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I puff out an annoyed breath and try to extricate myself from him, but he grips me tighter and holds me closer, unwilling to let me go.

“I appreciate that I shouldn’t be saying this, but it’s bothering me immensely that you’re so fast to dismiss what I said about how beautiful I think you are.”

I draw back and take my hand with me. “I don’t want you to flatter me simply because I’m here and helping you.”

His jaw clenches and his eyes narrow. “That’s not what I’m doing, and it fuckinginfuriatesme that you’d even suggest that. I know it’s my fault you’d think that because when you came out to LA, I let you believe I wasn’t interested. You’re one of Tinsley’sbest friends, and frankly speaking, I’m not a man good girls like you should get involved with. I don’t do relationships. Not ever.”

“You don’t need to validate this to me. I swear. I’m fine.”

He blusters out a frustrated breath. “Darling, that’s not what I’m doing. If I didn’t think you were so gorgeous and incredible, it would be far easier for me to stay away from you, but day by day you’ve lured me in and worn me down. Here. I’ll prove how much I want you.”

On my next heartbeat, he makes a fist in my hair, and his mouth crushes mine in a kiss that steals the breath straight from my lungs. With a heavy exhale, he takes advantage and slides his tongue straight between my lips and against my own. The moment we touch like this, lips to lips, tongues to tongues, and breath to breath, he emits a wild groan, and his grip on my hair tightens as if he’s afraid I’ll attempt to escape.

And I should, right? I mean, I just told Layla nothing was going to happen with us, and I meant it. I fuckingmeantit. I still mean it. But the way his lips move with mine, and his tongue slips and plays, and the way he holds me, and his body grinds ever so subtly, and his hand beneath my breast slips up to cup it as if he can’t help himself short-circuits everything.

And I mean everything.

Where my brain has completely shut off, my body has been turned on. Literally. Because now he’s tilting his head and tucking mine just so while his mouth greedilyconsumesme. It’s not just a kiss. It’s exploration and experimentation. It’s light, sweet pecks and nips in between tongue-fucking me so deep and so good, my head spins and my heart races out of my chest.

“God, I’ve wanted this,” he murmurs against me, sucking my bottom lip between his own before letting it slip out with the scrape of his teeth. “Do you believe me now? Do you feel how much I want you?” His lips drag down my neck, licking and kissing as he goes. “How I’ve wanted you since I first saw you,but fought it relentlessly?” He massages my breast, kneading it before he pulls firmly on my nipple. It makes my hips shoot forward, straight into his hard cock, and we both moan. “Fuck, darling, that’s good.”

My hands clutch his arms, what little is left of my common sense screamingdangerin my ears like the blaring of an alarm. It’s telling me to retreat and do that shit now, but the rest of me is so keyed up, I swear if he stops, I’ll cry. I force his face away from my neck, needing his mouth back on mine.

He smiles against me before flicking my lips with his tongue. “Greedy girl, is that what you want?”

He starts to roll over on top of me when “Dada!” comes yelling through the upstairs, making both of us fly apart. “Dada! Hi. Hi.”

“Buggar!”

Loomis flies out of bed like someone just lit his balls on fire, and I grasp the sheets and blanket and debate hiding beneath them like I’m sixteen and just got caught making out with my boyfriend. Fake boyfriend in this case.

He throws me a backward glance, but there’s no humor in his eyes. No teasing lilt of his lips. His eyes are hard, and his features are lined with regret. And he’s not even bothering to hide it.

17

Ishouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have kissed her. Because that kiss.That fucking kiss!It messed with my head.

I’ve kissed a lot of women. Both on and off screen. Most times I feel nothing. A kiss is simply a means to something more pleasurable. Not with Keegan. That kiss…

I want—no, Ineedmore. The way she tastes and those delicate sounds and the feel of her soft breast in my hand and her legs wrapped around mine and the way she kissed me back. I shouldn’t have kissed her because now I know what I’m missing. I know what’s waiting for me and what that kiss would have turned into.

I could feel the heat sizzling between us.

The sparks of fire that would have ignited.

I shouldn’t have kissed her, but I had to fucking kiss her. I couldn’t stand the thought that she didn’t know how beautiful I think she is. That she didn’t know how much I want her and the lengths I’ve gone tonotwant her. It drove me mad. Past the point of rational, saner thought.

It made me react. And now I’m in trouble.

Sleeping with her in my arms last night was heaven. It felt… right. Right in a way so few things in my life have been. It was like all my scattered pieces were returned to me, and all I was doing was holding her body against mine and breathing in the sweet, clean scent of her. That was it. It wasn’t some wild, life-defining moment, and yet I knew there was nowhere else I was meant to be than right there with her.

I never thought of myself as good for anyone, but what if I am with her? What if I could beforher?

Is that a risk I want to take when everything is in jeopardy?

I don’t know what to do. I only know that I want her, and I shouldn’t because I can’t have her. Keegan Fritz is a princess, and princesses deserve princes. They deserve courtly knights. They deserve love and devotion, and I’m not a man who engages in either.

Last night I knew what going into her room would mean, the temptation I’d be battling, but hearing her screams with the thunder and how powerful the storm was, I knew I had no choice. All I wanted was to take away her fear and make her feel safe. I wasn’t going to do anything. I was simply going to hold her and perhaps breathe in her hair and skin. That was all, dammit, and now look what I’ve done.