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“Fuck, Ana,” he says, finally stilling long enough to cup my face. “You’re not OK,” he says while staring back and forth between my cheek and forehead.
“I need to get you to your brother. We should call a doctor.” He’s speaking in a manic rush before mumbling, “And then I’ll find that motherfucker and finish him.”
“Bryce,” I utter while scanning his gorgeous face.
There are new hollows under his cheeks and his granite jaw looks sharper. He’s tired. And yet fatigue doesn’t diminish his effect on me. The perfect symmetry of his features is in stark relief. Manly and stunning.
“Nothing happened,” I say earnestly. “He groped me, but I can defend myself. He just took me by surprise because he’s never been violent before. I was about to kick his ass.”
“He had his hands on you,” he mutters angrily. “Fuck, Ana, he had his hands on you.” A flash of panic hits his features. “Did he hurt you anywhere else?”
Bryce pushes me away to look me up and down, caressing my upper arms and then bracing my hips while he studies my torso.
The intensity of his gaze makes me shiver. When I take a deep breath, my chest lifts. He glances at my bosom and then squeezes his eyes shut.
“This is my fault. I wasn’t here earlier. I should have been here earlier. Something came up with work, so I had to take a late flight.”
“You’re here now,” I say happily, wrapping my arms around his neck and rubbing my nose against his stubble-rough chin.
He stops himself from folding into me, his head high. I’m close enough to see the darkening of his pupils and the spikes of his long lashes.
Under his scrutiny, I become acutely aware of my exposed shoulders and flushed skin. My dress has a fitted blue top, a cinched waist, and a long flower-print skirt with a high slit along one leg. It feels natural to tilt my hips toward him, forcing the skirt to unveil the top of my thigh.
Bryce’s expression hardens. He releases me and steps away. “I’ll walk you back.”
“No. No, let’s stay here for a bit. Just us.”
“That’s a bad idea right now, Ana,” he grunts. “I’m losing my mind. I need to cool down. It’s better if you stay away from me for a while. Let’s get out of here.”
“I’m not going anywhere. Cool down here. With me.”
“You’re the last thing in the world that cools me down.”
He turns away. Wide back muscles strain his shirt. I graze my finger in the hollow between his shoulders.
“Stay with me? Please?”
Bryce whips around and I have to step back. If earlier there was anger and then worry on his face, now his eyes are wild. They shift chaotically like a man who doesn’t know where to start a meal so he’s likely to shove everything in his face. Or maybe that’s me projecting my own rush of hunger. I study his features greedily, every part of me yearning to touch, kiss, consume.
Bryce takes a step closer and whispers, “I don’t want you to see me like this.”
“I want to see you. I’ve missed you. I know we aren’t exactly best friends, but not having you around during Sunday dinner, not having you come over to hang out… it was weirder than I expected it to be.”
“I missed you too,” he grumbles. “But nothing good will happen right now. Not with the way I’m thinking, and not with the way your thigh looks even sweeter in real life than it does in my dreams.”
His eyes land on my exposed leg. Bryce licks his lips, no longer hiding his fascination.
When he speaks, his voice is hoarse, his breathing shallow. “I’m already using up all control to keep from chasing that asshole and ripping his head off. I don’t have the ability to… to hold back right now.”
The fluttering in my stomach shifts lower, where I ache every time I remember Bryce’s kisses.
“Why are you holding back, Bryce? I never asked you to.”
“Don’t say that, Ana. Don’t make this harder than it already is.”
“Make what harder?”
Bryce doesn’t answer with words. Instead, he crowds me into the driver’s door. His thickness pushes against my stomach and my body responds before my brain understands. Moisture pools between my thighs where I’m throbbing with the need to be touched. To be filled.
