Page 74 of The Sweetest Obsession

I’m dumbfounded that I gave it back, stoking the messy brushfire she started into a proper fucking inferno.

Not that I’m complaining.

I just feel oblivious when she’s been trying to tell me something since we were kids, waving flags in front of my face, but I’m too damned dumb to read the signals. Or maybe I didn’t want to.

Of course, Nelly-girl had to go and open her little mouth aboutthe lady.

Fuck.

I don’t know if I want to hug the kid or ground her until she’s twenty.

I let my gaze drift over the morning light turning Ophelia’s hair into white gold, pouring an amber glaze over her skin.

For a Florida girl, she’s just a hint brown, her summer tan fading fast.

She’s still wearing her t-shirt and jeans, but the oversized shirt has fallen off one shoulder in her sleep, baring smooth, curving flesh.

A pale-blue bra strap begs me to tear it away with my teeth, all so I can kiss the crest of her collarbone.

Her body heat soaks into me everywhere we press together.

I feel like a wild animal sunning itself on a hot day, content and relaxed aside from the need building in my blood.

I don’t understand.

Ophelia should’ve hated me all these years after how we left off.

No, I don’t just mean the shit I said to her then, pushing her away.

It wasn’t just Ethan’s disappearance that forged a rift between us. It was more, somewhere around the time when she stopped beingthe kidand started turning intoagirl.

Maybe when I started seeing her, little hints of a ripening woman.

Suddenly, I was speaking Martian and she was speaking Venusian.

We couldn’t agree on anything.

I start to pry myself free as my stomach growls, thinking about coffee and a cold shower to blunt the hard-on from hell I can’t do shit about.

It’d be nice to surprise her with some breakfast—but the moment I move, she stirs.

Her eyes blink open and she yawns.

For a moment, that glimmering green gaze is lost, drowsy, unfocused—before clarity sharpens her vision.

She goes tense, tilting her head back with her cheek rubbing sweetly against my arm, peering up at me through long, pretty lashes I can’t keep my eyes off of.

“Oh,” she says uncertainly. Sleep gives her voice a husky burr. “Hi.”

“Mornin’,” I answer, arching a brow.

She smiles back sheepishly.

“Um, I meant to wake up before you.”

“And sneak off leaving me none the wiser, huh?”

“Yeah. Kinda the plan,” she admits, shifting to sit up with the blankets wrapped around us both, tumbling down to her waist. With another loud yawn, she rubs at her eye and glances at the clock over the mantel. “Ick. Way too early.”

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