was the most recent woman you saw ergo I’m the one who enters your thoughts. It wasn’t personal.”

Give me strength.“It wasn’t personal? I think imagining a woman’s lips wrapped around my leaking cock isprettypersonal.”

Her slender throat bulged on a swallow, and my mouth watered, desperate to apply my lips, my tongue, my everything to that tender spot. I was supposed to be making her feel better, but instead I was making us both feel worse.

Frustrated. Horny. Desperate.

“This crush you said was done, Adeline—well, I can’t stop thinking about it. Wondering if you still think of me like that. And now you’re here all the time, it’s magnified all those thoughts. All those fantasies.”

“What fantasies?” Barely a whisper, but also a plea.

This was the moment to back away. Insist that we’d butted up against the line but that crossing it would be a mistake.

Only I’d already crossed it. In the shower. In the guest room. With that kiss.

Resistance was exhausting. I was wrecked between work, the baby, my dad, and the constant need to be better than him. No affairs, no gambling, no vices.

No fuckups.

The line was at my feet and God help me, I crossed it and stood inches from her.

“Very inappropriate ones.”

Those green eyes flashed.

“Tell me.” No longer a rasp, but stronger, pressing. Aware of the power she had over me.

I curled a hand around her jaw and rubbed a thumb over her pouty lower lip. “This mouth. I want to plunder and make it mine. With my lips, my tongue, my cock. I want to lay you down and explore every inch of you, figure out what’ll make you pant and whimper and scream with pleasure.”

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