Page 44 of Off-Limits Daddy
REID
Heat clung to my lips like a brand. The boy had kissed something awake in me I’d worked too damn hard to keep buried.
I should’ve known better than to touch him like that. Should’ve had more sense than to kiss him like I’d been starving.
But hell—Iwasstarving. Have been foryears.
And now, with his lips still parted, pupils blown wide, curls tousled from my fingers, he looked at me like I was gravity. Like he had no intention of stepping away from the pull.
Everything in me screamed to reach for him again. Just once more. Trace the edge of that perfect mouth with my thumb. Haul him against my chest.Claim him. Taste what I’d only let myself want in the quietest hours of the night.
Instead, I forced the words out, my voice rough and cracked like bark beneath a blade.
“This isn’t fair to you,” I said. Again. Softer this time. Useless, but I couldn’t stop myself. Couldn’t uncoil the guilt from around my ribs, the gnawing edge of it whispering I was too old for him. There could be nous. “You deserve more than?—”
“Don’t,” he interjected. His voice was sharp. Sure. So fucking sure. “Don’t you dare give me that noble speech like I’m some kid with a crush on his teacher.”
His eyes pinned me where I stood.
God, this boy.
This man.
This bright, complicated, maddeningly beautifulthingwho’d wormed his way so deep into me I couldn’t tell where he ended and I began. He stood there like he already knew every inch of me, and wanted me anyway.
My chest clenched tight, breath stuttering like I couldn’t get enough air. “Ari...” His name came out like a warning, a plea, a prayer.
He leaned in, slow, deliberate. Every inch closer felt like another thread unraveling.
“I’m not asking for a ring,” he whispered. The words brushed my skin, softer than breath. “Not asking for forever. I’m asking foryou.”
My hands flexed against my thighs, trying to ground myself in the burn of skin on denim. I should’ve known better than to come here. Should’ve stayed on the far side of this fence, the far side of this want. But there he was—disheveled hair, sharp mouth, heart on his damn sleeve, offering himself up like I wouldn’t wreck him by accident just trying to hold him close.
“You don’t know what you’re asking for,” I rasped, pulse thudding hard enough to shake me loose from myself. “I’ve spent years taking what I can get when it’s easy. Hookups. No strings. No mess. You think that’s what you want?”
Ari tilted his head slightly, curls falling across his temple like they always did when he was about to say something that’d push every one of my buttons.
“So what—you’ve been playing it safe with strangers who don’t know the first thing about you, and I’m the risk?”
Christ.
I looked away, jaw clenched tight. The porch rail under my hand bit into my skin, but I didn’t let go.
“This—what’s happening right now—it’s not nothing, Ari. You’ve gotta know that.”
“Yeah?” he said, stepping in closer, the edge in his voice soft but deliberate. “Then stop pretending I’m some kid with a crush and admit you want me.”
“You make it sound simple.”
His grin was anything but.
“Maybe it is. Maybe you’re the one making it complicated.”
My chest pulled tight. I wanted to gather him up, kiss those stubborn lips until neither of us remembered why this was supposed to be a bad idea.
Instead, I held still. “You’re twenty-two and fresh out of college. You’ve got a whole life ahead of you, and I’m not interested in being a detour.”
Ari didn’t blink. “Who said I was lost?”
