That he felt it, too.
If he gave her the slightest indication he felt what she felt, maybe she’d ignore logic, and give it all up for him. Maybe she’d ignore the warning bells screaming at her to run away, to not get sucked into another relationship with a guy who’d make her stay in the city, and give them a shot—a real shot—at a happy ending. If he wanted her, too, she’d make sure they weren’t another Jessica and Harry, doomed from the start.
They could get their happy ending.
Instead, though, he pressed his mouth into a thin line, avoided her eyes, and stepped back. “Yeah, it does sometimes, doesn’t it?”
As he lowered her to her feet and let go of her, her heart wrenched, and she blinked rapidly and turned her face away so he wouldn’t see how emotionally vulnerable she was right now. Whatever he saw, or didn’t see, in her face wouldn’t lead to anything good.
They walked back to their building in silence, and the second his apartment door closed behind them, he was on her. His mouth moved over hers with a desperation he’d never voiced, and his hands roamed over her as if he wanted to memorize every inch of her body.
His kiss was like a thousand kisses, and a thousand moments of fear, pain, and joy, all put into one. It was mind-blowing. Life changing. Decision altering.
That might be overkill, but that didn’t make it any less true.
He lifted her in his arms and carried her to his room, his mouth never straying from hers. She clung to his shoulders, her head spinning, her world changing, and the only thought that made any lick of sense was… I can’t leave him.
He laid her on the bed, and she let go of him reluctantly as he stood and shrugged out of his clothes. As he stepped out of his pants, she rolled over and grabbed a
condom out of the drawer on his dresser. She knew where they were now. Just like she knew his favorite color was blue, his biggest fear was failure, and he wanted to get a dog who had been through so much shit no one could ever love it…and he was going to give it the life it deserved.
Just like she knew…knew…
She loved…
Craaaaap.
He kissed a path up her thigh, nipping the skin above her knee, and slid his hands under her butt, lifting her up. She wore a loose skirt today, and he flipped it up over her hips, watching him move his hands over her with an intensity that stole the breath right out of her lungs. He looked at her as if she were the only woman on Earth, the only woman he’d ever done this to, the only woman he ever wanted to do this to. For a second, she let herself believe it.
Let herself believe he felt it, too.
That unique specialness they shared.
While she was at it, in this magical, fairy-godmother land of hers, maybe she could also pretend there was a world, an alternate universe, where the two of them got to live happily ever after. Where she didn’t have to give up a job to be with him, and he didn’t have to ask her to. Where they met and nothing stood in the way of them being together. Where they could be happy.
That world? That life?
It was a magical, make-believe place.
Too bad that’s all it was.
His mouth closed over her, where he’d touched her just moments before, and her panties joined his clothes on the floor. As his tongue moved over her, tasting her, teasing her, all of those thoughts about a world where they got to be together faded away, and all that was left was Eric Hamilton, the man she’d gone and fallen for, and the man she was going to have to leave.
“Eric,” she said, her voice hitched and strangled from the pleasure that lifted her higher and higher, threatening to break her in half. When she came, he climbed up her body, settling into the crook of her thighs naturally.
As he slid a condom on, he watched her, his face lit with an emotion she couldn’t name…or one she didn’t dare to try to, anyway. But it was there for her to see.
Whether he wanted her to see it or not.
His eyes closed for a second, and when they opened and met hers, it was like he saw straight down to her soul. “Shelby. I…”
He pressed his mouth together, cutting himself off, and then kissed her as he thrust inside of her with one sure, hard stroke. As he moved inside her, bringing her back up that mountain of pleasure again, she closed her eyes, and all she could see was the way he’d looked at her before he was buried inside her body, one with her. He might not have said the words, and she might be imagining things she had no business imagining, but as he brought her to climax again…
She heard what he was saying, loud and clear.
It changed everything.
Chapter Seventeen