Page 58 of Fall for Me

I pinched my eyes shut, willing myself to regain control of my senses.

He was asking about my injuries from the other day.

“Better than a car crash,” I said. That was awkward. “Guess I’m just unlucky,” I tacked on.

“Maybe I’m bad luck.”

I laughed. “I don’t think so. I was kidding, Seamus. Besides, you saved me, remember?”

He looked at me for so long with those deep brown eyes I felt my insides go loose. I wanted him to touch me. To put his rough, broad hand against the back of my head and—

“I have something for you,” Seamus said, interrupting my dangerous thoughts with that voice that was beginning to undo me as much as my thoughts. “In my office.”

If it wasn’t his eyes, I’d melt with his voice. What was the matter with me?

Then I registered what he said. I frowned. “Something for me?”

“Yes. And… I wanted to talk about the other day.” He ran a hand through his thick, dark hair, his eyes going to the floor. He didn’t like talking about things as much as I did. But he was doing the right thing. The good thing.

What happened was a mistake.

That had to be it. It was the truth, after all. Still, my palms felt damp as I strode into his office. When I passed the couch, my heart began to gallop in my chest. That was where it had happened. The scene of the crime.

I’d circumvent whatever it was he had to say. I’d stop him before he took the blame for something that was my fault. Because that’s what he was going to do, I knew. But it was my fault. I’d been the one who took a simple bandaging of my body as something more. I’d been the one who’d responded to him blowing at the wound as something so much more.

I moved to the middle of the room, where I figured I’d be safe to talk with enough distance between us.

“Seamus—”

“Chelsea—”

We spoke at the same time, and I swallowed. I should have said you first, but I lost my words. God, he was handsome. So completely perfect, with his serious eyes, his thick dark hair, the cut of his jaw… how had I never noticed him in all those years, and now, in the space of a few weeks, he’d consumed every waking moment of my thoughts?

Seamus opened his mouth to speak—his gorgeous, perfect mouth. But his eyes were on me. He knew I was staring at his mouth. Did he know what I was thinking? That I… Shit. That I wanted to kiss him.

Heat rocketed through me. Maybe this was okay. Maybe it wouldn’t be like it was with other guys. Maybe…

“Chelsea I think—”

“I wanted it,” I blurted.

It was his eyes on me. They’d stripped my ability to say anything but the raw truth.

Seamus stiffened. It was the wrong thing to say, but it was the truth, and I couldn’t lie to Seamus. I knew that now.

Seamus clenched his hands, clenching and unclenching, over and over again.

Then he turned around, toward the door.

My heart sank. When he placed his hand on the door, he seemed to hesitate. But instead of bringing his hand down to the handle, he pressed his palm flat on the door.

I held my breath as softly, with excruciating slowness, Seamus closed it. He bowed his head, his hand braced on the door.

“Chelsea. Nothing happened between us.”

He still didn’t turn around.

“Nothing we can’t dial back.” I could hear the tension in his voice. “But I haven’t been able to keep you out of my goddamned head. About all the ways that could have gone between us.”

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