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“Are you okay?”
She darted a look in my direction and shrugged. “Mostly. I guess.”
But her voice, and her expression, suggested otherwise.
“Why am I having a hard time believing that?”
Forty-One
Tina
Why amI having a hard time believing that?
Closing my eyes, I drew in a deep breath while struggling to find the right way to answer James.
Wasthere a right way to answer?
I stood and said, “Cecil’s my ex.” I retrieved my phone from the windowsill, skimmed the text from him, then deleted it. I tossed the phone onto the cushion of the armchair. “We dated for a while. He moved in with me, and things were good. Then I got a promotion, started getting selected for larger jobs with higher-profile clients, and he…didn’t take it well. Our break-up was ugly. Not too long after that, I put in my resignation. Being around him was just too toxic. He showed up a few days ago at my office. He was apologetic and polite, and then he asked if we could go to dinner—just as friends catching up.”
Blood heated my cheeks. Embarrassed, I diverted my eyes from James. “I was stupid enough to believe him.”
“He put his hands on you?”
I met his gaze. “Yes. Turns out that the asshole wasn’t interested in rehashing the good times. It was just an excuse to get back into my bed.”
A weighted silence stretched between us as he closed the distance. With a gentleness that made my heart clench, he traced his fingers down my cheek.
“Did he hurt you?”
“No.” My voice caught on the single word. I cleared my throat, tried again. “No. I’m fine.”
He tilted my chin, eyes studying my face, the curve of my jaw, my cheeks, taking in each feature as if searching for signs of a bruise he might have missed.
“He didn’t hurt me,” I said, catching his wrist and squeezing gently. “He tried. But I stopped him.”
Something in my voice caught his attention, and his gaze returned to mine.
“I spent five years taking karate.” Hitching up a shoulder, I grinned. “An asshole like Cecil is child’s play.”
“Tough girl.” James looked proud, but the fury hadn’t faded.
Rising on my toes, I pressed my lips to his cheek. “Damn straight,” I whispered against his skin. “Don’t ever forget.”
When I would have pulled away, his hands wrapped around my waist, holding me close. I’d already felt the slow, liquid burn of want settle in my belly at his nearness, but feeling him against me changed it into a brilliant, flaming supernova. Leaning into him, I rested my hands on his shoulders and waited for him to kiss me.
But just as he lowed his head, a strange tension fell over him.
“James?”
“I’m not sure if this is what you want or need tonight,” he said haltingly, staring off to the side instead of looking at me. “After what happened earlier…”
I cupped his face in my hands, guiding his gaze back to mine. “I want you. If you want me…”
“If?” He moved, crowding me against the wall in a way that could have made me feel claustrophobic. But it was James, and when he surrounded me like this, all I felt was wanted…needed…protected. Maybe I didn’t need a man’s protection, yet it was strangely arousing, regardless. He slid his hands down my body, grasping my hips, then continuing until he caught the back of my thighs. He lifted me and let my weight come down, settling against the hard ridge of his heavy cock.
“IfI want you, Tina?” He bit my earlobe, tugged, then scraped his teeth along the line of my neck. “I can’t imaginenotwanting you. I want you now. I’ll want you tomorrow. I’ll want you in a year, in a decade. I’ll want you a hundred years from now.”
He rocked against me and I whimpered as sensations splintered through me.