Page 295 of Branded
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does matter, gorgeous. I want—” I cut myself off before I said something stupid and too much (like I want to know every single thing about you). Before I continued pushing. Always pushing her too far. Because, in this, I needed to play it cool, to not send her running.
“What do you want?” she asked, barely audible.
“You.”
Okay then. Apparently, playing it cool was out of the question.
But…she didn’t run.
Her fingers tensed, wrapping around my hand, flexing tight.
But…she still didn’t run. Instead, I watched as the pink grew on her cheeks, the ruby red of her mouth darkened, her lips plumping, her tongue darting out to moisten the lush pillows I wanted to taste again. Somehow, I managed to hold still, though. To wait and see what she would do.
And it just about killed me.
Because her hand slid up the inside of my forearm, my biceps, to my nape, weaving into my hair. Her body arched, and she lifted so that her mouth came close enough to mine that I could feel her breath on my skin.
One long, taut moment.
Her lips were so fucking close.
But then her hand dropped, and she scooted away and I lost all of her—the warmth, the heat, the curves, the sweet scent of her.
“No?” I asked softly, my heart thudding, my hands aching to touch.
A long pause. “No,” she whispered.
My pulse was thundering, but, thankfully, my voice was calm. “Too much?”
Teeth pressing into her bottom lip. “No,” she whispered again.
I needed to shut up, needed to take my win and just go. But I still couldn’t stop the question from rolling off my tongue. “You didn’t like it?”
A small smile, a self-deprecating shake of her head.
“That’s the problem. I like it too much.”
Sixteen
Jules
I should just go inside.
It was late.
I was exhausted—emotionally and physically.
But I couldn’t bring myself to get up, to walk into my apartment.
I couldn’t bring myself to leave him.
Cas’s head tilted to the side. “What do you mean, gorgeous?”
Yeah, well, I’d walked right into that one. I could have avoided this, could have left him, gone to bed. But, as always seemed to happen when I spent time with this man, I couldn’t tear myself away.
Not when his gaze was on me, making me feel like I was the single most important thing in the universe.
