“I guess that could do it.”
He manages a crooked smile. “Hopefully I won’t have to pull any more stunts like that again.”
Picturing him fading away sends a jolt of fear through my chest. I can’t imagine howhefeels about the possibility.
I squeeze his hand tight, seeking out his gaze. “If you need to use that tactic again, I’ll do whatever I can to keep you with us afterward. I always will.”
My voice gets a bit rough with those words. Andreas blinks at me, emotion shimmering in his eyes, and then he’s scooting closer to me so he can wrap me up in his arms.
His warm, summery scent fills my nose. As my head tips against his shoulder, sudden tears prick at the backs of my eyes.
It’s like our embrace in the club—except my memory of that earlier moment is blurred by the alcohol, and I initiated it. This hug is all him.
He pulls me even closer, tucking my head right under his chin, one hand stroking over my braided hair and the other resting against my side. His thumb sweeps up and down over the thin fabric of my tank top.
With each movement of his fingers, a starker heat sparks beneath my skin. It flows over my limbs and through my veins, as potent as Jacob’s poison but exhilarating instead of draining.
I draw in a breath, and even more of Andreas’s scent floods my lungs. A hot, heady pressure forms low in my belly.
I think the hug was only meant to be friendly, but my body clearly has other ideas. With these guys, it always has, but the flare of attraction has never swept through me quite as strongly as now.
I haven’t been quite this close to any of the guys, not like this, since I found them again. And we’re nothing like kids anymore.
It isn’t just me, either. A new tang reaches my nose alongside the delicious smell of Andreas’s skin: a waft of pheromones that’s not stress but desire.
Of their own accord, my fingers curl into Drey’s shirt where they were resting against his chest.
Andreas’s hand dips a little lower to where my top has ridden up from my cargo pants. His thumb hooks under the fabric and glides over my waist skin to skin.
My breath catches. That simple motion lights flames across my torso.
I want him to tease his touch higher—lower—everywhere. I want everything.
If I tipped my head just a little back, I could brush my lips against his neck, flick my tongue across his throat. Taste his scent as well as breathe it in.
The rush of need blots out the rest of my thoughts for only a second before a chilling wave crashes over me.
What’s wrong with me? I can’t let myself get wrapped up in this crazed impulse that’s sending all my thoughts spinning.
The last time I got distracted like that, it ruined everything.
The image of Griffin’s slackening face and sagging body flashes through my mind, and I jerk out of Andreas’s arms. My hand fumbles for the door handle behind me.
Andreas stares at me as if he’s just woken up from a daze. “Tink?”
Somehow the old nickname makes the guilt punch even deeper. I shove open the door and scramble out into the sunlight.
“We should—we should probably get on the road again,” I say, as if that makes any sense when I’m gettingoutof the car while I’m saying it.
But the other guys are already heading over to us. I should be thanking the stars above that Jacob didn’t see Andreas and I before I broke our embrace.
Instead, my gaze snags on Drey’s uncertain expression, and a twinge of regret shoots through me.
He’s the only one who’s been here for me, and I just pushed him away.
Twenty
Riva