Chapter Ten
Harper
I wasn’t the kind of girl who kissed on a first date.
Well, technically, this was date number two with Lincoln. Even so, I wasn’t even a three-date kind of girl.
I always took things slow.
Which no one ever would have believed, given the tabloid articles and pictures that surfaced.
The girl in those photographs wasn’t me. Well, physically, yes, I was the one being photographed, but it wasn’t who I was or wanted to become.
It wasn’t me.
I’d been young, naive, and deceived.
With Lincoln, everything felt different. My heart pitter-pattered against my chest and soared the moment our lips met.
I leaned in first. I took the initiative, climbing above him.
His hands nestled at my waist. His fingers caressed my lower back, inching my shirt up slightly. The soft pads of his fingertips elicited a response that set my body on fire, wild and alive.
“Harper,” he murmured.
I wanted to rock my hips into his, but I still had some semblance of self-control, even if it was only a tiny bit.
It faded fast.
I moaned as we kissed, and my tongue teased his lips apart, desiring further exploration.
I wanted him, and I was pretty sure he wanted me too.
“We can’t,” he said.
My eyes flashed open, and I pulled back.
Burned.
Why couldn’t we? “Are you married?” I was an idiot, believing a nice, good-looking guy like him was still single and available.
“No. I’m not married,” he said.
“Engaged?” I wasn’t the kind of girl to break up a marriage or an engagement.
Throwing myself at Lincoln had been foolish.
I climbed off him, wrapped my arms around myself, and hurried to his truck.
I sat down in the front seat and waited for him to drive me back to the studio lot where I could pick up my car.
I never wanted to see him again.
He grabbed the blanket outside, folded it up before he opened the back door of the truck, and tossed it inside haphazardly.
I yanked on the belt buckle and snapped it into place. Folding my arms across my chest, I stared out the side window, refusing to speak to him.
Lincoln opened the driver’s side door, hopped in, but he didn’t start the truck. Instead, we sat together in silence.
“I’m not married and I’m not engaged.”
I no longer cared what he was or wasn’t, for that matter. I shot him a nasty glare. “So, what, you’re just not attracted to me? How does that make me feel any better?”
Lincoln let out an enormous sigh.
“What?” I wasn’t sure I even wanted to know, but now that he’d made it clear the problem was me, I was livid.
He started the engine. “I’m attracted to you,” Lincoln muttered under his breath. “My dick won’t shut the hell up.”