Page 39 of Between Now and Forever
Clearly, the problem is me.Doesn’t she see that?
“Gabrielle, I’m sorry,” I say, looking her in the eye. “I was going to kiss you but thought better of it at the last second.”
She flinches but recovers quickly.
Fuck.“Look, kissing you would’ve been giving in to the moment. Did I want to kiss you? Of course. You’re gorgeous.”
You’re the first woman that’s made my heart race in a long time. That’s why you’re so dangerous.
Her cheeks flush a rosy shade of pink.
“But it would’ve been wrong of me to do that because it wouldn’t have gone anywhere,” I say. “I was trying not to lead you on.”
“What’s so terrible about me that it can’t go anywhere? Hypothetically, of course.”
“Not a damn thing.”
We face one another, both of us refusing to give in. I’m not looking away first. I want her to see I’m telling her the truth.
I want her to know it’s not her who’s the problem.
Finally, her shoulders slump. “Whatever. Give me my sledgehammer back.”
“If you want to take the spindles out, all you need is a hammer.” I point at one of them. “But look at how they’re attached. They’re nailed on the outside. So if you go whacking it from this side, you’re not going to pop it out. Not easily, anyway.”
“Oh.” She leans forward to investigate. “So I need to be on the porch and hitting it out toward where we are now.”
“It would be much easier and much cleaner.”
She huffs. “Fine. Good point. Thanks.”
“Get yourself a hammer, Miss Fix-It.” I swing the sledgehammer as I walk away. “I’m going to show your kid how to use a drill.”
“I can show him.”
I look at her over my shoulder. “This is painful to watch. Don’t make me suffer longer than necessary.”
She holds my gaze for a few seconds. As each second ticks by, the look on her face shifts from annoyance to a playful arrogance that has my cock hard as hell.
“If you want to stick around, do it,” she says, smirking. She glances down my body to the bulge in my pants and then lifts her eyes back to mine. “I’m going to make you suffer as long as I can.”
I narrow my gaze.Walk home.Turn around and get the hell out of here before you fuck everything up. Now, Jay.
But even as I think it, I find myself at the back deck with Dylan.
“What are you doing here?” he asks, getting to his feet once I’m around the side of the house. The drill hangs at his side.
I wish I knew.“Need some help?”
“No.”
I lean the sledgehammer against the deck. “All right. No worries.”
He clenches his jaw and doesn’t speak.
“Look, man, I’m not your enemy,” I say.
“I’ll be the judge of that.”
