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“No.” I can’t help it, reaching across and softly placing my hand on her leg, near her knee. “I know we’re made for each other. I know you’re mine. That’s what scares me.”
“What?” she says softly, her hand moving to mine, firmly pressing as though she wants to savor the feeling of me against her curvy juicy thigh.
“Nothing could stop me from claiming you,” I snarl. “I’m ready to do whatever it takes to make you mine. And that’s the problem. What if it takes ending my friendship with Graham? What if it means tearing your family apart?”
She lets her head fall back, sighing.
“I know, Hayden,” she says. “But it’s not like I can magically stop feeling this way.”
“Me neither. And if I could, I wouldn’t. Never.”
I lean over, risking a kiss on her cheek, but then her scent seems to surround me, her body screaming out, and I find her lips.
My hand tightens on her leg.
She feels too perfect, too right there, made for me.
Mine.
I kiss her hard, my hand gliding up her leg when somebody knocks heavily on the window.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Hallie
I jolt out of the spell, already wondering how we let ourselves go so easily. But then I feel the sizzling memory of Hayden’s lips against mine, the phantom pressure of his hand against my leg, all of it combining to drive my body into take-him-now mode.
There’s the urge to stop or to slow down when I think about what happens when we’re both naked.
But it’s not strong, feeling nowhere near as important as the need to fuse our bodies.
We turn, my mind skipping to the possibility it’s mom or Lila. Lila wouldn’t be so bad since she already knows, but it’s a man I don’t recognize.
He’s tall and wide, wearing a denim jacket, his neck tattooed and his head shaved.
He’s on my side, staring down at me, almost leering down.
When I move to wind the window down, Hayden shakes his head.
“Wait here,” he says.
He climbs from the car and walks around it, causing a shiver to move over my skin as I study the calm way he walks. He carries himself with the confidence of a mature, experienced man.
“Can I help?” Hayden asks, pausing just short.
The bald man turns to him, his expression shifting a little. He’s probably around thirty and a head shorter than Hayden, but he’s just about as muscular, if not a little more, with a swollen look.
It contrasts sharply with Hayden’s rugged hugeness.
“There are families in this neighborhood,” the man snaps. “So be careful, all right? We won’t have that around here.”
Hayden sighs. It’s like I can read the reaction on his face, the way his muscles twitch.
He knows the man’s right. We shouldn’t have been kissing here, not so publicly, and especially his hand shouldn’t have been charting an irresistible path up my thigh.
Hayden takes another step forward, inclining his head. “Fair enough.”
“Fair enough,” the man repeats. “Does that mean you’ll stop?”
Hayden grits his teeth. “You live around here, do you?”
“I live a couple of streets down,” the man says with an aggressive note. “Just moved in, as matter of fact, but the realtor didn’t mention anything about the free pornos.”
“That’s my girlfriend you’re talking about,” Hayden snaps.
Despite the tension, I find myself wanting to punch the air, sing in joy, hearing that word on his lips, and relate to me.
“Then you ought to show her more respect. Or do you want the whole neighborhood to think she’s a slut?”
Hayden walks right up to the man, making him seem smaller than he really is.
It’s the way Hayden glares down, with his whole body taut, his fists clenched at his sides.
I want to climb from the car just in case something happens, but the bald man is standing right at my door, blocking me.
“Perhaps we got a little carried away,” Hayden says, his voice shaking, loud even through the closed window. “But that doesn’t give you the right to talk about her like that. That doesn’t give you the right to do anything. You said your piece, fuck off and be on your way.”
The bald man flinches, taking a small step back. It’s like he’s only just realized how much fury is burning up inside Hayden. He’s keeping it restrained, but I can see the pulsing in his temples, the tightness in his movements, the primal note in his words.
“I didn’t mean….”
“You called my woman a slut,” Hayden snarls.
“I said you were treating her like one.”
Hayden laughs grimly, shaking his head and moving even closer to the man. “Some distinction. And for what? Because we kissed, got a little heavy? Trust me. I didn’t want you seeing that either.”
When he trails off, I can feel him wanting to turn to me, smirking as if silently telling me I’m too difficult to resist.
“But it still doesn’t give you this right,” Hayden snarls. “This is none of your business.”
