Page 17 of Three More Shots
I’m the one who’s grateful now when she slides in next to me on the couch. I want to bend her over the back and fuck her, but I’m at least smart enough to know how well that will be taken. Instead, I thread her fingers through mine and relish our entwined hands resting on my thigh. Together yet innocent. At least for a little while longer.
“You’re as tough as you seem, seeing what you saw tonight and not making a run for it.”
Not like I haven’t seen or done way worse with guns and knives and fists to stuff and people, but that confession wouldn’t be bright to share with her either. “I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you. I’m not letting you go just because Ainsley beat the shit out of some cheap toy.”
“Whatwillmake you let me go?”
Now it’s on. Doubt, her bastard ex put in her head, needs to be eliminated. Fuck gentle and slow. I tug her onto my lap so she’s straddling me. She’s surprised but not resistant with her huge eyes and tight grip on my shirt. There’s something sexy about her red fingernails tangled in the white fabric. My dick hardens under her sweet ass. “Nothing, Corinne.Nothingwill ever make me let you go.”
A smile and a hug. Another thing tonight that I can’t remember having in a really long time. I welcome her arms, coiling around my neck in a tight grip, and rub my hands down her slender back.
“It’s already better because of you, and I don’t mean because of you buying us groceries. I like you being here.”
Referencing our earlier conversation, I nod against her shoulder, turning my face into her neck, that smells like heaven. I want to lick and bite and suck, yet I do none of those things. Her emotion from my presence is all I think she can handle right now, so I just hold her the way she wants to be held. “Same here.”
More than she knows.
“Ainsley does too. I’ve never seen her warm up to someone so fast. You’re good with her.”
A lie, but I don’t argue the point because I know she means well.
“I guess I better get some sleep and let you work since we’ve taken up your evening.”
I don’t want to let her go since this is the best evening I’ve spent in a long time. But my cock’s too hungry and my conscience’s too weak to hold back for much longer. I let her slide off without grabbing for her.
She does that shy blush and self-hug thing that makes me love her even more. “I really hate for you to have to sleep on the sofa. You could share my bed…with me…if…”
So much willpower required to deny myself. “No, that’s much too dangerous.”
Her gaze jerks straight to the door. “From Tank?”
I have to chuckle at her naiveté. “No, from me. Lying next to you in bed is more than I can handle and remain a gentleman.”
“Oh...okay.”
Just a whisper before she scurries to the narrow hallway and pulls out a fluffy white blanket from the closet for me. Regardless of how much I hate waiting, I watch with deserved disappointment as she closes her bedroom door, shutting out me and the temptation.
* * *
Corinne’s breathtakingface fills my office doorway for the second morning in a row, and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier. Especially since she was sleeping so hard when I left to go kill Tank, that I don’t know if she felt me kiss her forehead or heard me tell her good-bye. Now she’s here, and I can talk to her about us living together again.
Instead of returning my smile, she takes a deep breath, clutching an envelope against her chest with a shaking hand. She strides purposefully to my desk, attempting to convey a confidence I know she wrestles with. Fuck me, if she’s not sexy as fuck trying to be tough. “Good morning,cara.”
“Good morning.”
With quick, nervous movements, she lays down the thin white envelope with my name written in a dainty, feminine script across the top before jerking her hand back to ensure she doesn’t touch me or my stuff.
“It will take me a while, but I swear I'll pay you back for the groceries. Ainsley really liked the bacon this morning. We haven’t had that in a long time, so thank you very much.”
As soon as she finishes her little speech, she twists away and races for the door, anxious to escape from me. “Stop.”
A shudder rolls through her from my dominant voice. She obeys, holding in place but not turning around and hiding from me once again. I let her wait to get myself under control. Otherwise, I’d shove her up against the door and fuck her until she collapses from her punishment of attempting to brush me off.
I slowly tear open the flap, letting her suffer in silence while I slip out the three dollars tucked inside. So little, I wouldn’t even bother to bend over to pick them up if I dropped the bills, while to her I know this is a hardship. My courageous and defiant girl.
Returning the money to her would be perceived as an insult, and I don’t want her mad. I just want her. I stride to her and wrap my arms around her torso, tucking my head into her neck, breathing in her scent like heroin. “What the fuck is this? Are you trying to get rid of me?”
“When I woke up this morning, you were gone. I figured you saw the reality of my world and changed your mind. I’m trying to let you off the hook.”
