“Tobias, please.”
“I know I fucked up, I-I know I’m not someone who deserves you.” He looks away, self-loathing drawing his features tight and making him pace. “But I thought, with you I thought maybe I was ... god, I am just a fucking jackass.”
I don’t mean to, but my body moves one step toward him, and it’s a move he doesn’t miss.
His gaze slices to mine, and I think he’s stopped breathing.
I should move backward, heed the warnings whispering in my head by reclaiming the space between us, but the broken man in front of me drowns out the voices, freezing me in place.
His jaw clenches, his fingers twitching at his sides and slowly, very, very slowly, he inches toward me.
My hands plaster themselves on the door, and I’m not sure I’m breathing.
He starts to say something but is cut off by Bailey’s soft cry from inside.
A burning sense of relief shoots through me and I spin, rushing for her room, but it was a false alarm.
She was searching for her Binky, and she found it, her eyes still closed and her breathing once again soft.
I hang my head in my hands, tears pricking my eyes and slipping from the edges as I try not to make a sound, praying he’s gone when I walk out of the room.
He’s not, and what’s worse.
He’s inside, standing right outside her room, the weight of the world resting on his wide shoulders.
I close Bailey’s door and he steps closer.
I shuffle to the side, desperate for air that isn’t infused with his scent, but he catches me by the arm, holding me back.
“Tobias.”
“Tutor Girl,” he rasps, swallowing as he shuffles closer.
God, he’s such a beautifully broken man.
Misery blanketing his features, and hopefulness lining his eyes, he reaches up to touch my face, wincing as I wince.
Shaking as I shake.
“Don’t make this harder.”
“Don’t deny me when you want me.”
My muscles twist, a tornado whirling in my abdomen as the caution sirens blare in my head. My hand shoots up, latching onto his wrist and I clench my eyes closed.
“Please,” he breathes, the heat of his body nearer. “Baby, please.”
My nostrils flare with a fraught, rocky inhale. “You don’t understand ... I can’t.”
He’ll never allow this ...
“Please,” he begs, his lips skating along mine, they’re so close.
“I can’t.”
He’ll destroy my entire world ...
“I’m losing my mind. I’m fucking fried. I can’t think, eat, sleep.” His hands begin to tremble. “Tell me you don’t feel the same and I’ll walk away, right now.” He shifts closer. “Say the word, baby, and I’m gone. I swear, just ... say it. Tell me you don’t love me back.”
I shake my head, my eyes opening, locking onto his as I crack from the inside out, my words repeated, but this time as a tender confession. “I can’t.”
CHAPTER 30
Tobias
I crash my lips to hers, my hands instantly threading into her hair and yanking her closer, as close as fucking possible.
I’m fucking dying. Suffocating, my lungs are so starved, and only she’s got the air I need.
My body’s fucking shaking, desperate for anything she’s willing to give and if the way she climbs me tells me anything, she’s ready to give a lot.
Take it all, Tutor Girl. It’s already yours.
I’m not sure if I groan or sigh, but fuck me, my airways open, filling with her scent and sending my insides dancing. Every nerve in my body is awake, ready.
Fucking needy.
But only for her.
Cupping her ass, I swing us around, carrying her into the living room and setting her on the edge of the dresser.
Her elbows knock into the TV screen as she frantically tears at my shirt, throwing her arms up so I can rip hers from her body and I do, but before I go for her bra, I cup her face in my hands, pausing us both.
Her wild eyes snap to mine and goddamn if my dick doesn’t swell more, ten times harder.
She’s on fucking fire, a hunger in her gaze I’ve never seen, a need in her touch that’s unmatched.
“I need to make sure you understand this isn’t what I’m after. This isn’t what I want from you.” I stare deep into her eyes, looking beyond the surface, raring for her to read me correctly. “I want you. All of you and everything that comes with you. Good, bad, fucked. I want it. Every bit of it.”
Her lower lip begins to tremble, so I take it between my teeth, gently biting at her.
I got you. Your fears and your troubles.
I got you ...
“I want you, I want inside you, but if I’m only promised one place, this is where I want it to be.” I press my knuckles into her chest, over her heart. “Right fucking here, you understand what I’m saying?”
She chokes on her words, tears building in her eyes, and fear grips me like a vise, twisting at my muscles and creating a knot in my throat.