One look and they were both jittery with need. He had to kiss her again, he couldn’t resist...
Tyce moved across the floor quickly, stopping in front of her and placing his hands on the back of the sofa, on either side of her head.
Sage lifted her chin and shook her head. “Not happening, Latimore.”
She didn’t sound very convincing, Tyce thought. Besides he’d seen the flash of interest in her eyes, the smoky blues that suggested she was remembering how he made her feel. His junk immediately tightened and the hot, hard thump of his heart reminded him that it had been months since he’d had sex. Sage was the last woman he’d had in his bed and she was still, damn her, the only woman he wanted.
“I’d rather walk through cut glass without shoes than sleep with you,” Sage defiantly muttered, dropping her eyes to stare at her hot-pink toes. Sexy toes with the middle toe sporting a delicate toe ring.
The saying about ladies and protesting too much dropped into his head but Tyce was smart enough not to verbalize that thought. He ran the back of his knuckles over her cheekbone and down the line of her jaw.
“You might not like me at the moment. You’re angry and confused and feeling a bit overwhelmed by the fact you are pregnant and that my sister might be a Ballantyne but you still want me and I still want you.”
Even though he knew it was a bad idea, Tyce leaned down. Their earlier kiss hadn’t been nearly enough. He just needed to taste her again, once, maybe twice, and he’d be satisfied. He covered her mouth with his and sighed at the perfection of her silky lips. He swallowed a moan when those lips opened and his tongue slid into the hot, spicy space that was all Sage. He pulled her bottom lip between his teeth, nipped it and slid his tongue over the bite to soothe its sting. Sage’s hand on the back of his neck held his head in place, her tongue dancing with his as her other hand pulled his shirt up to find his bare skin.
He had to stop this now, but he couldn’t, didn’t want to. He wasn’t satisfied; he wanted more. When it came to Sage he always wanted more: one kiss, one bout of sex, was never enough. She was like the most addictive drug in the world. He doubted that there would ever be a time when he wouldn’t want Sage Ballantyne and that complicated the hell out of this situation. He had to stop...
Tyce pulled away, lifted his mouth from hers and leaned backward, raising his hands in the air. Sage’s mesmerizing eyes slowly refocused and when she was fully in the present, she shook her head and let out a whimper. “What the hell is wrong with us?” she whispered.
“An inability to talk, a desire to avoid anything that smacks of intimacy combined with white-hot heat,” Tyce retorted, pushing his hands through his hair. He stood up, willed his junk to subside and walked over to the large windows, staring out at the wet street below him. Night was falling and he and Sage hadn’t progressed one inch.
“We need a new way of dealing with each other,” he muttered, jamming his hands into the pockets of his jeans. In the reflection of the glass he could see her pulling her long hair off her face, raising her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs. “I’d say that we should try to be friends but that’s ridiculous, since we both know that friends don’t generally want to rip each other’s clothes off.”
“I’m not very good at being a friend.”
Tyce, intrigued by that odd statement, turned around to look at her. “What do you mean by that?”
Sage made a production of looking at her watch. She gasped, wrinkled her nose and jumped to her feet. “I’m so late! I have to go to The Den and break the news that I am pregnant to Jo—”
“Jo?”
“Linc’s mom. Connor employed her as a housekeeper when he adopted us and she became our second mom. And my brother’s wives are going to be pissed that my siblings heard the news first.”
Tyce lifted his eyebrows. “You avoided my question.”
Sage handed him a snotty look but her eyes begged him not to pursue the topic. “I really do need to get to The Den and I really am late,” she said, walking to the door.
And you really don’t want to explain why you think that you are a bad friend. Tyce walked across the room to pick up his leather jacket and scarf. Making a quick decision, based purely on the fact that he wasn’t ready to walk away from Sage just yet—something he’d worry about later—he tossed the suggestion out. “What if I go with you and help you drop the news?”