“Yeah, umm…just dropped this when I was leaving it out for Emerson, that’s all.”
I focus on picking up the juice carton and fishing around for the lid while willing the boner in my pants to fuck off and die so I can make my escape.
Blessedly, Hayley jumps into action. “I’ll grab some paper towels. One sec.” When she’s moved from the hallway toward the kitchen, Emmy steps into the hall, clad in a fresh navy pajama set identical to the previous.
“I got this.”
As I look up at her, a sudden sinking feeling fills my stomach when she doesn’t meet my eyes. I stand up straight, making to close the distance between us, hand extended as the need to ground both of us overwhelms me.
But before I can reach her, Hayley returns with paper towels, complaining loudly to her sister. “I can’t believe you went without me, Em.Rude!”
I quickly allow my hand to drop away, my eyes never leaving Emmy’s unyielding form.
“Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Ford.” She finally flicks her gaze to mine for half a beat. “Goodnight.”
Then she turns her attention to Hayley. “It was adate, Hayles. You could hardly have crashed it…”
Conscious of my still-present hard-on, I can only sidestep to allow Hayley into the hallway before making my way toward my bedroom, knowing that my dick is too horny and my mind is too fucked to even attempt sleep.
CHAPTER 16
EMERSON
Having grabbeda bottle of water from the refrigerator, I spin about to wait for the arrival of my ICON gala prep team, only to walk straight into a wall of muscle.
“Oof!”
Ford gently grips my biceps, and a shiver runs the length and breadth of my body at the memory of what those hands can do to me. I raise my eyes to his, finding sweat beading his brow. A quick perusal of his t-shirt and jogger-clad body tells me he just finished working out.
His eyes tell me that, like me, he spent the remainder of the night tossing and turning, recalling everything that happened between us prior to Hayley’s arrival in minute detail. Rehashing every single interaction since he’s come back into my life.
In all the years since I left you, not a moment has passed when you haven’t been at the center ofeverythingI do.
And when I finally plucked up the courage and asked for his reasons behind leaving, his forthright honesty only served to add fuel to the simmering tension between us.
So, when he turned up at my door, cherry juice in hand and a hangdog expression in his big blue eyes, I threw all the rules outthe window. The simplest touch had been explosive, and his lips on mine were akin to a homecoming following an exile.
He played my body as though no time had passed, with a skill all of his own, making me come so hard I almost blacked out.
Yet, his almost admission before Hayles arrived had been the sharp reminder that I should put some distance between us. I need to tread carefully, because the last time I walked this path, I wound up with so much more than a broken heart.
“Have you eaten yet?”
His simple question throws me off, and all I can do is blink owlishly as the words eventually sink in, spurring me to shake my head. “No, umm…my stomach is too full of nerves to eat.”
He regards me for a beat before nodding, as though coming to a decision. “Okay then, a spinach and mushroom omelet it is.”
Even as I shake my head, he presses his index finger over my lips, silencing my protest before it’s begun.
“Egg yolks help to lower your anxiety, and spinach and mushrooms are proven to help soothe a nervous stomach.” My eyes flick between his, and my chest swells almost to bursting at the concern I find in those oceanic depths as he gently drops his hand away from my mouth to pinch my chin between his thumb and index finger, his voice dropping to a whisper. “Let me do this for you, Emerson. Let me take care of you…please.”
And just like that, with his voice breaking on that last word, telling me more than any of the words that came before, I nod slowly, watching as a broad smile spreads across his sinfully handsome face.
“You might want to shower first.” I shoot him a dubious look.
“Nah, the food’ll taste better with a little man sweat running through it.”
I can’t help chuckling when he pops a playful eyebrow before stepping back with a shit-eating grin. Then he grips the materialof his t-shirt at the back of his neck to smoothly yank it over his head.
