Page 166 of Fractured Future

“He loves you.” I shudder a breath.

“And I love him.”

With the final nail in the coffin, I resolve to pull away from Warner. It’s for the best. His arm pins me to his side when I try to shift, preventing me from fleeing.

“But I think I feel something else entirely for his little sister.” His forehead lowers to rest against mine. “And I know for a fact he will not like it.”

Our noses nudge, teasing each other with a light brush that skirts the edge of innocence. My shock is overridden by the sense of urgent need that having him so unbearably close provokes.

It’s foolish.

Dangerous.

Totally insane.

This is Warner. My childhood friend. The man who rescued me. A constant presence in my life since I was a kid, and he was a lonely boy in need of a new family. That’s all we’ve ever been.

Tell that to my racing heart, sending litres of hot, fizzling blood through my nervous system. I’m drunk with the heady feeling of unchartered desire.

“We can’t do this,” he whispers.

“Do what?”

“You know what. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be, Em.”

His breath tickles my lips, causing a slow shiver to roll over my limbs. The weight of countless years of friendship hang in a fragile balance between us.

“I’m not doing anything,” I murmur back, forehead pressing against his.

“You know damn well what you’re doing.”

Warner’s voice is strained, laden with conflict. The same emotion beats its fists against the imprisonment of his baby blues. I want to reach my bare hands into his eyes and rip the indecision clean out.

With the silent promise of his breath licking my skin, Warner’s lips hover millimetres from mine. Every last reason why I shouldn’t indulge what my body is screaming out for vanishes.

Looking up at him beneath my lashes, I skate my tongue over my bottom lip in clear invitation. A single breath and he could take exactly what he wants from me.

“Please stop,” he whispers in a pained tone. “We can’t do this, Em.”

“Why not?”

“You’re already toying with my teammates. I don’t know what your game plan is, but you’re going to tear us all apart in the process.”

My hand trembles when I raise it to his stubble-smattered jaw, stroking the strong, defined length of bone.

“You guys make me feel whole. I want to be whole again. I want the family you’re giving me. I want this and more.”

“You’re asking for too much, love.”

“I know.” I slip my hand into his trimmed salt-and-pepper locks. “But I never once apologised for being greedy before, and I’m certainly not about to start now.”

My mouth hovers over his in a ruthless tease. Warner’s eyelids lower, shielding the orbs that have held so much love and care for me over the years.

The boy I once knew disappears.

A powerful, protective man takes his place.

“You know what?”