Page 50 of Tangled Kisses
Dangerous words. Too dangerous. My breath trips as I tilt my face up, every nerve screaming how close he is.
Griffin tips his hat back, the dim light carving out the sharp lines of his face. Seriously, the man is too damn good-looking to be real.
And yet, here he is.
I swipe his beer off the table and take a long pull, praying the cold will calm me down and set me to rights again. “You’ve got a lot of fans.”
He shrugs. “They like the band.”
I snort and take another sip of his beer. “They like you. I saw the way they were eyeballing you.”
He rests one booted leg on the picnic bench as a sexy smirk crosses his face. “How was that?”
“Like you were the juiciest ribeye in the land.”
Griffin chuckles and steals the beer from my hand. “Is that cowboy speak?”
I nod. “My New York version, anyway. But I get why they look.” I motion my hands along the length of him. “You’re stupidly, stunningly good-looking. The kind of looks that make a woman forget what she has to say.”
He places his arm across his leg and fixes me with that blue gaze. “You seem to do okay.”
Not hardly, Griffin.
I cross my arms over my chest and rock back on my heels, desperate to appear cool and collected. “Maybe it’s because I hate all men, remember?”
But Griffin doesn’t find my words amusing. He straightens and hauls me close, his large hands warm around my waist. “I’m going to do my damnedest to plead my case.”
My throat works around the lump forming there. “Why?”
“Because the idea of missing out on you is something I can’t fathom. So if I have to wade through the heartbreaks and insecurities, bandage the wounds, staunch the bleeding for a chance to see you shine—I’m in.”
There is no way this man is real. No way he’s actually saying these words to me.
“But you don’t know me.”
His eyes soften, cutting straight through me. “Reese,youdon’t know you. I think she’s someone we’d both love to meet.”
I just stare, words gone.
“What?” he teases, a faint grin tugging at his mouth. “No self-deprecating comeback?”
A shaky laugh flits past my lips. “No, because now, like all your other female disciples, I’ve totally forgotten what I was going to say.”
I close my hands over my mouth and realize it’s a lost cause.
I’ve fallen for Griffin.
Hard.
“Damn it. Can’t you put a bag over your head or something? You being a wonderfully sweet, nice guy is hard enough to accept. But looking like this on top of it?” I gesture wildly along his frame. “Way too much for my fragile heart to handle. Poor thing doesn’t stand a chance.”
A slow smile curves his mouth as his hands slide up my body, tracing along my sides before framing my face. Warm palms cradle my cheeks, tilting my face toward him. “I’m about to make it worse then.”
“How?”
His gaze drops to my mouth. The air shifts—charged—just before one thumb grazes the edge of my jaw, lingering there. He bends, lowering his face toward me, his breath mingling with mine, warm and steady, giving me every chance to stop him.
I don’t.
