I wished, too, that I could express to him how I was feeling more. How I felt desperate to explore and test and tease him the way he’d been teasing me.
He took the box and set it on the floor just inside his door, one of those smoldering smirks lighting at the edge of his alluring mouth when he straightened to his full, towering height.
Oh, he was dangerous to me when he got that way. Steadily winning me over. Second by second. Grin by grin. The heart beneath that chipped all the brash away.
“I can’t believe I left you standing there holding that. I’m really slacking on my knightly duties, aren’t I? Letting you stand there with that heavy box. The atrocity. Have to admit, I was a little distracted by the very stimulating conversation I was having. Let me make it up to you.”
It was all mischief and mayhem from between those flirty lips, because he knew as well as I did that box didn’t weigh all that much.
His eyes glinted in playfulness while his pupils dilated in a distinct kind of wickedness.
His expression alone invited me to partake in a thousand scandalous acts.
I wavered, rocking back on my heels. “I think I should go.”
Before I fell.
It was instant, the way his hand darted out to cup my face, his voice gruff. “I think you should stay.”
I watched the plea play out in his eyes.
Let me touch you.
Let me take care of you.
Let me be your hero.
Just for a little while.
A tremble ripped through my body. His touch gasoline.
Instant.
The inferno raging inside me.
My tongue darted out to wet my suddenly dry lips. “If I sleep with you, there won’t be any going back for me, Kale Bryant. Don’t make me fall in love with you. I don’t think either of us are ready for that.”
There was zero provocation in the words, no hint of a tease, just my stark vulnerability. I wrung my fingers in front of me, waiting for his reaction. The air thick. So thick I couldn’t breathe while Kale stood there staring at me as something flashed across his gorgeous face.
Both vivid and obscure.
And I couldn’t stop myself from letting the words tumble free. “I know what I deserve, Kale. I know who I am, even though it’s only been the last couple years that I’ve finally stood up and demanded it.”
I inhaled a harsh breath, my eyes darting across his face to make sure he understood. “What I’m afraid of is you leading me down a path I’m not sure I can travel. Because maybe I am the fool who loves too easily. The one who sees the best in people. The one who sees what they deserve. Evan’s dad didn’t leave me jaded. He left me knowing exactly what it is I want. And what scares me most is I see so much of what I want in you, and I’m not sure you see the same in me.”
My heart clenched, and I felt another piece of my world shatter when he stepped forward and pushed his fingers into my hair. His hand weaved all the way around to hold me by the back of the head, angling me back as he pulled me closer.
Holding me up. As if he’d never let me fall.
“God damn it, Hope. You really think I don’t see that in you? I have no idea how to make sense of this. How to understand what it is you make me feel. What you make me want. But it’s there. Haunting me. Chasing me. Demanding more.”
He gathered me closer, his nose brushing mine, his words quiet and rough. “I don’t know how to stop thinking about you. About Evan.”
A tremor rolled through him, and his hold tightened. “I want you in a way I’ve never wanted anyone. Not ever. But I’m afraid I’m not capable of being the man you see because there isn’t a whole lot of that guy left. I lost him a long time ago. I live for the people around me. For my job. My friends. Their families. My patients. I’ve walked that line for a long, long time. The straight. The narrow. Never veering from my path. But as hard as I try to stop it, colliding with you feels unavoidable.”
God. This incredible man.
So beautiful and giving, radiating a selfless kind of devotion behind that stunning, devastating exterior. Haunted by something he wouldn’t allow me to see.
Staring up at him, I let my fingertips trail across the sharp curve of his jaw. “What about living for you?”
The chuckle that rumbled in his chest was almost dark, words back to flirting with a tease, skirting that subject that hovered around him like a dark, condemning halo. “How about I just keep showing you what you’ve been missing out on?”