Dangerous Rock (Dangerous Noise 3)

And he's looking at me like he wants to devour me.

I try to channel a version of Bella who goes after exactly what she wants, everyone else's wishes be damned.

It doesn't happen.

Joel moves into the kitchen and places his body behind mine. He rests his head on my shoulder as he wraps his arms around me.

He presses his lips to my neck. "You're tense."

"Yeah." Very, very tense.

"Was it that phone call?"

I nod. "How much did you hear?"

"Only the ringing. Your dad?"

"Yeah. He wants to make sure I have a lawyer at our meeting."

"Prudent."

"Yeah." I press my lips together. Tension is already creeping into my shoulders. "Can we not talk about this right now?"

He drags his fingertips over my forearms. I cringe as they drop. He's close.

But I need his comfort right now.

I can't let him know how much I don't want him feeling my scars.

I take a deep breath. With my exhale, I melt into his body.

His voice gets low and flirty. "How about I get your mind off it?"

"How will you manage that?" I try to make my voice just as flirty, but I sound more apprehensive than anything.

He slides his hands to my hips then pulls my ass against his crotch. "That's a surprise."

I very much like the direction this is going. I tease back. "You want to eat now or… after."

He plays coy. "After what, angel?"

"Whatever you're doing to get my mind off things." I press my lips together. If he's playing coy, I'm playing coy. No matter how badly I want the comfort of his body against mine.

"After." He takes my hands, leads me to the couch, and sits me down.

He goes to the TV. I enjoy the view of him crouching over to grab something from the cabinet, but I have no clue what he's doing.

The more I take in the hard lines of his back and shoulders, the less I care.

The TV turns on. The screen flashes with a familiar logo. Joel moves to the couch with two Nintendo-64 controllers.

He hands the purple one to me. "We're playing Golden Eye."

I cock a brow. "We are?"

He takes a seat on the couch then he pats his lap. "Come here so I can show you how to play."

I'm not big on video games, but I like where this is going.