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Stace smiled at me.

She’d done all that work to get me comfortable and then just…stopped?

My thoughts were sluggish and confused and I couldn’t make any sense of what had changed.

I gave her my hand and she pulled me to my feet, and then into her arms.

A hug? Nothing made sense right now.

Stace stroked the back of my head.

“God, I love holding you.”

Even through my confusion, I still curved my arms around her because she felt good and smelled good and I didn’t want to let go.

“That’s my girl,” she said, and it was like she had unlocked something inside me. Oh. I liked that. I really liked that. In combination with her holding me and touching my hair? I completely melted.

Stace held me for a long time and I was the one who eventually leaned back.

“This isn’t a casual thing for me, Hunter,” Stace said, stroking through my hair with both hands. “It hasn’t been from the first minute I saw you. I knew you’d be someone to me. I’m all in. But I know you’re not.”

“I don’t do relationships, Stace. Sometimes I do sex, but not very often. And never with people that I’m going to see again. This thing you want from me? I can’t give it to you. I don’t have it to give to you.” If the choice was between love and everything else in my life? I was going to choose everything else. Either Stace and I would end, and I’d be miserable and brokenhearted, or we’d stay together and eventually make each other miserable. Love was easy, in the beginning. But it didn’t last, and when it turned, it was ugly and cruel and bitter. Was it worth it? For a few good years?

No. It wasn’t.

Stace nodded and I expected her to argue with me. “I know you believe that. But I don’t. And I’m going to prove it to you. You see, princess, I’m a little competitive. And proving you wrong? Oh, that’s the ultimate challenge.”

What the fuck?!

She was smiling. She was actually smiling.

“I don’t even know what to say right now.”

Stace kissed my mouth so softly and gently. “That’s okay, baby. It’s all going to be okay.”

One minute I’d been lusting after her back muscles, the next minute we’d been sharing the best kiss of my entire life and the next we were cleaning up Stace’s kitchen. Or rather she was cleaning and I was standing around and trying to figure out what I was even doing anymore.

No one had thrown me off-kilter quite like Katrina “Stace” Stacey.

Chapter Fourteen

Stace

I shouldn’t have let the kiss go so far, but I’d completely lost control when her lips met mine. She tasted divine. As if she was some ethereal creature dropped to earth. She certainly looked like it.

Hunter had been right there with me and I knew if we’d gotten naked, we would have fucked, and it would have been incredible. Probably the best sex of my life. But I couldn’t think about after, when she’d inevitably tell me that she had a good time, but she didn’t want anything further from me. She’d leave and then cut off contact. Or she’d do it slowly, ghosting me over the course of a few days.

Even more than I wanted sex with her (and did I ever), I wanted time with her. If I had to wait for her to get there? I’d damn well wait. I couldn’t take chances with this. With her.

So I’d stopped, as much as that had sucked. I’d stopped and removed my body from her lush curves that were making me lose my mind. She was confused as hell, and I couldn’t blame her. I was confusing myself.

I’d explained my reasoning and I could tell she was annoyed and frustrated with me.

That was fine. As long as she knew that I was serious about her and that I wasn’t giving up.

Awkwardness filled the apartment as we cleaned up from dinner. I was almost ready to eat again, but I’d wait until she left to take down the rest of the leftovers.

Silence filled the room as I waited for her to tell me that she was going home.