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“Everything will be okay, I promise,” he said softly. “I’ll make sure of it.”
I realized somehow we’d gotten closer. Close enough that if I wanted to, I could run my fingers through his dark locks, close enough to kiss.
And that thought was the one that drove me away.
This was not getting back to normal. This was dangerously close to falling over an edge I didn’t want to be on.
“I’ll hold you to that, Harding,” I said gruffly as I headed back to my brother’s to grab my shirt I’d left hanging over the edge of his couch, leaving Nolan in my dust once more.
CHAPTER 6
Nolan
I am a glutton for punishment.
Clearly, there was no other explanation. I wasn’t sure what had gotten into me earlier, except for the fact that Dawson just seemed to be able to draw out parts of me I didn’t even know existed.
Flirting with him over the phone was one thing. It was easier to pretend, to channel the person I wished I could be when I didn’t have to physically look at the man.
I told myself I was going to erase that morning’s phone call from my brain completely, and I had every intention of doing so; starting with focusing on work—on the job Dawson was up my ass about—and then he had to show up fresh from a fire, his sandy blond hair all disheveled, his skin flushed and sweaty still, with smudges of ash and soot on his face, with that cocky grin...
Like some hunk out of a romance novel or something.
And then when he grabbed me, to apologize... it was like something had shifted in him too, and even though I knew I should have been pissed and I should have told him to back off, and get as far away from me as possible, I found myself falling further into his gravitational pull.
His dark eyes implored mine as his voice cracked just in the slightest, showing off what I gathered was probably the man beneath all the equipment and fireproof armor.
Someone not a lot of people saw, and I couldn’t look away. Like a moth, I was drawn to his endearing flame, his change of character, and I couldn’t stop myself from falling like a star in his orbit.
His hair was still wet, and he smelled like cedar and spice. I looked up at him through my glasses, my gaze falling over his lips as I wondered for a moment if he would taste as good as he smelled, if his kiss would be as ravaging as the fires he chased, or if it would be a slow burn, like a fine whiskey making its way down your throat.
It had taken nearly all my concentration to fight the desire to take his lips and kiss away the worry that was so evident in his voice and on his face.
But I knew kissing Dawson was both unprofessional and unwarranted.
After all, how could someone like him ever want someone like me?
Even I knew the world wasn’t some romance novel. Guys like Dawson could have any man they desired, and guys like me were just the wallflowers in the background, the muted colors of a painting put there only to make brighter ones stand out.
So I did the only thing I could think of. I told him, despite my better judgment, despite the overwhelming desire to kiss him in the yard of his brother’s house, that everything was going to be okay, even though I wasn’t certain I believed it myself.
At least, where my job was concerned, I meant that promise.
But a part of me was also trying to convince myself everything would be okay. That I would walk away and forget that moment, that I’d forget shirtless Dawson standing inches away from me and his spicy scent, his fiery copper eyes, and his sculpted frame, or the way his eyelashes stood out against his tanned skin.
Fucking hell, why do I always do this?
Why do I always fall for beautiful creatures I can never have?
And then it was over, and Dawson walked away, and I let him go like an idiot because I couldn’t string my words together and remember how to fucking human.
“Way to go, Nolan,” I chastised myself as I started the car. The digital clock blinked to tell me I was perilously close to a late arrival, so I threw my car into gear and sped off for the office, just as my phone rang.
“Harding,” I answered the car’s bluetooth handsfree, willing my breath to return to normal. I needed to get Dawson Richards out of my head and focus on things that were actually tangible. Like my job, and the promotion that I’d been working toward.
“Oh, Nolan, I’m so glad I got you! I know you’re still out on lunch and all, and I was hoping to catch you before you came back...”
I tensed immediately upon hearing my boss Karla’s voice. “What’s up?” I asked as I steered the car onto Jasper Springs’s main street.
