Page 103 of Hate You Forever (Hate 1)

My eyes cut from her emerald eyes to her lips, then back up to her eyes. “What about me?”

“What are your demons?”

You can’t handle my demons, baby girl.

“That’s a long story for a different day, baby.” Just as the word falls from my lips, my body tenses. I shouldn’t have called her baby, but it slipped. The little flicker in her eyes at the word made it worth it though.

Nix is going to kill me.

“That’s fair.”

Her fingers grip the curls on the back of my head, pulling me closer to her. I can tell where this is going, and I need to stop it. I don’t fucking want to. I want to wrap her around me and drown in every inch of her. But I can’t. She’s been through the wringer today, and is probably not in a good place right now.

If she ever wanted something with me, I’d want it to be when she’s ready, not when she’s trying to drown out the pain of her past. What am I even thinking? I won’t ever get to have this beautiful woman if I want to keep my job, not to mention my life.

“We should get going,” I say, standing and gently setting her on the ground. Her eyebrows raise in confusion. She thinks I don’t want to kiss her, but it’s far from the truth. If I let her kiss me, there won’t be any stopping what happens after that.

“Okay,” she whispers, dropping her head.

I should tell her it’s not a rejection, but I just can’t. I can’t give whatever this is any hope, because it will end badly for both of us.

We head out to the car, and I open the door for her to get in. She turns to face me. “I appreciate you listening to me. Thank you. But if you tell Marnix, it’ll be the last time I trust you.” Raising up on her tiptoes, she plants a kiss on my cheek. The warmth of her lips sets my skin on fire and sends a jolt right to my cock.

Her eyes tell me she’s dead serious. I’m stuck between telling Nix to keep her safe, and keeping her secret so I don’t lose her trust. Fuck me.

I don’t know what the hell to do.

I nod, even though I don’t know if I really can keep what happened today from Nix. He’s my boss, and as much as he’s an asshole to Tara, he fucking cares about her. I can see it. That doesn’t mean I need to tell him everything she told me, but he probably should be aware of the danger.

I’m torn.

She turns, and I help her slide into the passenger seat, my hand lingering a little too long on her lower back. I practically have to pry myself away from the little sliver of skin my pinky is touching. I shut her door, growling at myself while I round the car to get in.

My phone rings as soon as the engine turns over, and I hit the answer button on the steering wheel. “Boss.”

“We just got home. You close to finishing up there?” Nix’s authoritative voice sounds through the speakers.

“Yeah, we’re about to leave. We’re in the car—you’re on bluetooth,” I warn him, so he doesn't say anything he wouldn’t want Tara to hear. She scoffs beside me, obviously knowing why I said that.

Nix huffs, like he’s not excited to see her. I was watching the cameras last night when Tara stormed in and headed straight to Reilly’s. And I saw the chaos that erupted this morning. I definitely know why he doesn’t want to see her. There’s no telling how long he’s going to be pissy about this.

“Just get her home safe,” Nix growls.

I glance over at Tara, noticing the scowl on her face. “We’ll be there in fifteen.” He hangs up, before she can make a snide remark.

“Why is he fucking like that?” she groans, throwing her head back against the seat.

Because that’s the only way he knows how to process his feelings.

“Don’t know,” I reply.

I can’t wait to get home and hole myself up in the security room, so I can take time to process what she told me. I want to be as far away as possible from both Tara and Nix when they erupt. And maybe if I’m busy enough, I won’t think about Tara’s ex and how badly I want to beat the shit out of him, or how she wants me to keep it from Nix. Maybe I won’t think about how close we were to kissing in her office, or the fact that I want to be around her constantly, finding out everything there is to know about her.

Maybe I’ll be able to forget how badly I want to kiss my boss’s wife.

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