Page 30 of Leave Before I Love You
“Oh, come on!” I push, desperate for the connection, desperate for the distraction—desperate for something that’ll make me feelalive.
I graze my fingertips down his bare stomach, and heat coils in my belly at the way his muscles tense under my touch.
“What are you so afraid of, Henry?” I question, locking my gaze firmly with his. “Do you think I’m going to fall in love with you or something?”
Henry
Avery’s words hang in the air like the morning mist of yesterday, begging me to take the bait.
Do you think I’m going to fall in love with you or something?
It’s a pointed question—one I know from years of experience with her personality that she’s crafted with the intention of creating a challenge. She’s daring me to turn down the unobjectionable, but in the process, forgetting all the other things I know.
For one, she’s more than a little tipsy, and for two, I can see the mania in her eyes as a surge of dwindling hope ravages her nervous system unchecked.
She doesn’t know if we’re ever getting out of here, and frankly, neither do I. And while I’m not sure that either of us is falling in love, I know for a fact we’re gettingattached—I mean, I sure as hell am—and the thought of ruining that bond for one stupid night is almost unbearable.
I believe she wants to have sex; I just don’t think she’ll be able to stop herself from regretting it.
“I’m not afraid of you falling in love with me.” I can hardly imagine Avery wants to fall in love with anyone. “But I am worried you’re making a rash decision that you’ll regret later, and I don’t want to be forever associated with something so hugelynegative in your life.”
She huffs, rolling her eyes, but the way she shifts closer and the way her fingers trail along my bare stomach again, slow and teasing, tells me she’s not backing down.
“You’re reading way too much into this,” she argues, her voice silky as she leans in, pressing her body flush against mine.
Her lips hover dangerously close to my neck, and the heat from her bare skin radiates through me like an electrical current.
“I’m not afair maiden of delicate disposition,” she continues, mocking an old-English accent like she’s in a damn Shakespearean play. “I’m a woman. A very sexual woman who just so happens to have avoided cashing in her V-card for entirely too long.”
Fuck. I swear, if anyone else were saying this to me, I’d already be taking off my pants.
But this is Avery.
And Avery is different.
She’s so close now that if I just tilted my chin forward, our lips would be touching. Her eyesdance with something flirtatious, something daring, something unmistakably Avery. They are a stark reminder of how her gaze looked during all of our almost-somethings of the past.
The way she’s looking at me right now is damn near lethal.
And her body?God help me.
Her legs look miles long, smooth and tanned from the island sun, with nothing but a cerulean-blue bikini bottom standing between me and a terrible decision.
“I won’t regret doing this with you,” she says slowly, her voice clear and seemingly lucid, despite the bourbon.
She’s sultry as she leans in farther, hands settling on my shoulders, her cashmere sweater gaping like a balloon away from her chest. The collar is all stretched out, making it impossible to avoid seeing her bare breasts and peaked nipples underneath.
I force my gaze to her face.
Big mistake.
Her lips are parted just enough, her breathing just a littleshallow, and her gaze is locked on mine like she’s challenging me to move first.
“I’d regret doing it with some skeezeball, three-balled hump machine whose sweat smells like gym socks and decomposing skunk.” She shrugs. “But not you. We’re friends. I trust you. You’re safe.”
I’m safe.It’s a high compliment from a tough critic, and for the first time since she started trying to convince me, I’m actually considering if we could…maybe…make this work.
I don’t think it’s my dick talking, but to be fair, a lot of the blood supply normally finding its way to my brain is trapped in his head instead.
