AllFreeNovel
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“You don’t seem to be a choice for me.” He runs his blunt finger over the stem of the glass. “We are every kind of bad idea there is…but I can’t talk myself out of exploring the possibilities.”
He reaches for the champagne bottle, his tattooed fingers gently grasping the neck. Unable to ignore the fluidity of his movements, I watch him pour the golden liquid into our flutes, the bubbles rising and dancing.
“Salute,” I murmur as we raise our glasses, clinking them together.
“Salute,” he echoes, his eyes never leaving mine.
“You can have almost anything you want…why are you interested in spending time with a geeky mathlete?” I shift in my seat. “What you saw the other day is the real me. This glammed-up version only happens when I’m trying to distract the people I play cards with.”
“For the record…I like the woman in jeans and no makeup.” He leans back, his broad shoulders spilling past the chair. “Why does gravity work the way it does? The moon pulls the ocean, and you do the same thing to me.”
I watch him take my hand. “What are you—”
“You make me want to break every rule I hold sacred.” His grasp tightens. “I want to open you like a book and read every goddamn page until I have you memorized.”
“Why?” I ask, my voice barely a whisper.
“Because then you will always be a part of me.”
His words catch me off guard, and I swallow hard, feeling the weight of our connection. “Don’t say things like that,” I whisper.
“Why?”
“Because this is all we’ll ever have.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it.” He lifts his glass. “But we’ll start with tonight.”
He pushes a plate filled with canapes forward, and I choose a small shrimp roll and feel exactly like I’m the one being pulled. Everything he does draws me closer, making me never want to let go. A picture of us sitting on the kitchen counter, laughing skitters across my mind. “You are dangerous to my well-being.”
“I doubt it.” He tilts his head. “Whatever our souls are made of, yours and mine are the same.”
“Emily Bronte?”
“Yes.”
“Should I ask how you came to quote the author of Wuthering Heights?”
“My cousin. She loved it and repeated passages until my ears bled.”
“Lucky you.”
“Yeah…I might be.”
I breathe deeply and tell myself I’m not falling for him. “So—”
“When you’re not taking money from unsuspecting strangers, how do you fill your time?”
“I think the other players know what to expect by now.”
“Hobbies, interests, something you enjoy.”
“Documentaries, hot yoga, books and quiet.”
“Introvert?”
“Yes. But an extrovert when I have to be.”
“Same.”
