So much for not getting involved.
This kiss was just as hot as the one earlier, but it was rougher, somehow. Less tentative. As though they’d been kissing for years and felt comfortable with one another. She brought her hands to his shoulders. Stroked down his hard arms. He was wearing a leather cuff on his right wrist, and she gripped it, enjoying the feel of the smooth material beneath her fingers.
His hands came to her hips, pulling them forward and up to press between his legs.
Oh God. He was hard. All the way hard, and big, and the heat there was intense. So good. She moaned, and he moved his arms around her all the way, pressing her higher, harder—
“Mommy, look at the seagulls!” The shout of a child from somewhere down on the beach jarred her, a reminder of who they were and what they were doing. She pulled back immediately, putting a few feet of distance between them.
Who was she turning into? The kind of girl who would make out with a guy like him, in public? For the second time in a matter of minutes?
That wasn’t what she did. She had rules. She dated by the book.
She took a deep, shaky breath. “Look. Chris. That was a mistake. Why don’t we just—”
“How was it a mistake? I thought it was pretty awesome.” He looked wounded, and she cursed herself. That hadn’t been her intention.
“No! I mean, the kiss was amazing. Then and now. But you and I…” She gestured helplessly back and forth between them. “I barely know you.”
He frowned. “Avoiding me isn’t going to help that. Or is that a nice way of saying that you’re attracted to me, but don’t want to be seen in public with a guy with an eyebrow spike?”
“No, that’s not it!” Yes, it is. Except not. Except…
“Then what is it?”
It’s the way you make me feel. Out of control.
“I’m just… I don’t know.” Ugh, that was a stupid thing to say.
But for some reason, he smiled. A wicked, predatory smile that thrilled her. “If you don’t know—if you don’t know me—then why don’t you start with a date?”
No. No. Dates were for guys who fit The List. And she didn’t have anything except dates. She wasn’t going to…well, whatever people did when they were desperately attracted to someone but didn’t want to go on a date.
Although, that idea sounded altogether much too appealing.
“But we don’t even like each other!”
“I never said I didn’t like you.”
“But—” Wait. That was true. He hadn’t answered her question, earlier, when she’d asked. He’d only said it wasn’t about liking or not liking.
Damn.
“But we want each other,” he continued. “And you’re not willing to do things my way, so a date is the only other option.”
“What’s your way?”
“We get naked right now and fuck each other until we can’t move.”
She gasped. That shouldn’t have sounded sexy. That should have sounded too rough and crude and wrong. But despite what it should have sounded like, she found herself pressing her legs together, trying to ease the heavy pulse that started up between them.
“Oh,” she whispered.
He grinned, a smile full of innuendo and…promise. Oh, dear.
She could ignore the rules just this once, and go out with a guy who wasn’t right for her. One date, just to see what it was like. One date, because maybe that would mean one more kiss, but then…then, she’d have to put an end to it. Already, her thoughts alone were going down a path that she wasn’t supposed to go down. What if she kept seeing him and somehow, it changed her?
Who would she be then?
She’d watched how things had gone bad for Kieu. Dropping out of college, moving to New York to model…those things had been bad enough. But when she’d met that guy, that asshole Farhad—a tattooed, nonconformist guy just like Chris—everything went completely off the rails. She’d gone deep into a coke addiction, and it had taken an intervention and a forced stay in rehab to get her out.
She’d been clean for a year. And then she’d hooked up with Farhad again at a party…
Too often, Minh found herself wondering how long Kieu would be able to stay alive.
That’s what one slip could do.
Chris was dangerous. What if he derailed her dreams? Made her into someone she wasn’t?
Or what if he made you into someone you really are?
Gali’s words from last week came back to her. He might be exactly what you need, but you’re trying too hard to stay blind.
No. Chris was wrong. It was obvious in how different their life philosophies were. How they fought, despite this so-called date idea. But for some reason, she had a hard time caring as much as she usually would have. For the first time in her life, she couldn’t deny that she was curious about something other than what she’d known her whole life.
“I-I don’t know.”
He nodded. “Fair enough. You don’t have to answer me now. We can walk back to the office and you can tell me then, how about? Either way, I’m not going to fire you.”
…