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I need to see that smile on his face and light in his eyes again. “I’ll just be a second,” I hear myself stammer awkwardly.
My lids flutter like my heart. My brain is screaming at me to calm down. My heart is pounding out of my shirt.
My insides broadcast the intense need for that mouth to be on me. I want that huge body of his to be someplace else instead of standing upright in my store.
All while I try to focus on lifting some cartons from one end of the counter to the other.
“I’ll be out of your hair in a second,” Theo gulps, grimacing a sorry face and then looking away.
I’m trying not to focus on the other type of intense stare I’m noticing James can give when he’s mad about something. His look is burning holes through Theo.
He’s glad to get his cartons and leave. When Theo does go, he doesn’t even bother to say goodbye or shoot the breeze for a minute like he usually does, even when he is in a hurry.
Leaving me with the same stabbing ache of confusion that’s grappling with my now waning arousal.
Come back… I need you.
CHAPTERFOUR
James
Jasmine does her best to act natural, but I can tell I’ve already made a bad impression.
Just a courier picking up some flowers.
That’s what I try to tell myself. It’s true. I can see it for myself.
The parts of me that want her, the parts drawn to Jasmine to claim her as my own… they’re not parts that have good reasoning or even accountability.
It’s my inner animal. The beast in me… call it what you want.
And when it senses another male within spitting distance of what I know is mine? Well, how else am I supposed to act? I totally lose control.
But having “known” her for less than five minutes, it doesn’t take a genius to see I’ve gone too far. It’s not a line I mind crossing at all. Just a pity it’s a line in the wrong direction.
“Ummm… that was pretty rude,” Jasmine finally says sharply, after taking a moment to collect her thoughts.
She crimps her mouth, doing her best to look stern with me. Seeing anything less than a smile in her eyes cuts me like a knife, and knowing I put that frown on her sweet face makes me madder at myself than I could ever be with whatever the fuck his name was.
Courier guy.
The thought makes me growl again. And I can see my behavior isn’t just out of order. It’s probably frightening Jasmine, which is the last thing I want to do.
Her eyes widen and dart to the door. I’m not mad at her. I know I never could be, no matter what she said or did.
When I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirrored wall behind her, I see how crazy I look, giving a face to how insane I sounded.
My hands have balled into fists, and my chest is heaving like I’ve just run a marathon. My eyes look like they could gut, skin, and filet twenty Theos without me even stopping to notice.
But these swimmers I’ve got inside…
The seed I want to plant. Pollinateherflower with.
That’s the fuel I’m running on now, and too bad for me. It stops my mouth from checking with my brain first before it goes and makes things worse.
“How long has that been going on?” I clip, feeling the rising alarm inside when I hear the tone of accusation in my voice.
Jasmine’s shoulders drop. Her expressionthat reads “really?”says it all.
