I take another step forward. “So, he really is just a business deal? It ain’t real?”
“It’s not real.”
“Does he kiss you like I used to?” I ask, picking up one of her long curls between my fingers.
She shakes her head.
I made a choice to stay celibate; I never expected her to do the same thing. But, I’m not sure my head can function if she’s sleeping with the guy she’s fake-engaged to.
“Does he chase you? Fuck you? Make you scream? Does he eat you out like it’s his favorite pastime?”
Her cheeks flush bright red, and I smile. I’m gettin’ to her.
“I’ll take that as a no.”
“Ace,” she says carefully. “What are you doing?”
“I had some time to think on the ride back here,” I tell her.
“Okay…”
“You don’t love him. That means the war isn’t lost, Harper. I was talkin’ shit earlier. I didn’t mean what I said. Don’t walk away, not again.”
She sucks in a shaky breath. I gotta keep talkin’. Make her understand.
“It means I ain’t giving up. I’ve waited six long years for you to come back to me, you think I’m going to let you walk out of my life again without trying?”
I close the distance completely, my lips now hovering over hers.
By instinct, my hand wraps lightly around her throat, her pulse pounding against my palm.
“You might be engaged to another man, but you will always belong to me, Harper Jones,” I growl.
That spark in her eyes ignites.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Harper
My heart is hammering. He's looking at me like he wants to devour me. Make me his, utterly and completely.
My gaze flicks between his eyes and his lips. His hand tightens around the back of my neck, thumb pressing against my pulse point where he can feel exactly what he's doing to me.
"Are you goin' to be a good girl and give me a kiss to say hello properly?"
There it is. I melt.
We're both seconds away from snapping. Right here. Right now. Everything else forgotten. Because when it's just me and Ace, the rest of the world ceases to exist. It always has.
"This is a bad idea, Ace," I whisper.
He tilts his head, his dark eyes burning into mine. "The Harper I fell in love with, she loved gettin' in trouble if I remember correctly."
My cheeks burn. "Yeah, because I usually had you chasin' me right into it."
He chuckles. "Best time of my life, Goldie."
I smile. "Yeah. Mine too."
