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‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Try again.’
‘TJ—’
‘I can see it in you, Skye.’
‘See what—’
‘The wild,’ he replied immediately. But he didn’t let her go. He couldn’t. Instead, his thumbs brushed over her cheekbones, as if he could sweep away all that feral anger. ‘You forget, I hang out with men who ride bulls for a living. I’m the well-adjusted one of my friend group.’
‘What if I don’t want to talk about it?’ she asked and tipped her chin up.
‘Then I won’t take you out.’ He couldn’t say why he knew that was important, only that she was looking to make mistakes. And he wouldn’t be one of them.
‘Are you fucking kidding me?’
‘No.’ When she tried to slap his hands away, he only took her chin in one hand.
Skye yanked her head back and snapped her teeth at his hand. TJ didn’t laugh; he was too angry, too aroused. ‘You wanna fight with me, baby?’
‘No. I want to go out. And if you won’t take me, I’ll just go alone.’
‘The hell you will,’ he told her, and crushed his mouth to hers to make his point. He took her deep, fast. But the moment she relaxed, the moment she softened, he pulled back. ‘Don’t do that. Don’t shut me out. Christ, Skye, this matters.’
He hadn’t meant to say it. He hadn’t even known how true the words were before he’d let them out into the world. Even if what they had was casual, a week-long love affair, it was important that someone tell her that simple truth. This matters. You matter.
TJ pulled away on a curse, but Skye stopped him. She roped her hands around his head and yanked him right back. Her mouth was hot and hard on his, her need painfully clear.
She coiled one leg around his and plastered her body against him.
TJ’s brain blanked.
He took a quick step back, breaking contact before his greed took control.
They stared at each other for one crystal moment, both their chests heaving, both their clothes rumpled.
‘Get in the truck.’
He didn’t move to help her, knowing that if he touched her again, he’d risk disappointing himself and probably hurting her. She didn’t need sex just then. She needed so much more.
They drove in silence for twenty minutes.
TJ didn’t say where they were going.
But Skye didn’t ask. She sat in the passenger seat, her arms crossed defensively over her chest, her eyes glued to the desert landscape outside, her mouth set in a stupidly sexy pout.
When they reached the outskirts of town, with nothing but desert for at least a mile in each direction, he pulled off the highway onto an old mining road and stopped the truck.
Skye frowned. ‘What are we doing here?’
TJ turned the engine off. ‘We’re talking.’ At her blank look, he grinned. ‘The way I figure it, you would have gone out looking for trouble anyway.’ He indicated the desert through the windshield. ‘This way, you’re kinda stranded until you tell me what’s wrong and what the fuck happened to put that look in your eyes.’
‘You’re kidnapping me?’
He thought about that, settled on being amiable instead of angry. ‘Yeah. I guess I am.’
