Page 19 of Mountain Man's Longing
“Don’t I?” I close the distance between us until I can feel the heat radiating off his body, until his familiar soap scent makes my head spin.
I place my palm flat against his chest, his heart racing under my touch. “Last night, you looked at me like I was everythingyou’d been waiting for. Are you saying the fact Eric Pruett is my biological father changes that?”
“Yes,” he explodes, grasping my hips for just an instant before he jerks away. “Everything changed when I found out who you are.”
“I’m still me.”
He steps back, holding up his hands as if admitting defeat. Maybe, I should give up, too. I take a deep breath, blowing it out long and slow. I’ll walk away and never look back if that’s what he really wants.
I lift my gaze to his and ask quietly, “What was your news, Graham? What were you so eager to tell Eric before you found out who I am?”
He goes perfectly still.
Hope stirs to life within me.
“What was so important that you drove into town to tell your best friend?” I press, not letting him retreat. “What changed between yesterday and today?”
“It was nothing—”
“Bullshit.” The word explodes from me, surprising us both. “You said you had news. Big news. What was it?”
Tell me, dammit. Admit it.
His jaw works as if he’s chewing glass before he finally speaks in a rush of words. “You. It was about you.”
I knew it, but the satisfaction doesn’t taste sweet. It tastes like bitter medicine. “What about me?”
He glances off, out the wide-open doors. “I was going to tell him I’d met someone.” His voice comes out strangled. “That I’d found the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.”
The wind is knocked from my lungs as my knees almost buckle. I grip the workbench and lift my chin. “And finding out I’m his daughter changed that?”
“It changed what I can do about it.” The words sound as if they’re being torn from somewhere deep in his chest. “Your father saved my life. When it hit me what I’d done…” He stops, running both hands through his hair. “Christ, Brenna. I wanted to take you over my knee for not telling me. For letting me touch you when I had no right.”
Heat floods my cheeks and pools low in my belly. The image of being bent over this man’s lap, completely at his mercy, with his calloused palm on my bare ass sends fire racing through my veins.
“And then?” I whisper, my mouth dry.
“I realized it wasn’t your fault. Hell, it wasn’t anyone’s fault. You didn’t know Eric and I are friends any more than I knew that you were his daughter.” His voice turns rough, pained. “But that doesn’t change what happened. Doesn’t change that I betrayed his trust—”
“Graham.” I erase the distance he’s put between us, moving close enough that my breasts brush against him. Close enough I see his pupils dilate. “The thought of you taking me over your knee? That’s the hottest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”
A strangled sound tears from his throat, and his control visibly cracks. His hands fist at his sides.
“You can’t say things like that,” he growls.
“Why not?” I loop a finger into the front pocket of his jeans and press against his rock-hard length. “Because it makes you want me?”
“Because it makes me want to forget everything except how perfect you felt beneath me.” The confession explodes from him through gritted teeth, as if he’s been holding it back by sheer force of will. “Because when you look at me like that, I don’t give a damn about anything except making you mine.”
“Then do it.” I go up on my toes, bringing my mouth inches from his. “Make me yours.”
For one perfect heartbeat, I think he’ll give in. His hands lift toward my face, his breathing ragged, and heat radiates off him in waves.
Instead, he jerks back as if I’ve burned him.
“I can’t.” The words come out harsh, final, as if they’re tearing him apart from the inside. “Not when it means betraying Eric. Not when he trusts me. He’d never approve—”
“How do you know what Eric thinks?” I interrupt. “Did you even ask him what he’d think about us? Did you even give him a chance?”
