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He grinned at me.
Shit. My cheeks heated over being caught salivating. “B-Beer?” I offered, my voice husky with nerves and want.
“Need you ask?”
Huffing a shaky laugh, I forced myself to turn away from desire for the kitchen, well aware of Drake following me. Every hair on my body reached for him, I swear.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” I managed a measured cadence while popping the caps off two bottles of Sam Adams.
“Missed you.” Drake’s confession wasn’t filled with heat or insinuation.
Missed you more, I wanted to say but didn’t. I handed over his drink, shivering when his fingers brushed against mine. My groin had roused at the sight of him outside my door. His touch and the fact I hadn’t jerked off in a couple of days only threatened to tent my sleep pants I’d put on after showering.
“Want to sit?” I suggested, needing to do so and hide what he did to me before he got any ideas.
Drake headed to the living room, allowing me a moment of privacy to adjust myself before following on his heels. He settled in the middle of the couch, but I claimed my recliner before he could tell me to sit beside him where I would end up tucked against his hard warmth, the space between us completely wiped out exactly like I yearned for it to be.
I sustained eye contact for all of five seconds before studying my cold bottle of beer, the potency of his draw too overwhelming.
“Have you spoken to Jacqueline since Friday?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I expected her to call today, but she hasn’t yet. I guess she and Devlin are having too much fun in Greece.”
Drake crossed an ankle over his opposite knee, one arm along the back of the couch. Why was he so damn hot when he sprawled out with such confidence? I wanted to swoon along with the heart eyes I couldn’t help but cast his way.
“I had an interesting little talk with my dad on Sunday morning.”
I lifted my focus off how tightly his shirt pulled over his bulging bicep and shoulder. “Yeah?”
“Mmm.” Drake drank from his bottle, his Adam’s apple bobbing and making me want to lick his neck. “You’re drooling,” he said with a chuckle.
I glowered and tossed a throw pillow at him. He batted it out of the air to the floor, still laughing at me. “Shut up,” I muttered.
“I love how much you want me, baby.”
Heat flushed through me. “Tell me about the phone conversation,” I demanded even though I would rather have him cross the living room to ravish me.
Jacqueline had explained to me how retirement had changed her. I’d heard that truth in her voice and the words of apology she’d offered me. But an outside perspective Drake told me his dad had given him only strengthened my hope that she and I were on the right course.
I swallowed hard, my eyes welling over the fact that she was probably already aware of my sexuality and how much Drake meant to me. A week earlier, fear would have swamped me at her finding out I was in love with my stepbrother, but a strange sense of peace swam through my blood.
“Y-You really believe she knows?” I whispered at the tear-hazed vision of Drake across from me.
“She’s more observant than my dad, who didn’t doubt our connection since we moved to New York, so what do you think?”
I blew out a breath, turning my beer I hadn’t yet sipped from in my hands. He had a point. “And you really believe she’ll accept our being together?”
Drake smiled. “If she was smart, she would.”
Jacqueline was one of the most intelligent women I’d ever met. “Why do you say that?”
“Because if she loves you like she’s finally realizing, she’ll want what’s best for you—a man who will love you until your last breath. Someone who will stand by your side no matter what.”
I swallowed hard. No one would ever take care of me like Drake did. No one understood or had ever been patient with me like him.
“You’re everything I’ve ever wanted,” Drake stated, leaning forward and staring at me intently. I couldn’t have torn my eyes off his if I’d tried. “You fulfill my instincts to protect and nurture. I get off on affection—not just sex—and if you weren’t super needy touch-wise, that part of me would feel robbed. You’re my safe place, Preston, and I don’t want to be anywhere other than beside you.”
My throat swelled shut at his adamant declaration.
