Forbidden Fling (Wildwood 1)

“Of course it had to do with me.” Her voice rose with incredulity. “What’s wrong with you? Why don’t you hate me like the rest of your family? You certainly have plenty of reason.”

“Where is this coming from?”

“What difference does that make?” she yelled back.

He rubbed his face with both hands. “Jesus Christ.”

“I didn’t come here to fight.” Her expression slid back into torment. “I came because . . .” She gestured absently. “Shit, you’re right. Forget it.” She turned for the door. “Forget everything. Forget—”

He caught her arm as she passed, forcing his hand gentle when he was frustrated enough to yank her into his arms.

“Don’t go.” He hated this ache. Hated this need. Hated this sense of desperation. Hated this ugly shadow between them. “I’m sorry.”

Emotions broke across her face—pain, anger, and so much guilt. He knew that feeling well. “You have nothing to be sorry about. I’m the one they were fighting over. It was my boyfriend who pushed Ian too hard. And now it’s my fault that all your dreams—God, you were so right. Ian’s death caused so much more hurt to so many more people than I knew. Than I ever imagined—”

“Stop.” He swore he held a boulder in his gut. A boulder that had to come out. “It’s more my fault than yours.” Her eyes glistened with a telltale shine. He couldn’t stand her beating herself up over this anymore. And he still hadn’t gotten over his self-hatred for not being there to stop the whole thing. “I knew they’d hit on you. That’s why I refused to go.”

Her lips parted, but nothing came out.

“I’d been watching you from a distance. I couldn’t get up the nerve to talk to you, because I knew you only went for certain guys, guys that didn’t go to our school, guys that didn’t live in town, guys who were always in trouble. Rough guys. Older guys. Everyone knew.

“It became a challenge among the popular guys and the jocks—the guys who got any girl they wanted—to get you into bed. When that didn’t happen, they brought the challenge down to getting a date. Getting a kiss. Copping a feel. When you kept brushing them off, it turned into a game of how long they could engage you in conversation. Ten seconds, five seconds, two?”

Her brow furrowed, her gaze searching his, yet distant, as if scanning the past as well.

“I wasn’t popular, I wasn’t a jock, and I sure as hell wasn’t your type, so I just sat on the sidelines and took it all in. I saw you differently than they did. I think it’s because I was so, I don’t know, infatuated I guess, that I actually watched you while they were caught up in themselves. And I discovered how much you can learn about a person’s true nature from the things they do when they think no one is watching.

“So when Ian and the others started mouthing off about being the ones to finally ‘win’ at this stupid game with you that night, I dug in my heels. I’d been away at school. I’d started dating some different women. I didn’t want to backslide by seeing you, and I wasn’t going to just sit there while they harassed you. And if I’m being totally honest, I couldn’t face the thought of you saying yes to one of them. I know it’s immature, insecure, stupid, whatever. I was twenty-two years old, and tired of all Ian, Adam, and Austin’s bullshit. So I told them we were done for the night. And when I wouldn’t go to The Bad Seed, they went without me.”

Ethan braced for her reaction, clueless how she might respond. In that moment he experienced a profound sense of guilt and humility. He was human. He’d made a mistake. It had contributed to the loss of a family member, changed his entire life, and changed him as a person.

But in the years since Ian’s death, he’d also come to understand he wasn’t solely responsible. And he’d come to resent those who continued to make him feel as if he were.

“Oh my God,” Delaney whispered and tented her hands over her nose and mouth. She closed her eyes, and tears trickled over her lashes.

Ethan’s heart snapped. He stepped in and closed his arms around her. When she didn’t push away, he held her tighter and buried his face in her hair.

The flowery scent mixed with dust and sweat and turned him on in the most unique and powerful way. A way that made him ravenous. Her breath warmed his skin through his shirt, and her body felt delicious against his. But this whole situation also created an unease somewhere inside him. He couldn’t remember the last woman he’d ever wanted to see after they’d parted ways in the morning.

Her arms snaked around his waist, surprising him and fitting all her curves against all his planes. She fisted her hands in his shirt and pressed her face to his chest. “I’m so sorry.”

Sweet Jesus, something shifted inside him.

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block the emotions. Trying to focus on the reason she was here, on easing her distress. Not the way she felt in his arms. Not the way her lower belly rubbed his cock. But all he could do was clasp her face between his hands and tilt it up so he could kiss her.

She kissed him back without hesitation, which pushed the simmer in his body toward a full rolling boil. And, of course, one kiss wasn’t enough. So he took another. And another. And another. Until her mouth licked and sucked and ate at his with the same fierce hunger. Until her arms were wrapped around his neck, her body stretched against his, her fingers threaded into his hair.

The passion between them flared so fast and so hot it dragged him under until Ethan couldn’t breathe for wanting her so badly.

He slid his hands down her body and pushed her tank up her back. The second skin touched skin, Ethan groaned into her mouth, and his mind darted toward any place in the warehouse he could lay her down, pull off some clothes, and ease this ache. As usual, the place was a mess, every workbench cluttered, supplies stacked on the single sofa.

But Delaney broke the kiss so suddenly, she left Ethan’s head spinning. She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth and closed her eyes. “I’m sorry. This isn’t why I came.”

“Don’t ever apologize for kissing me.” He kept a hand at the small of her back, holding her hips against his where his cock felt like a burning steel rod. “Or touching me. Or wanting me. You’re all I’ve been able to think about all week. Going over to see you when I’m here after work is all I want to do.”

She heaved a sigh, dropped her hand, and lifted her gaze to his. The want reflected there pulled at him like a magnet, and even though everything in his mind was screaming, Don’t go there, everything in his body and soul was telling him, She’

s your only path to sanity.