Page 9 of Forbidden Intent

Shit.He’s right.

His face gets focused and determination creases his brow.“Let’s hold off on pushing rehab.I’ll meet with him and talk to him about maybe joining NA in the meantime or something.I’ll even go with him.”

“You do too much for us, you know that, right?”

He shakes his head again, brushing off my comment.

Needing to lighten up the mood, I say, “Now, go home to your beautiful wife and make love to her.Sex releases happy hormones like endorphins and shit.That’ll perk you right up.”

He gives me a soft smile and shakes his head.“Do you ever think about anything besides sex?”

He’s teasing—we both know I worry about Kasen too and the hell I’ve gone through with my family—but we both smile, a little more genuine this time around.

“Sometimes,” I say, and suddenly the image of Tamsin with her pink pen nestled between her soft lips pops in my head.

I may think about sex fairly often, but the vision of Tamsin is accompanied by something I’m much less familiar with.

Longing.

The thing about recording is that there are a lot of moving parts.It’s not as simple as laying down the track once.No, that would make it too easy, and anything worth having is never easy.You have to record vocals, then instruments, then vocalsandinstruments.And then there’s the nitpicking because you want every note to hit just right.Creating an album is an art and a damn technical one at that.

It also means there can be a lot of downtime for those not recording, but since you never know how a session will turn out—if everything will hit early or if it’ll take all damn day to get one good take—we’re required to attend every session.Today’s session is an instrument session, but I’m not up yet, which is a good thing because I’m completely distracted by the woman in the corner, nibbling on her pink pen while she tries to keep up with what Decker and Trent are discussing.

She’s wearing her hair in a ponytail today, and it accentuates the slender curve of her neck, and all I can think about are all the places on that neck my lips are aching to touch.She bends down next to her and grabs her wallet out of her purse before standing up, saying something to her dad which he nods at, and then leaving the room.

“I’m gonna hit the bathroom,” I tell Robbie.

“Okay.”He nods, his gaze still focused on what’s happening in the booth.

I step out in the hall and look both ways before heading toward the lounge where they have a fridge and two vending machines—one for snacks and one for drinks.

I round the corner and there she is, her bottom lip trapped between her teeth as her gaze scans the snacks on display in the vending machine.She doesn’t notice me right away, and I take the opportunity to scan her body.Her arms are covered by a teal long-sleeved shirt, and her black skinny jeans hug her ass like they were tailored just for her.I’m disappointed that I can’t see her tattoos, but I’m not mad about the view from where I’m standing.

I clear my throat as I enter, because the last thing I want to do is scare the shit out of her.She glances back at me, and her cheeks flush a rosy pink that makes me think deliciously dirty thoughts about what that color might look like on her ass.

“Hey,” she says.

“How’s it going?”

“Good.”

We’re not off to the greatest start, and I feel like an awkward preteen trying to ask a girl out for the first time.I’m usually a lot smoother than this.

Sliding my hand through my hair, I take a step closer to her, staring at the selection.“So what’s your poison?Sweet or salty?”

She flashes me a smile, and my dick twitches in my pants.Even that small smile of hers is sexy.“Salty,” she says, and my mind goes back to that dirty place.I bite my tongue so I don’t tell her I can give her something salty, because that is the worst way to pick up a woman and even I know that line would deservedly earn me a slap.

“You?”she asks.

“Sweet all the way.”

She looks at me then and our gazes lock.Her smile fades slowly as heat enters her eyes.It’s a look I’m familiar with, but when her eyes widen slightly before her gaze darts away, I realize it’s something she’s not.If I thought I was intrigued by her before, it’s nothing compared to now.Here’s this sexy young woman who carries herself in a way that screams sex, but she dresses mostly conservatively and seems surprised by our chemistry.

“Aren’t we a pair,” she says.She steps forward with her card in hand, and I know my window of opportunity is closing.Despite knowing it’s a bad idea to want her, I still dart forward, my hand over the card reader.

“Wait, let me.”

She watches me carefully.“I can pay for my own snack.”

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