Leaning forward over the table, he brushed the hair back from my face and set his palm on my cheek. “I wish I could stop.”
SEVENTEEN
LOGAN
I handedoff my credit card to the server to pay the ridiculously expensive bill for the dinner Aster had barely eaten. The girl hadn’t cast me a glance while she’d picked at her food, while I’d sat there like my guts were getting chewed up and Aster was the one who was going to spit them out.
Thirty days.
Thirty fucking days.
And she had every intention of leaving me.
I wasn’t sure what had come over me. I didn’t plan this dinner with the intention of pulling the stunt that I had.
I’d just wanted the show.
To send a clear message to Jarek that we were not deterred. That we were not afraid.
Then I’d pushed it to a place I shouldn’t have let it go.
The possession that had wound through my being. The urge to hold her that had twitched through my fingers.
I blamed it on that dress.
The all-consuming need I’d had to touch her in front of him. To prove to him that he could never have her again.
Or maybe I’d just been trying to prove it to her.
Maybe prove it to myself.
No doubt, I was playing with fire. I knew it. Risking everything. But I’d known it the moment I’d made that wager.
All in.
So yeah, it’d pissed me off when Aster had reminded me that she wasn’t.
Standing, I moved to her side. “Let’s go.”
Aster stood, and I helped her into her coat. I did my damned best not to lean in and inhale the flesh behind her ear. Not to press my nose into the curls that I was dying to take in my fist.
This girl was going to wreck me.
She’d done it before so I wasn’t quite sure why I’d convinced myself she wouldn’t do it again.
Still, I allowed myself to pull her hair free of the coat, being thegentlemanthat I was, my nose just brushing into the fall.
Hyacinth and magnolia leaves.
I pressed my hand to the sweet spot low on her back and guided her out into the frigid cold night where I stood there with her like she was mine as the valet pulled my car into the rounded drive.
He hopped out, and I tipped him then helped Aster into the passenger seat. The car was low, and she had to slide in, and the slit of her dress opened to reveal the delicious expanse of her upper thigh.
My mouth watered.
She looked up at me like she’d physically felt the smack of lust.
I touched her exposed knee. “Aren’t you the perfect tease.”