I was fixed to the spot, gaze enraptured as I watched the intricate ink dance and play over the corded muscles that bunched and flexed in his thick arms. So much strength in his body and so much beauty in his being.
I swore he stole the air when he stopped two feet away. Hands fisted, he glowered over me.
I stumbled my way through the choppy words. “What…what are you doing here?”
His were hard. “Think I could ask you the same question.”
I shook myself out of the stupor. “Are you following me?”
It came off as an accusation that was somehow half-pleased and half-offended.
Standing in front of me was a man who was little more than a stranger, who had been tracking me, and I couldn’t stop the excitement that thrilled in my bones. I couldn’t stop the comfort that washed through me at his concern.
But I knew it was even more than that.
Over the last three weeks, I’d spent too much time wondering if I’d ever see this beautiful boy again.
He’d come to my house, and I thought we’d formed some sort of connection, even stronger than the one we’d forged that night.
And then he was just…gone. But not before he’d confessed that he couldn’t stand the idea of something bad happening to me.
So, I’d given into the fantasies.
Remembering the way his hand had burned through me like bliss when he’d simply grasped my leg as he’d sat on my couch staring at me. The way his hungry gaze had dipped and roamed, and I was sure he’d been thinking the same thing I was.
Wondering what it might be like if he were pressing me into the couch.
Bodies tangled.
The sad thing was those fantasies had also filled me with a bolt of insecurity. Again, it was something so unlike me. Because I didn’t want any man who didn’t appreciate what I had to give.
But this boy was a rock god. A legend shrouded by his own brand of mystery. The kind of boy I didn’t have the first clue how to handle.
I knew he could reach out and have his pick of just about any woman. I knew I wanted him to pick me.
“Maybe.” Frustration laced his tone. At him or me, I couldn’t tell.
I blinked at him, tongue-tied, my confusion and surprise tumbling out. “That’s just…weird.”
God. I was brilliant.
But what was I supposed to say? This boy caught me unaware at every turn, always at the advantage.
He almost laughed, this sound that was exasperated and filled with disbelief. “Weird?”
I bit at my lip, fighting a smile that really shouldn’t have been there. But he was here, again finding me when I felt helpless and vulnerable.
I nodded emphatically, clutching the lightness that whispered through the air. “That’s right. Weird.”
With his index finger, he scratched at the back of his head. He chuckled low, this sound that rumbled through my senses and warmed my belly. “I’m sure there are plenty of other things we could call this other than weird, don’t you think? This is just…”
I frowned when he trailed off and took a step in his direction. “What?”
Helplessly, he looked back at me. “I can’t do this, Alexis. I’ve got a shit show getting ready to blow up in my life, and the only thing I can think about right now is you. Can’t go to sleep at night because I’m fucking terrified you might be sneaking off and doing something that’s going to land you in trouble again. That I might not be there to save you next time. And when I do finally nod off? I wake up in the morning panicked, praying you’re okay and having no way to make sure.”
His tongue darted out to wet his lips. My gaze followed, entranced by the thick bob of his throat as he swallowed.
“I don’t have the first clue what you’ve done to me, but I’m not sure I can handle whatever it is I’m feeling.”
A knot twisted in my chest. A mess of affection and remorse and gratitude. “I hate that I make you worry.”
His expression hardened. He glared over my shoulder as if he wanted to destroy the street that had suddenly become his worst enemy. “Obviously, I wasn’t worrying for nothing, was I?”
I rolled my bottom lip between my teeth. “I told you…she’s my sister. I can’t just cut that tie. And I didn’t go back there. I made her meet me here. Where it’s safe.”
Frustration blew from between his lips, a big hand tugging at the long part of his hair as he looked around. “Where it’s safe? This isn’t safe, Alexis.”
I shook my head at him. “I don’t exactly live in Beverly Hills, either.”
He rubbed his strong chin. “You know that’s different. Your place is…good,” he seemed to settle on.
My heart fluttered at his words. At the way he said it with this shot of affection. “Thank you for caring about me. For worrying. And I know I unwittingly dragged you into the middle of it, and I’m sorry I did, even though I can’t express how thankful I am that you did what you did.”
I blinked hard. “But you can’t come into my life and tell me to give up on my sister.”
He rubbed his face with both palms then dropped them just as fast. “God, I know that. But this makes me crazy, you coming back down here after what happened.”
“I promise, I’m trying to be careful. I just…”
I bit my lip and looked into the distance, gathering my thoughts before I looked back at him. Completely honest. “I need to get her out of there, Zee. Make her see there’s more to life than the one she’s been living. It kills me that she’s wasting it.”
He blew out a strained breath, looking to the ground. “I get it, Alexis. You and I are more alike than I think you know.”
I wanted to stop him, to ask him, to find out why those brown eyes that glimmered and glinted with bronze were suddenly dimmed with grief and regret.
Instead, he distracted me with the expression on his face, this boy so beautiful when he smiled. “This is crazy, you know that?”
“What?”
He gestured between us. “This. Us. Me following you down here when I don’t have the right. That is some seriously unhealthy shit.”
Would it be wrong to tell him how much I liked it? To admit it pulsed a warmth through my veins I hadn’t felt in a long, long time? Maybe in forever.
Because he felt different. So different from all the men of this city who were always after one thing.
And there I was again, wondering if there was more to this than just a warped sense of obligation. More than just the burden I’d placed on his shoulders that night when I’d inadvertently sucked him into the most destructive part of my life.
The part that threatened to be my ruin.
He looked over at me. Sincerely. “I would never hurt you. You know that, right? Following you…”
My older sister Chelsey had always accused me of having zero self-preservation. She always teased that I rushed into every situation heart first, my brain nowhere to be found.
Maybe she was right.
I cocked my head and took a chance. “Are you hungry?”