“Sorry about that.” She motioned to her pocket. “My mom worries about me.”
“You’re beautiful.” Those weren’t the words he’d planned on saying but they were the ones that came out.
“Oh…” Her already round eyes widened and a flush of color tinted her cheeks. Her gaze dipped lower and when it returned there was even more uncertainty in it. “Thank you. Um, well, I’m sorry I just barged in like this. I don’t want to take up more of your time so I better—”
“Stay.” He took a step forward. “Please. I want you to stay here. I’m sorry that it might not have seemed like that, but I was just so surprised to see you…I didn’t expect to see you…”
“I know. I thought about calling but, I didn’t know what to say.” She let out a forced laugh. “I’m not sure why I thought showing up and not knowing what to say in person would be any better, but that was what I went with.”
“I’m glad you did.” His own phone buzzed and he looked down to see a message from Seth. The meeting at Elite had been moved up thirty minutes, which meant he’d have to push the meeting at The Plate and also, he needed to leave now if he was going to make it on time.
“Is everything okay?” Ginny asked.
“It’s fine. Just work.” He didn’t want to leave. Not until they had a chance to talk. Or at least until she agreed to stay.
She bent down to grab her suitcase. “I don’t want to keep you.”
“You’re not.” He closed the short distance that was left between them. She had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes. “Please stay. I want you to stay. Here. With me.”
***
Dax was less than a foot in front of Ginny saying the words she’d been crossing her fingers, toes, arms, legs and eyes that he would say. So why was she hesitating? Why wasn’t she eagerly agreeing to his terms?
She didn’t know for sure but she thought it may have to do with being overwhelmed by Dax’s nearness. Before her stood over six feet of all-male goodness. He radiated an intoxicating mixture of confidence, power, security and authority. It was a lot to take in from across the room, but up close and personal it was making her dizzy. Could you get drunk on someone’s energy?
Everything was a little fuzzy. In fact, as she looked up into Dax’s yellow green eyes she was having a difficult time putting even two words together. Her mind was foggy, like a lust front had moved in and made visibility impossible. If this was how affected she was when he hadn’t even touched her, she had no idea how she would respond if things actually went as she’d hoped.
She was beginning to think she was out of her league. Dax was playing in the majors and she’d never even stepped up to bat in little league. Maybe she had overestimated herself. Maybe she wasn’t ready to follow through on her plan. Maybe she should get out of here before anyone—her!—got hurt.
“Please.” His gravelly voice rumbled and the look in his eyes made her knees go weak. “Stay here. With me.”
Yes!Her inner voice screamed.
She took a deep breath hoping that when she answered with her outside voice it would be with less enthusiasm than her inner voice had been. “If you’re sur—”
“I’m sure,” he interjected before she had a chance to finish her sentence.
“Okay.” She nodded as nerves and excitement battled to be the victor in the emotional war that was currently being waged inside of her.
“Okay.” The sexy grin that spread on his face made her already weak knees go full noodle. She wasn’t sure how much longer she’d be able to stand on her own.
Thankfully, he reached down and grabbed her suitcase so at least she didn’t have to worry about trying to drag it on Jell-O legs. “I’ll take this back and grab you a key.”
Once more, she nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She followed behind him and Capone was following behind her. She watched the muscular lines of his back through his thermal shirt as he walked with purpose. The hallway was not particularly narrow but between his wide shoulders and tall frame he took up a good portion of it.
When he didn’t stop at the guest room, Ginny’s stomach tumbled like towels in a dryer. She definitely wanted to share his bed before the month was over and she knew that the clock was ticking, but this was fast even on her time frame.
He placed her bag inside the master and she moved into the room beside him. Her palms were damp and her heart was thumping against her ribcage. The bed that sat at the far wall was large and she imagined the two of them in it.
“I’ll grab some things when I get home tonight but the bottom drawer is empty and the closet should have some room.”
“Grab some things?” she repeated.
“Yeah, to take to the spare room.”
“The spare room?”
His eyes narrowed slightly, like he wasn’t sure if she was messing with him. She wasn’t. She really had no idea why he would take his things to the guest room.