AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I roughed a hand over my face and held back a curse because I’d been sure everyone would’ve been too distracted with each other, their crying babies, and unpredictable toddlers to notice I’d slipped out.
Dipping my head in acknowledgment, I admitted, “Had things to take care of.”
We held every major event at the main Borello house. And once a month, our blended family of Rebels got together for a night that was pure magic, thanks to Maverick and me. Full of movies and so much fucking food in the large theater room that we always transformed into a massive fort. This month, it just happened to fall on our birthday, so we’d gone all out.
I’d planned on staying...I’d had every intention. But on the edge of every thought had been that girl I couldn’t seem to get enough of.
Like a siren, I’d felt drawn to her. My resolve weakening over the course of the day until I’d crumbled. Sneaking away and going to her because I’d needed those few hours wrapped up in her, even though I knew I needed to stay away.
“It isn’t a stolen sandwich,” Tree had said last night from where we’d sat on her kitchen counter, eating the cake we’d made in the middle of the night after I’d let it slip that it was my birthday.
I’d struggled to swallow the bite I’d taken, my head shaking as my chest shook with the laugh building there. “Those are the best,” I’d agreed, giving her a look as if to say it wasn’t her fault the cake couldn’t top stolen sandwiches. Then lifted one of my shoulders as I’d taken my fork to the cake again. “This is better.”
Heat had built in her cheeks and her eyes had danced before falling to her lap. “Can I know how old you are?”
“Why wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t get to know a lot about you still,” she’d said, trying to make it sound as if it didn’t bother her. “Like your name.”
My head had dipped in slow nods before I’d answered, “Thirty-four.”
Her eyes had flared in surprise at that as a soft giggle rose in her throat. “I knew you were older, but I was thinking thirty...max.”
I’d paused to study her, wondering for the first time if I should have Einstein look her up even though I knew I didn’t want Tree on anyone’s radar. “Wait, how old are you?”
“I’ll be twenty-six next month.”
“Fuck,” I’d muttered, drawing the word out. “You’re so young.”
She’d tried throwing her fork at me, but I’d caught it just as it’d left her fingers and grabbed her wrist, pulling her close as her laugh had bubbled free. Filling the kitchen and my head as she’d playfully pushed at me. “No, you made it weird. It’s creepy now.”
“Then tell me to leave,” I’d offered as I nipped at her neck, a smirk pulling at my mouth when her head rolled to the side and chills rose on her skin.
“Don’t,” she’d whispered as her fingers slid through my hair, keeping me there. “Please stay.”
I’d gone still for what felt like a lifetime because it was the first time she’d asked me to stay. And, fuck me, I’d wanted to.
But just as fiercely as that need had surged through my veins, the fear demanding I keep her far from my life had beat it back.
So, I’d taken her back to her room and shown her everything I couldn’t say. How she was driving me crazy. How she was becoming an addiction I never wanted to be rid of. And how I would always leave because she needed it.
I liked women...a lot.
I liked to fuck them and never see them again even more. It wasn’t an asshole move on my part if that’s all they wanted from me too. Besides, I had a lot of love to give.
But this was over a month of being unable to stay away from one girl. Of being unable to get my mind right because she took over every goddamn thought. This was over a month of closing in on such dangerous territory because I was falling for her, no matter how hard I tried denying it.
A month of slipping into her apartment in the middle of the night because there wasn’t a place that could keep me out. A month of losing myself in her for hours before we parted ways all over again.
A month of her offering her wrist just before I left as if I could ever forget her scent now. But, fuck, I’ll take the sweet parting. I’ll take every hit of that addicting woman she offered because I knew this wouldn’t last.
As weak as I’d been the past two weeks—giving in and staying longer and longer. Dodging her questions and demanding the same answers because I wanted to know everything about her and craved that extra time with her—I couldn’t let this last.
“Diggs, I know you,” Maverick said, once again pulling me back to the present and away from thoughts of her. “I know you’re doing something you shouldn’t. You wouldn’t be trying to keep it from me if you weren’t.”
“It isn’t like that.”
“You sure about that?” he challenged with a worried look. “Last time you tried keeping something from me, it was weed in our car.”
