My eyebrows hit the roof. I wasn’t expecting that. I don’t know how I feel about it, honestly. “I don’t want you to say thank you. Especially not if you don’t mean it.”
She looks out the window. “I hear what you’re saying. How it looked. You could have gotten mad at me and you didn’t.”
What the f*ck
? “I wouldn’t have. Even if it wasn’t obvious that he was all over you and you didn’t want it…I know you, Ali. That’s not you.”
“He asked me to go to the party with him.”
“So? Did he ask you to make out on the couch with him?”
She doesn’t say anything. f*ck
.
“Let me make something crystal clear, babe. No guy worth his balls expects something like that. And the guys that do, deserve to have their balls cut off with a rusty f*ck
ing machete. My reaction back there was big, but it was also tempered. I wanted to rip him limb from limb. Got it?”
“Yeah.”
“Come on. Let me walk you up.”
I get out and jog around the truck, opening her door for her.
She stares straight ahead as we cross the street. But when we get to the wide steps at the front of her building, she doesn’t punch in her code. I do an automatic scan of the surroundings. We’re alone. It’s late, and relatively private, and if she doesn’t want me to walk her upstairs, I’m not going to push it.
I lean against the wall. If she wants to talk, I’ll talk, but I’m not going to open my giant ape mouth without prompting. I’ve done enough tonight.
She scuffs her toe against the stoop. “Was that just you being protective tonight?”
Wow. She’s heading straight into the middle of the land mines. “I don’t know how to answer that. I don’t like seeing another guy touch you.”
“You don’t touch me.”
“I did. I will again.”
She lifts her chin a bit, but she’s still not looking at me.
“You mess with my head in a way that’s distressing for a grown man, Ali.”
That gets her attention. She jerks her face up and blinks at me. “What?”
“You gotta know I’m twisted up over you.”
She blanches. Well, that was the wrong thing to say. f*ck
me.
“I was jealous. When I saw him touching you. Okay? That was my first reaction, for a split-second. Then I was just being protective. I swear.”
“I don’t want you to be…I don’t want you to expect feelings from me,” she says quietly.
What the hell? “I already told you I don’t expect anything. But feelings are just human nature. Don’t read too much into it because I don’t want some pipsqueak touching what I feel is all mine right now.”
“All yours?”
“I warned you I don’t share.”
“I know.” She licks her lips. “I don’t want anyone else.”
“I know.”
“I’m just being me, you know. Now. I was…trying too hard before. But now…this is me.”
“That makes it even worse.”
“Oh, great, thanks.”
“That’s not what I mean.” I laugh gently. “You’re hot. Just the way you are. Distractingly so.”
She scowls at me. “It’s hard not to feel like I’m being blamed for having tits.”
I laugh again, because she doesn’t give an inch. Nor should she. But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m defenseless around her, and I’m not dealing with that well. “I’m not blaming you. I promise. That would make me just as bad as that douche at the party.”
She shakes her head, a small smile playing on her lips. “Not at all. And his name is Corey, by the way.”
“I don’t care what his name is.” She smirks and I pull her in for a hug. “I should go.”
She nods against my chest. “Just for tonight. We could use a breather.”
“You’re being way more mature than me about this.”
She winks. “Don’t worry. I’ll go back to being a selfie-loving co-ed any second now.”
“Can I kiss you goodnight?”
“You better.”
I crowd her against the brick wall, taking my time to touch my lips against hers. Savoring this moment, the only one I’ll get tonight. I’m going to make it good for both of us, good enough it makes up for my Neanderthal show earlier.
Her nose brushes mine as she stretches up. I cup her cheek. Her skin is so soft, but beneath it she’s made of steel, honed by two decades of bracing against the Dashford Reid hostility. And now I’m yet another problem for her to manage.
“I really am sorry about tonight,” I mutter, my lips bumping against hers.
“Shut up. Kiss me. Feel bad later.”
I can do all three.
Her lips part immediately as I slide our mouths together, her teeth nipping at my bottom lip as I suck her top one into my mouth. I groan and haul her tighter against me, thrusting my tongue into her mouth. f*ck
. She tastes sweet, coke and bourbon and pure Ali beneath it all, wet and hot and eager for me to fill her up. Her tongue swipes at mine. She wants to play, and the thought sends a dangerous spark through my body.
How dirty can this kiss get outside her building?