Sweet (Landry Family 6)

She gasps.

I plant my hands on the wall just above her head, caging her in. Her eyes widen even more, but she doesn’t flinch. She doesn’t pull away.

“But do you know what I realized today?” I ask her, my voice gravelly.

“What?” she whispers.

“I realized that it doesn’t matter what I tell myself. You’re already my girl in my head.”

Hearing the words out loud scares the shit out of me. Knowing that my admission might make her panic. It might be too much for her.

But if me telling her the truth, the way I truly feel, is too much for her, then I damn well would be too much for her too. If that’s the case, she should just go now.

“That means you have two choices,” I say, fear creeping up my spine. “The first one is this—if you walk out that door today, you can’t come back because I can’t take it. I’m gonna get arrested, Paige. I can’t take the thought of you being with someone else, especially after I know what your mouth feels like against mine.”

“Or?”

“Or you stay here with me, and we address this situation we’ve found ourselves in.”

The silence extends between us. We just stare at each other, inches apart, and breathe in the same air. My inhale is her exhale. If she breathed too deeply, her chest would hit mine. If I move a muscle, flex my forearm just a bit, it would brush against the side of her head.

But neither of us does that.

Instead, I wait for her to react. And with every second that passes, I think she’s going to leave.

“What did you mean when you said you got it all wrong?” she asks, her voice strong and clear.

That’s my girl.

“I meant that I was wrong. I gave you just enough to hang yourself with,” I say. “I told you no, drew lines in the sand, and then crossed them when it was convenient for me.”

She didn’t expect me to say that. The long breath she releases is proof.

“I did all of that to keep us from getting here because I thought—incorrectly—that getting here was avoidable. That somehow, someway, we could just continue as friends and avoid the chemistry boiling between us.”

“Nate …”

“I’m sorry. And I don’t know what all this means or how it could work, but I’m telling you this—I’m past the point of no return. Either you’re mine or you’re not. And if you’re not, let me rent you a hotel room, and we’ll work separate shifts or something because I’m not strong enough to see you, knowing you’re not … mine. That’s totally a me problem, and I get that.”

I don’t know what goes through her mind or what she actually thinks about what I’ve said. But I know the moment that it happens.

She lifts her chin and raises off the wall. Atoms are the only thing between us now.

My insides pull taut. My heart races. My brain screams at me to kiss her now.

Instead, I keep my gaze glued to hers and wait.

Finally, she ducks under my arm and walks to the table. I hang my head and sigh.

Fuck!

I turn around to see her set her purse on a chair. Then she faces me.

“Now it’s my turn,” she says, the strength in her voice slipping.

“For what?”

“You have two choices.”

“Between …?”

She licks her lips. “Choice one is that we can stand here all night and address this situation.”

“Or?”

A slow, so-fucking-slow grin slips across her kissable lips. My whole body comes alive, pushing, pulling, all-out boiling for this woman.

God, help me.

“Or you can get over here and undress me instead.”

SIXTEEN

PAIGE

Nate’s eyes widen.

I’m playing with fire.

Then as if it took him a second to believe what I said, he smirks. I feel it in every cell of my body.

I hope I don’t get burned.

I drink in the sight of him—all alpha with a slice of vulnerability that makes my knees so weak I nearly melt to the floor—and realize what I’ve done. What this means.

What he’s going to do to me if I let him.

“Come here,” he says, stalking toward me.

As soon as I’m within reach, he wraps one arm around the small of my back and pulls me into him with such force that I gasp.

His mouth covers mine, his free hand palming the back of my head like there’s any chance I’m going to pull away. His fingers lace through my hair, tugging the roots until I turn my head sideways.

He plants kisses across my jaw and down the side of my neck. I moan as the feeling of the barrier between us, the wall we’ve kept up to protect us from this moment, comes tumbling down, and it’s incredible.

I don’t realize he’s picked me up until my legs wrap around his middle. He whirls me around, never breaking contact with his lips, and presses my back against the wall. I’m flushed, drunk with the intensity of this man’s desire.