Chapter 27
Sabrina’s brain chose that moment to stop comprehending English.
She knew the look she gave Hew was the same one she might give a guy who’d suddenly sprouted corn cobs from his ears. And as soon as she opened her mouth, she closed it again because the words caught in her throat. She had to press a hand to her chest to make sure her heart was still beating.
Yup. More than beating. Racing out of control.
“I’m sorry. I think I took one too many raps to the ol’ noggin’ in that bottling plant.” She tapped her temple. “Could you repeat what you just said?”
“I don’t think it should be Martin.” His delicious accent made it sound like Mahtin. “I think it should be me.”
“But…but…” she sputtered, blinking. “Don’t you hear those alarm bells?” She pointed into the air. “The ones screaming that this is a bad idea between friends?”
“Historically, when it comes to alarm bells, I’m tone deaf.”
He looked so calm. By contrast, her emotions were breaking through her bloodstream and making her feel high. Or drunk. Or oxygen-deprived.
Didn’t he worry about what would happen after? Didn’t he realize that if they had sex, she’d probably grow to love him more, and that might ruin her for any man in the future?
That was all he was offering, right? Sex for the sake of making her feel safe? Sex for the sake of helping her heal? Sex for the sake of sex, without any conditions or expectations?
Her heart twisted into a hard knot.
But her ovaries? Oh, they cartwheeled, begging her to forget about hearts and consequences. Telling her she should focus instead on the promise of slick tongues and hot skin and tangled sheets and—
“I…I…” She tried to form words, but her whole body betrayed her. Her vocal cords included.
His green eyes glittered in the soft yellow light of her dresser lamp. That look—dark and daring—urged her to trust him. To trust this. To admit it was a good idea.
But was it?
She didn’t know. She couldn’t think.
That little voice of reason sure had an opinion, though. It shouted at her in big capital letters. SAVE YOURSELF! SAVE YOUR HEART!
When he leaned forward to take her hand, she sucked in a ragged breath.
How many times had he touched her? Too many to count. How many times had she curled her fingers through his? More than she could remember.
So why did this touch feel so different? So unfamiliar and titillating?
Of course, she knew.
All those previous touches had been platonic, done out of a need to comfort. He had something besides comfort in mind now. Something that curled her toes and dried her throat and made her skin feel too tight.
When she dared to look at him, there was no denying the set of his square jaw. The resolution in his expression.
“Have ya changed your mind?” His voice slid into her like smoke—curling, teasing, slipping through all the cracks in her good sense.
She glanced down at their joined hands. At the sheer maleness of his long, knobby-knuckled fingers compared to her pale, slim ones.
Images of what it would be like to have those fingers tracing over her body, flicking her nipples, pushing inside her in a steady rhythm bloomed to life in her mind’s eye.
“Did I miss my chance?” His voice was even softer now. A bedroom voice, and heaven help her. “Would ya rather it was Martin?”
“God, no.” The two words burst out of her before she’d even formed them in her head.
His chuckle was low and delicious. Sinful.
“Look at me, Sabrina.”
Not a request. A demand.
And she thought, maybe for the first time in nine months, she was getting to see the real Hewitt Birch. The man behind the mask of amiability and understanding.
She braced herself for the impact of his eyes. But the look in them, the lust in them, blew past her fortifications. Burned away her apprehension. Scorched through the last of her caution.
She’d always thought Hew was handsome. But Hew in seduction mode was like nothing she’d ever seen.
His beauty became that of the sea he loved so much. Dangerous. Intimidating. Primal. And the look in his eyes, so dark and hot? She couldn’t help thinking he knew countless ways to make her gasp and moan. Endless tricks to have her writhing and begging.
“I want to do this with you if ya still want me to.” He used his free hand to rub a thumb over her bottom lip. Her mouth opened on an involuntary breath.
The smile that stretched his beautiful lips was male and triumphant. Like she’d answered a question she hadn’t even known he’d asked.
“Do ya trust me?” His deep voice reached an even lower register.
“You know I do.” Her own words were rough, raw, dragged from the very heart of her.
“Then trust me with this.”
She couldn’t think with him touching her. Couldn’t reason with his eyes going all dark and seductive.
She pushed to a stand and paced to the other side of the room.
It hardly helped. Especially when he followed her.
His fingers wrapped hot around her wrist as he spun her to face him. He was all height and heat and him. The moment he stepped close, his boots bumping the toes of her flip-flops, goosebumps scattered up her arms.
“What do ya need me to say, Sabrina? What promises do I have to make?”
Promise to love me! Promise this is more than two friends indulging in some benefits!
But she took the coward’s way out and whispered, “Promise me this won’t change anything. Promise me we’ll still be friends after. Promise you won’t hate me if I need to stop, or—”
He tapped a finger against her mouth to quiet her.
“I promise.”
She felt the words more than she heard them because, once again, she was lost in his eyes. In the look in his eyes that said he was everything she needed, everything she wanted, everything she’d ever dreamed of, and more.
Am I really going to do this?
She didn’t wait for the voice of reason to give its opinion. Instead, heart hammering, she said, “So we agree to terms then?”
His lopsided grin had her core clenching around its own emptiness. “Where do I sign?”
The inches between them felt like a fuse. And her next words? They were the spark.
“Here.” She pressed a finger to her lips. His gaze sharpened on her mouth. “And here.” She opened her lips and touched her tongue.
A low growl rumbled at the back of his throat like she was the source of all pleasure and pain.
Then, he sealed the deal by kissing her.