Page 47 of Resurfaced Passion
He grumbled and crossed arms over his chest, his butt resting on the sink unit.
God save her from a man who wouldn’t take care of himself.
Their tentative stare-off was intense …with both of his eyelids hanging at half-mast, kinda sleepy, the type of look she’d grown to love because it meant he noticed her.
And who wouldn’t want to be noticed by a man like Reaper?
She desired all his secrets and all his answers to questions she’d yet to ask him, but as she moved across the floor and saw him inhale longer than usual, she knew she couldn’t thrash him for being a stubborn man. Not when he was in agony.
Not when she was falling hopelessly in love with him either.
She wondered, unable to draw her gaze away, had she always been in love with this man from day one or had it snuck up on her right this minute? It felt altogether overpowering love.
“Will you stay?” He murmured. “If I take the damn pills, will you stay so I don’t worry?”
The fact that he was admitting he worried for her shouldn’t have felt as good as it did. It was already after midnight, she figured she’d crash on his couch anyway. “Yes, now please, take them so I don’t have to pick you up off the floor when you keel over.”
He gave her a half grin and fetched a pill bottle out of the cabinet above her head. Putting him in smelling and touching distance, with his rock-hard chest almost pressed into her nose.Oh, my.Paige held her breath as he watched her when he threw pills into his mouth and swallowed.
Instead of moving, his beautiful arms caged her in, one either side of her on the front of the refrigerator.
Their bodies a breath apart.
His exhaled air stroked her cheek.
“Better?”
All words vacated the building, her head bobbed up and down.
Against her cheek he said. “You can take my bed.” Was his voice silkier?
“I can…” butterflies attacked her belly and she had to take a second stab at speaking. “I can take the couch, it’s fine. I can sleep anywhere.”
“My bed, Paige.”
Oh, god.Oh, god.
His powerful scrutiny whispered of things still to come and it made Paige’s fine hairs stand on end. Scared? Excited? A lot of both. It was proven when he gave her the most heated look she might ever see in this lifetime and her belly did a series of flops. Scared, oh yeah, but the excitement was forefront, urging her on.
It also made her jump in with both feet without knowing if he’d be there to catch her or watch her fall on her butt.
Another calming, yet very discreet breath, and she schooled her face into a soft smile.
Paige felt like the queen of awkward and unsmooth most of the time but couldn’t help the little whimper drifting out of her lips when he moved, placing his hands on her hip bones and squeezed with his two big hands.
It feltso good.
Tonight, she was Paige Simmons, wildcat.I will be bold, I will beconfident, I will be irresistible. Hear me roar!
Without knowing she was going to do it, she stretched up onto her toes and she cupped her hands behind his neck and started to rub him there, hoping to alleviate his pain. Reaper let go of a giant groan and arched into her further, so she dug the pads of her fingertips in harder. She wasn’t sure who swayed, but she felt the floor move under her.
“Poor boy,” she murmured. “I don’t like you hurting.”
He looked so sleepy, so tired, pain hanging behind his eyes as he let his head hang low so as to look deep in her eyes and all Paige wanted to do was love him, take care of him, give him something he hadn’t had in a long time.
How was this man so freaking hot?
It was Paige who kissed him first, with his mouth there in lunging distance, she pressed her closed lips to his closed lips and held them there.
