Page 56 of Hideaway Heart

“Just me.” She reached over the line of pillows and poked me in the ribs.

I grabbed her wrist. “Excuse me, ma’am, you’ve breached security one too many times today.”

“I’m sorry! It was an accident!”

“I don’t believe you.” I kept my fingers locked around her arm, feeling the vestiges of my self-control crumble. “I think you keep trying to tempt me on purpose after you promised you wouldn’t.”

She giggled. “I swear I’m not. Please don’t be mad.”

“I’m not mad. But I can’t let you off the hook without some consequence.”

“Name it. I’ll do anything.”

“There you go again. Tempting me to do things I shouldn’t. I wonder if country music knows its sweetheart is so evil beneath the sequins.”

“They don’t know anything about me,” she said seriously. “What they get is an act.”

“But they love it.” I rubbed my thumb along her inner wrist, my body starting to hum. “And you’re good at it.”

“I’ve had a lot of practice. No one wants the real me.”

“I wouldn’t say that.”

“Maybe one person does. But he’s giving me some trouble.”

“What a dick. Want me to fuck him up?”

“Yeah. Just enough to send a message.”

“What’s the message?” I brought her arm to my mouth and pressed my lips where my thumb had been. Her inner wrist felt like satin.

“That he doesn’t have to be afraid of me.”

“Maybe you should be afraid of him.” Tugging her closer, I kissed my way up her arm.

“Well, I’m not. I trust him.”

“Why do you trust him? What did he do to earn it?” My lips reached the curve of her elbow.

“I don’t know,” she said softly. “I just feel safe with him.”

Those words should have reminded me of my role as her protector, what my duty was, why I shouldn’t touch her. But they had the opposite effect—they pushed me over the edge.

Hitching myself up on my elbow, I flipped her onto her back, the wall of pillows trapped between us. I looked down at her face, pale and hazy in the dark. I felt her breath on my lips. “You are safe with me.”

“Xander,” she whispered, curling her free hand around my jaw and sliding it to the back of my neck. “Please let me be close to you. Even if it’s only for tonight.”

She pulled my head down and I sealed my mouth to hers. Her fingers snaked into my hair as my tongue eased between her lips. As the kiss deepened, I grew frustrated with the sheet twisted between us, not to mention the barrier wall. Scrambling to my knees, I whipped the sheet back and threw every one of those pillows to the floor.

“No more wall?” she asked breathlessly.

“Fuck the wall.” Eagerly, I ranged my body over hers again, but she stopped me with a hand to the chest.

“Take your shirt off.”

I grabbed it at the back of my neck and yanked it off. Immediately, she got to her knees and put her hands on me, skimming her palms all over my stomach, chest, shoulders.

“I saw you,” she breathed. “Earlier tonight, when you were changing your shirt. I saw you.”