Page 60 of Heart of a Rebel

Magnetic energy drawing me in.

I reach for her hand, and we’re so close her exhales are my inhales as she looks up at me. “You want to know what I see when I look at you?”

She draws her lips between her teeth and nods once.

“Mywhole fucking world.” I draw my hand up to her jaw and hold it in my grasp like I’ve wanted to do a million times. “I see the only girl worth looking at. And not just because you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on, but because you have the energy to make a man, as broken as I am, feel alive inside. I see your bravery. I see your fragility. I see your strength and fear. I see power that brings me to my fucking knees and kindness that gravitates people to you. You might feel broken, but you’re the most whole thing I’ve ever known.”

Eloise’s exhale melts her hard posture. Her cheeks warm and she allows the weight of her cheek to rest in my palm. I dare to trace my thumb over her bottom lip, and it takes me back to the beginning, remembering how she feels against my skin. I might as well have not felt anything since.

“You make me want to be selfish.” I step closer, and there’s no space left between us. “Because while I’m supposed to be here for the band, it’s only ever been for you. It didn’t matter whether you wanted me or not, because I would have burned the world to the fucking ground to give it to you.”

Eloise reaches up and cups her hand over my own. “I’ve always wanted you, Adrian.”

Her fingers graze the back of mine. She drags my hand down her jaw, her neck, her collarbone. Until my palm is flat over the center of her chest between her full breasts. Through her thin T-shirt, I feel her heart racing.

“I want to take it back.” She looks at me and I feel her heart beat harder. “I want to go back in time and fix it.”

“It doesn’t work like that, El.” I tip her chin up with my free hand and her grip tightens on the one holding my palm to her chest. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t change the future.”

I probably should have lied right there to save us both from whatever is about to happen. I should have slipped into my role as her manager and told her the past is the past and the future needs to remain business. But I’ve waited to hear these words from her lips for years and holding her now draws the truth out of me whether it’s good for us or not.

Feeling her heart racing beneath my palm, I know where this road leads. There will be no detours like the ones we’ve taken in the past. No stopping. No slowing down. It’s a straight shot to everything I’ve wanted, and I can’t help but be terrified of what that will do to both of us.

Eloise needs me to be here for her right now as her manager. She needs me to protect her from what’s out there trying to get her. To do that, I need a clear head. I can’t be selfish or distracted.

I should resist this pull.

But on her exhale, I already know there’s no use trying. What was lust back then has spent years growing deeper roots. Ready, waiting to rip me open.

I want to keep her safe.

And I wanther.

Even if it breaks everything. Because if there’s a grenade worth not surviving, it’s Eloise Kane.

“What are you thinking?” Eloise asks, and I spot fear in her expression as her dark brown eyes search my face for a clue.

You need to lie.

Lie.

Lie.

There’s no use.

“That I’m tired of being so fucking professional when it comes to you.”

She presses her chest against mine, and there’s only my hand separating us. “Then don’t.”

Two words and Eloise makes me everything I’m not.

Reckless.

Impulsive.

Selfish.

Gripping the front of her T-shirt, I pull her to me and take what I’ve wanted since the day I met her.

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