“Why’s it like this between us?” she finally whispered, blinking like she’d just been imagining me doing the exact same thing. “Why is it that every time I get in your space, I feel like that’s where I belong? You make me feel like I can spread my wings. Fly even when I’m fallin’. Like I can tell you anything.”
There was nothing I could do, nothing but lean in closer and set my hand on her sweet face.
Felt like I was struck by a bolt of lightning.
A crackle of energy streaking up my arm.
“You will fly, Emily. Right now, you might have had your wings clipped, but I promise, you were meant to soar. You are a fucking star.”
She pressed deeper into my hold, inhaling, eyes dropping closed as she relished in my touch. Slowly, those jade eyes fluttered back open. “How’s it possible that you make me remember wanting to be that? How’s it possible that you make me want at all?”
My heart clutched.
“Your happiness is the only thing that matters, Emily. And that’s not something I can give you.”
There I went, pushing her away when I needed her close. But I didn’t know how to do this. How to fucking take what I needed without destroying another piece of her.
“Are you tryin’ to wreck me a little more, Royce Reilly, because you sayin’ things like that sure don’t make me want you any less.”
Sadness and need pulled through her expression.
A plea.
I wanted to drop to my knees and give her anything she asked for.
“No, Emily, I’m trying to be the man who comes up alongside you and reminds you of how amazing you are.”
“I bet we’d be amazin’ together.”
Shit.
This woman was testing my willpower. A second away from putting it to shame.
Loved that she was brave. That she was asking for what she wanted.
“It would be wrong for me to touch you again. We got caught up that night. That’s all. We can’t do this.”
Every fucking word felt like the cut of a knife.
Rejection moved through her features, and she sat back, peeling herself away, girl fidgeting in unease as she fumbled to standing. “I think I better call it a night.”
Her smile was as forged as the documents I’d found in my stepfather’s office. Though hers was done with grace. Softness. As a way to protect rather than to destroy.
I eased up to standing, towering over her. Like a fool, I dragged my fingertips over her plush lips. “To sleepless nights.”
A shiver rocked her, my actions tossing her in violent waters. Dragged forward before she was sent flailing back. Her lips trembled at one side, and she sidestepped out of the sitting area. The tether that bound us stretched tighter and tighter as she shuffled away.
Every step, she was taking a little bit more of me with her.
Like she couldn’t take the pressure, either, she paused, and turned to look back at me from over her shoulder.
Face soft and hopeful.
Brave and scared.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come up?” she asked.
Visions flashed. Me peeling those scraps of fabric off her body. Exposing all that sweet flesh. My dick pushing into all that tight, wet heat.
I had to get her away from me before I made another terrible, terrible mistake. Before I went for her. Took her. Fucked her fast and touched her slow.
She’d let me.
I knew she would.
But getting lost in her wasn’t an option. It couldn’t happen.
“That’s a bad idea, Emily. I won’t be another of your mistakes.”
As it was, I was going to be nothing but a bad fucking memory.
Her gaze softened, emotion passing between us, something real that I needed to ignore.
She gave an awkward, fumbling nod. “Okay then.”
She turned and slipped back through the double doors.
I watched her move through the hall running the edge of the bar, the girl glancing back once when she made it to the elevators.
Standing there, I watched her go, possession and my greed filling me full.
I refused it.
I waited ten minutes before I finally blew out a strained breath, headed inside, and rode the elevator to the ninth floor where our rooms were. I took a left down one hall then a right down another, knowing I needed to lock myself in my room. To put as many barriers between us as possible.
But it didn’t matter.
I paused outside her door.
So what if I’d made it my business to know her room number each night?
Wavering, I angled my ear, listening inside. Could hear her strumming aimlessly at the chords she’d been trying to play that day on the bus.
God, I was asking for all kinds of trouble, overstepping boundaries I shouldn’t take. Still, I slipped the piece of paper under her door.
Before I did something stupid like knock, I made a beeline for my room. As soon as I stepped into the darkness, I shrugged out of my jacket and tossed it onto a chair. I went straight into the suite’s bathroom and peeled off my clothes.