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She cleared her throat, her hands on the pulse at her neck, and Tucker stared down into Abby’s soft brown eyes, not knowing what to say—not knowing how to be calm with the heat surging through him.
“Let’s go,” he said roughly, reaching for her hand.
He led her through the crowd, eyes searching for a place where they could be alone. Where there could be some quiet so he could think.
They were near the patio doors that led to the back garden when Tucker caught sight of his Aunt Virginia, deftly making her way toward them. No way did he have time for her. He turned sharply, Abby’s hand still in his, and took a right until he was able to slip out the exit behind the head table.
Without pause, he took to the stairs, not stopping until he’d gone up another flight and then opened the first door on his left. The last rays of sunlight fell in from the window and illuminated what appeared to be a study or office.
“Tucker, slow down.”
Abby tugged her hand from his and stared up at him. There were questions in her eyes—probably the same ones in his—and damned if he was leaving this room until they were answered.
“What the hell? Your family is going to think that you,” she blew an errant strand of hair off her face. “They’re going to think we’re…that we…”
In that moment, he didn’t give a flying fuck what his family or anyone else thought. How could he?
All he saw were eyes that tugged at him. A mouth that tortured him. And a heart-shaped face that made him crazy.
“I’m sure Beau and Cooper both know why I dragged you up here,” he said roughly.
The wariness returned, and she would have stepped away but Tucker didn’t let her. Instead his arm snaked around her waist and he pulled her closer until she was pretty much pressed against every inch of him.
The air was charged with that same hot and heavy something from the night before, and he knew that she felt it too. It was in the way her tongue darted out to rest against her bottom lip. The way her breath caught. It was in the way his heart beat, thrumming like a drum, his pulse racing ahead trying to keep up with his thoughts.
And there was no mistaking the hardness between his legs for anything other than what it was. Desire. Hot and heavy desire.
“That kiss last night,” he began hoarsely.
Silence.
“What about it?” she asked, voice more than a little rough.
His hand slid along her jaw until he cupped the back of her head and kept her gaze locked onto his.
“Why did you go there, Abby? Why did you kiss me like that?”
Shadows crept into her eyes and for a moment, he thought she was going to ignore all of it. Heck, in the past, it was what he would have done. Just ignore it. Put it in a little box, tie it up and forget all about it. It would have been the easy thing to do, because God knows things were getting complicated, and they were getting complicated fast.
But she surprised him. Abby always managed to surprise him.
“I wanted to kiss you,” she replied.
“Why?”
A pause.
“What do you mean, why?”
Christ, she wasn’t going to make this easy. But had he expected that?
“We’ve been friends for a while now, and I just…” God, he couldn’t get out what was inside of him. “Well I just…that kiss kind of blew me away. I thought about it all night.”
There. It was out in the open and the ball was in her court.
She stared up at him for a few seconds, pulse alive at her throat, eyes wide and expressive. She was thinking things. Wondering things.
“I’ve wanted to kiss you for a long time, Tucker. You had to have known that.” Her eyes slid away, as if she was embarrassed at her own candor, and something about the tremble in her bottom lip tugged at him.
