Page 35 of Hard to Love
“Of course.”
“If I stay, you have to promise to keep them away from me—no pictures, no name in a blog, nothing.”
“Why would I do that…” She must’ve caught the no-bullshit look on his face because she nodded. “Done.” Then she said, “Now, what about you and me?”
“Greer, you’re a girl next door, and I’m…”
“Not a girl?”
“Not the boy next door.”
“Not a boy at all.” She sidled closer again, and the smell of her warm skin pinballed around inside him, setting off every bell, buzzing every cell. Slowly, so damn slowly, she smoothed her hand up his chest until her fingertips rested just below the rounded neckline of his T-shirt. His muscles went rigid.
She flicked open one of his shirt buttons. Didn’t matter because his T-shirt still covered his skin. But right now, what he wanted was for her to undo every button and push his T-shirt up his chest. He wanted it so bad that his skin pulsed with the need.
Instead, Greer slid her fingers higher, stroking the hollow of his throat. She had to feel how hard his heart was thumping. Then, she hooked two fingertips inside the fabric and tugged. Before he could stop her, she pressed a kiss to the exposed skin. When she used his own tongue-swirl trick back on him, he grabbed her hips and backed her againstthe wall.
He grabbed one of her thighs, hitched it up to his hip so he could press his hard-on against her. Jesus, it was like he was one of those magic inflating toys—just add Greer and watch your sea-dick grow to an incredible size. “I’m not a nice guy. I’m not like any of the men you’ve known before. I’ve seen things and done things you can’t even imagine. You don’t want any of this.”
She tilted back her head to show him heavy-lidded eyes and a do-me smile. “I so want every inch of that.”
When he released his grip on her leg and let it fall, her boot made a thud on the floor. “Goddammit, I’m more than just my cock.”
His harsh words cleared some of the sex fog from her blue eyes. She reached up, cupped his cheek in her palm, stroked her thumb over his cheekbone. “If you think I don’t know that, then you’re not paying attention. You’re an incredibly talented artist. A man who does what he says he’ll do even when he’s been backed against a wall and is as pissed as a close-shaved hedgehog. I like you, Alex. Wanting you is just a side benefit.”
His chest warmed like a light had been flipped on inside his heart. How long had it been since someone liked him? Sure, people respected his work, women wanted him, but he wasn’t sure anyone had any affection for him. For the past eight years, he’d rejected all that. And as for the love he’d been given before that time, he sure as hell didn’t deserve it anymore. “Why are you doing all this other shit—the competition, the place to stay?”
“You don’t trust very easily, do you?”
Try not at all. “In my world, people give to get.”
She rose to her toes, rubbing all that curvy body along his. The kiss she pressed to the corner of his lips was solight, so soft. He’d never felt anything so simple, so without expectations. Then she drew back. “I’m sorry about whatever, whoever made you believe the world is a shitty place. But you can trust me.” She took his hand and led him back to the center of the room. “And I’m sorry I assumed you’d be overjoyed about staying out here, so—”
“How about two hundred a week?”
“I’m not asking you to—”
“You either take my money or you can rent the place to someone else.”
“But I don’t want…” She snapped her mouth closed, but Alex heard her unspoken words.
Anyone else.She didn’t want anyone else but him.
If there was one thing in the world he didn’t deserve, it was this woman.
Chapter Ten
He’d said yes to the little apartment. But he hadn’t been sure about it, and he still hadn’t trusted that she didn’t have something else up her sleeve. Greer hated herself this morning because he was right. She’d set up this entire competition because of him and what she wanted from him.
But what she wanted would benefit him too, so maybe Alex wouldn’t be too pissed when he discovered he’d been partially right. That meant she had to get him as excited about the artisan village as she was.
He needed to be invested. The best way to do that was to get his hands dirty in the project. But first, she had to talk with her brother.
She knocked on the door of Cal’s tidy little farmhouse, and he called out, “It’s open!”
When she walked inside the cozy house, she could smell fresh coffee, so she hit the kitchen for a cup before finding Cal sitting at the small dining table with Delaney snugged in his lap.
Greer grinned at the picture of her big brother so happy, so content in this domestic cocoon. “If y’all aren’t careful,” she teased, “we’ll have a posse of Maddox ankle-biters running around before you know it.”
