Why is she tormenting us both?
My lungs pressed full.
This girl didn’t play games. She knew she could send me running, and she just put it out there.
“Don’t think I can give you that.” The abraded words scraped from my mouth. “I’ve got so much shit, Shea.” I felt the lines pinch my brow, hoping for her to finally see what I tried to show her last night.
But that was the thing.
She’d seen it all, even though she couldn’t make out the details.
And still, she wanted me.
“I’m no good for you.”
Darkness flashed through her eyes, like lightning striking through dense, gray clouds.
“And I’m no good for you,” she contended, wetting her lips, eyes cast downward before she looked back at me. “People might say I come with baggage. But I will never consider Kallie anything but the gift she is. The most priceless, precious gift.” The confession broke in her throat. “And I have to protect that, Baz. What happened this morning? Her finding us? You make me lose my head.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I never should have put you in that position. I should have left.”
A pained sound escaped her. “That’s the last thing I would have wanted. Being with you? Falling asleep in your arms?” She sucked in a breath. “I needed it, Sebastian…I needed you.” She exhaled. “You make me feel like I can breathe.”
“Then how does this work?”
“You want it to work?”
“It won’t,” I bit out, quiet but sharp with implication. “It won’t work,” I reiterated. “But this morning showed me just how fucking impossible it is to let you go. Not while I’m here, in this city with you. I don’t think I can stay away.”
Hadn’t been able to stay away since the second I saw her. After last night? Wasn’t going to be able to start now.
She fisted desperate hands in my shirt, eyes racing across my face.
“I’m going to break you, Shea.”
I knew it.
Felt it in my gut.
“You already have.”
A growl rumbled in my chest, and I hoisted her up. Piano keys clanked as I propped her up against the shining black.
Fuck, she looked gorgeous there, hair tumbling over her shoulders, the collar of her robe popping open to reveal the curve of just one breast, the outside of her thighs in my needy hands. I ran them under the hem of the satiny material.
“You put on underwear.” I faked a pout, and she giggled. That sound was so damned sweet I was sure I’d never grow tired of hearing it, but I knew I’d never get the chance.
“Figured I’d better cover myself up a little. Someone might get the wrong impression that I’m easy or something.” It was all a self-conscious tease.
“Nothing easy about you, baby,” I countered soft, sliding my fingers under the edges of the lace clinging to her slender hips and pressing my mouth to the skin between her breasts, catching on to the wild beat of her heart. “Every bit of you is complicated. God, you’ve got me twisted up inside. Every fucking second, thinkin’ about you.”
If Shea could strip herself bare, then I guessed I owed her a little bit of that, too.
I nudged the robe open wider, exposing those gorgeous round tits and puckered-up pink nipples. “Look at that. So perfect, Shea.”
“You see me,” she whispered, fingers fluttering up to her neck as she tilted her head back, echoing me from last night. And I knew she wanted me to see. To feel.
Fuck, I did. I fucking did, and it was reckless and dangerous, every move fraught with peril.
I began to work her panties down her legs. I edged back far enough to drag the lace off one foot, then the other.
I spread her knees wide, perfect * on display.
My gaze trailed over her where she was propped up on the piano like an angel, one side of her robe draping off a delicate shoulder, tapering down to where the belt was knotted at her waist.
Or maybe she was the devil with an angel’s face, because this girl was going to destroy me.
She reached out and cupped my cheek, her expression soft, surrounded by all her light.