Page 48 of Playing With Love

“This isn’t real,” she whispered.

“It’s real.”

“This isn’t real,” she softly repeated.

“Baby, it is.”

The slow blink concerned me. The horrified expression more so.

“You can’t love me.”

“I can and I do. Fell in love with you the first time we sat at the bar together and you bitched about the stupidity of felons. Went on and on about the state of the world and how it was too bad common sense couldn’t be taught. I wasn’t ready then. I knew you were it for me, perfect for me in every way. I let you go, stayed connected the best I could. But fought the urge to explore what was between us. I lost that fight one night in my hotel room. The next day I knew I was a special kind of fuckwit for telling you we couldn’t go there again when all I wanted was to get lost in you, your body, and what you could give me. But I wasn’t there yet, I wasn’t in a place where I could give it all back to you. It’d be all take, and that wasn’t fair to you. But at no point did I stop loving you. And the only time I stopped believing there was a future for us was when you married Boyer. Which brings us back full circle—Tucson. You were shot of him, your divorce final, and I once again, knew we’d have a future. And I’ll remind you—a future I’d wanted for a decade, so there was no way I was gonna fuck that by spending the night with you before I explained where I’d intended to take us. Before I told you I was ready to quit my job. Before I laid it out and made sure you didn’t get it twisted. I didn’t want another night with you, Lizzy, I wanted a lifetime. No way in hell was I gonna jack that up.”

“Tucker.” My name was no more than a breath. When she didn’t go on, I did.

“So now that we’re here, talking this shit out, instead of both of us acting like we’re dumbasses—hiding from what’s real, what’s been between us for a long time, from what we both want. You’re not running away from me. You’re checking out of this hotel and staying with me. But that’s gonna have to wait until after we get back to work, talk to the team and Allyson, and find you a way into Nu Dawn. But to reiterate, you’re doing that while staying with me.”

“I can’t.”

Jesus fuck.

“Liza, you can and you will.”

“No, Tucker, you don’t understand.”

“You’re right, I don’t. But I will tonight when you talk to me and tell me.”

“Tuck—”

I was done—with the conversation, with her refusing to admit we had something that was worth exploring, for denying me something I’d wanted for so fucking long it felt like I came out of the womb loving her.

If she didn’t want to listen, I’d show her.

I took a step closer, tossed her purse on the bed, hooked her around the back of the neck, and before she could protest, I slammed my mouth over hers.

And that was all it took for her denial to slip away.

I might’ve initiated the kiss, but it was she who kissed me. It was she who rolled up on her toes for more. It was she who pressed her soft tits against my chest. It was she who moaned into my mouth when I deepened the kiss. And it was definitely she who held onto my shoulders and enclosed her legs around my hips when I hefted her up. The maneuver was two-fold; I wanted her closer, I needed to feel her wrapped around me, and I wanted that without her on her toes and me courting a backache to get it.

There might’ve been a third reason why, a consequence of the two. Something I’d forgotten because it had been so long since I’d had her—but now that I had it again, I remembered. The feel of her, phenomenal. The taste of her coupled with the feel of her wrapped tight—electric, the kind of charged excitement that heated your blood, made you feel alive. The kind that once you had it, you were instantly addicted.

Since I hadn’t had it for ten years, I took my fill.

And if I had it my way, I’d have it for the rest of my life.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Tucker’s hand on my ass squeezed while simultaneously his hand in my hair tightened before he wrenched his mouth from mine.

Wanting it back, never wanting the kiss to end, I chased it and moaned my protest.

“Lizzy,” he groaned.

“More.”

“Baby, I’m two seconds from stripping you down,” he warned.

That sounded like the best idea I’d ever heard.