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My hand grasping the towel drops to my side. “I’m not sure that I do,” I admit. “Your truths tend to hurt, Beast.”
“I’ve not handled this situation very well,” he says, pushing up off the bench and walking towards me.
“So now I’m asituation?”
“See, this fucking mouth of mine. What I meant was—”
“Don’t,” I say, holding my hand up to stop him from getting any closer. I’m still holding the fucking hand towel and we both look at it dangling from my fist.
He reaches for it, taking it from me. “Let me,” he says softly, and before I can refuse, he’s stepped behind me and is slowly dragging the towel over my wet hair.
“I ain’t good at this, Princess,” he admits, gently massaging my scalp as he dries my hair.
“You seem pretty good at it to me,” I murmur, my eyes rolling in my head as he drops the towel to the floor and runs his hands through my hair, his large fingers gently massaging my scalp.
“That’s not what I meant,” he replies, a soft chuckle in his voice.
“Then what do you mean, Beast, because I don’t understand what this is?”
He continues to massage my head, the heat of his chest seeping into my back as he steps closer. My eyes close and despite everything, I relax against him as his fingers work downwards and his thumbs gently massage the base of my skull. I can’t seem to find the energy to step out of his hold. Instead, I allow this moment of human contact to happen, because Christ knows I’ve not had much of it in my life. My dad isn’t exactly affectionate.
“Ask me again, Princess,” he says, his lips pressing against my ear, the soft rumble of his voice connecting with that part of my body that weeps for him as his fingers wrap gently around my neck, then trail over my clavicle. My clit throbs, desperate to be touched by him as heat courses through my body, and I stifle a moan, feeling his erection pressing against my lower back, thick and hard for me.
“Ask you what?” I mumble, knowing exactly what he means, but not ready to face the truth of what can’t change. No matter what, I willneveroffer myself to him again. I will never ask him to fuck me. My pride and my heart won’t be able to take another hit. If hetrulywants me, then he’s going to have to do better than this. He’s going to have to fight for me.
“Everything I am, every fucking part of me knows that what I want, that what I’m doing now is wrong but I can’t…”
“You can’t,what?” I whisper as his palm smooths up the front of my neck and gently cups my jaw, twisting my head to the side. I tip my head back as he stares down at me, his free hand wrapping around my waist as his palm presses against my belly, warming me there.
“I can’t get you out of my head. Fuck knows I’ve tried, but I fucking can’t,” he concedes, his palm smoothing up my cheek, his thumb brushing over my lips.
“You’re fucking with my emotions, Beast.”
“It’s complicated…”
“Only because you’ve let it be,” I reply, twisting in his arms. He sighs heavily and I pull away, needing to put space between us. He allows me to shift back but he doesn’t let me go.
“You’re a temptation that I’m trying so fucking hard not to indulge in.”
“Then don’t,” I say softly, shocked by my own words more than anything.
“What are you saying?” he asks, looking at me intently.
“I need to protect my heart, Beast.”
“Your heart?” he cocks his head to the side, gripping me tightly back against him.
I press my hands against his chest, allowing myself some breathing space. “Yes, my heart. You have a habit of carving them out of people’s chests,” I say with a wry grin.
“Not yours. Never yours,” he says, swiping the pad of his thumb against my bottom lip. He flicks his gaze from my eyes to my lips and back again as he leans closer, pressing a soft kiss against my mouth. It takes monumental effort not to melt against him, to let him take my first proper kiss, my first everything, but a sense of self-preservation kicks into gear and I shake my head, our noses bumping as I do.
“No, Beast. I meant what I said,” I say, pushing harder against him. “You don’t really want this.”
“You’ve no idea what I want,” he grinds out, holding me tighter, pressing me closer to his erection.
My fingers curl into his top. “I know that you’re loyal to Carter, that you don’t want to betray him. I know that you don’t want to go against your own morals. I know that you’ll keep blowing hot and cold with me until you get your head straight. I know that I won’teverallow a man to touch me who isn’t a thousand percent sure that nothing else butmematters to him. I know that no matter how much I want you to fuck me right now, Iwon’tlet you.”
“Princess…” he mutters, his fingers twining in my hair as he pulls my head back and forces me to look at him. I meet his fiery gaze with my own.
“It’sGrim,” I say firmly, locking down my emotions, forcing my feelings back inside the heart he bruised with his rejection and avoidance.
“You will always be Princess to me,” he says.
“And that’s why this will never work, Beast, because I wasalwaysdestined to be queen,” I reply, then step out of his arms and stride away from him.
He doesn’t follow, just like I knew he wouldn’t.
