Page 14 of Wild and Bright

“You’re right. I shouldn’t have said that.” He exhales heavily. “I know it’s none of my business. Somehow I can never seem to help myself when it comes to you.”

His vulnerability touches me somewhere deep inside. “You have to be nice to her. If I’m going to do this, I mean.”

His eyes harden. “How could you even think that I wouldn’t be?”

“I don’t know you at all anymore. You’ve made sure of that.”

The hardness in his eyes fades, and as we stare at each other, the entirety of the last five years stretches between us. All of those wasted hours when we were in the same room and hardly looked at each other. Is he thinking about how it could have been different? Is he, like me, living again in that heavenly moment in his car when I straddled his lap and wondering what might have happened if we’d both behaved differently afterward?

“Come over tomorrow,” I say. “I’ll have your answer.”

My words seem to catch him by surprise. He blinks once. “What time?”

“We usually open presents first thing and then have breakfast around eleven.”

He frowns. “I don’t want your entire extended family around when we’re planning on moving you into my house.”

I lift a brow. “You sound pretty confident you’re going to get a yes.”

He looks like he wants to roll his eyes. “Just give me a time.”

“Come over here around one.”

He nods once and takes a step back as if to leave, but then he hesitates. His eyes grow hooded as they drift down my barely covered body.

“Can I kiss you?” he asks, his voice breathy.

Another jolt of heat shoots into my belly. I almost forgot he thinks he’s going to be paying me for sex. God, he’s going to kill Hunter when he finds out. I would laugh if I weren’t so overwhelmed by that hungry look in his eyes. With an effort at nonchalance, I shrug one shoulder. “Sure, I don’t see why not. We could think of it as a Costco free sample. You’ll be spending a lot of money on me if I say yes. You should get to try a bite first so you can find out if you really want to buy the whole eighty-four pack of frozen tamales. Although I guess you’ve already had a whole tamale…”

I trail off when his eyes fill with laughter. Oh God, if I’m going to do this, I’ll have to shield myself from that affectionate gaze.

I’m in danger if I don’t.

When he takes a step in my direction, a pleasant shiver runs down my spine. He stares down at my mouth, and he’s so close now that I can feel his breath on my forehead. My lips part slightly as I tilt my chin upward. He lowers his head, and my eyelids grow heavy in anticipation. But then he steps back, snapping me out of my daze.

“No, I think I’ll wait. I’ll kiss you tomorrow after you say yes.”

And with that, he turns around and walks in the direction of the Hayes house.

Camden

My dick strains in my jeans as I walk away from her.

God, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think she wore that bikini just to tempt me. And why didn’t I take what I wanted? Why did I let my frustration with her get the better of me?

It’s not like she isn’t going to say yes ultimately. What she did back there was a power move. Lauren loves thwarting my expectations. She should realize now that I expect her to thwart my expectations.

Except I wasn’t this time.

I thought she was going to say yes, and now I won’t be able to rest until I have this whole thing locked down.

I need this. A six-month exorcism of Lauren Henderson.

Ignoring her for the last five years has been a mistake. Deprivation has had a reverse effect. The deep recesses of our consciousness are a fertile soil, and repressed desires sprout and take root when we aren’t looking. Five years ago, this whole thing was a childish crush. And today I asked her to move in with me.

God, what have I done?

I take a deep, steadying breath. I can do this.

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