Page 19 of The Bargain (Dalton Family #2)

Chapter Nineteen

Sofia

H e came for me. And right now, the only agenda I feel from him is me.

We reach my front door, and I attempt to punch my entry code into the keypad, but I’m trembling so hard I can’t seem to get it right. On my third attempt, Ethan captures my hand. “Easy, baby. Why are you so nervous? You weren’t like this when I was a stranger. What’s going on?”

I lower my chin for a minute and whisper, “I don’t know.”

He turns me to face him and folds me close. “What’s going on?” he repeats.

He’s hard, and I feel soft and warm next to him. “I’m nervous. That’s all.”

“You know me,” he says, stroking hair from my face.

“I’m getting to know you,” I correct.

“Do you want to know me?”

“You know I do.”

He eases back and studies me, and I don’t know what he sees, but he must not like it because he says, “I’m rushing you.”

“No,” I say quickly. “No. Not at all. We slept together the first night. How can you possibly be rushing me?”

“This isn’t a one-night stand. It’s new. It’s a different headspace. And Sofia,” he cups my face and tilts my gaze to his, “I want you. I want this. We’ll start over, but I don’t want to leave.”

“Why would you leave? I don’t want you to leave. No, I don’t want that.” I turn back to the door, and this time my hand is steady as I punch in the code and open the door before capturing Ethan’s hand. “Come inside.” I tug him forward.

He captures my arm and tugs me close. “I want nothing more than to walk you into your house, press you against the wall, and fuck you until you’re obsessed with me the way I’m obsessed with you.”

I’m still stunned at how overwhelmingly dominant he can be, but I don’t know why. This is Ethan. And I like this about him. I like how he makes me feel. “And the problem with that is what?”

“You believe this is nothing but fucking, Sofia. And it’s not. As much as it’s going to kill me, I’m going to win my spot back in your bed. I’m going to get a hotel room.”

I grab his sides, and my heart is charging in my chest. “No. No, I don’t need you to do that.”

“I think you do, baby. I think that’s exactly what you need to understand that this is real. And that’s the only way I make you stand with me instead of running from me.”

“I don’t want you to leave. That is not what I want. Ask me what I want right now, Ethan. Ask me what I want with you.”

“What do you want, Sofia?”

“Too much. That’s what I’m afraid of. Wanting too much.

Of getting hurt. And the times when that hits me, when that messes with my head, is when I’m alone and have too much time to think.

I overthink, and in our case, I overthink about why this can’t possibly work.

So just to be clear, there is no version of what I just told you that says go to a hotel room.

If you came here for me, that’s where I want you. With me.”

He stares down at me, studying me again, several heavy beats passing before his mouth crashes over mine in a ravenous, over-too-soon kiss before he’s walking me backward.

We’re barely inside, and he’s already kissing me, kicking the door shut, and we don’t bother with the light.

He turns me and flattens me against the wall, his big body framing mine, the thick pulse of his erection pressing to my belly.

“Leaving you and going to a hotel room defied every male part of me that wants to strip you naked and show you why we’re good together.

I will not give you the time to think me out of your life.

I know you don’t believe me yet, but if we were fuck buddies, I’d make you come to me, or I wouldn’t bother.

But I’ve already decided I will chase you until you stop running. ”

“I’m not going to run again.” I laugh a small laugh. “I hope. I’ll try.”

“I can live with that answer.”

For several seconds, we just stand there, staring at each other, the rich, warm heat of our attraction to each other a living, breathing part of the room, and I can feel the separation of our time apart fade away.

His mouth crashes over mine, and I’m not holding back or talking myself out of anything but the stupidity of walking away from the Zoey brand or this man.

I’m in this, all in, in a way I have never been with anything or anyone in my life.