Chapter 20 #2
I caught her wrist. “Out,” I said to everyone else in the room, tightening my grip when she made to leave. “Not you.”
“Uh-oh,” Caleb said. “Mom and Dad are going to fight.” He took Emma by the hand and led her out of the bathroom.
Ryder and Penny laughed and followed, taking Hank with them.
And then it was just us, staring at each other.
I sloshed my way out of the tub while still holding on to her. I was trying to figure out what to say when her stomach growled loudly, making me laugh. “Guess the Cheetos weren’t enough.”
We padded to the kitchen, still quiet as I pulled the foil off the flatbread. Steam hit us like fresh-baked mercy. “The trick is to ignore them,” I said.
“I’m not ignoring your family.”
“They’re your family too.”
Her eyes softened as I resettled my hands on her hips and gave a light squeeze.
“Haze?”
“Hmm?” She drifted a little closer, those baby blues drawing me into their sweet depths.
I’d happily drown in them.
“You were going to say something,” she whispered. “Probably that you want to kiss me.”
“I always want to kiss you.”
She looked at my mouth. “I’m a firm believer in following your instincts. Would you say this is an instinct? Like…an unbearably irresistible instinct?”
God, this woman. “Most definitely irresistible.”
Her smile came slowly. Hot as hell. Helpless to resist, I yanked her into me, her laugh ringing like I’d just gotten away with something as she slid her hands up my chest and settled over my heart, which drummed loud enough to drown out rational thought.
I cupped her face. “I care about you.” Way more than I intended to say out loud.
She squirmed, cheeks flushing. “I…um…same.”
I grinned. “Still crushing the whole emotional-vulnerability thing, I see.”
She rolled her beautiful eyes. “Yeah, well…” She scowled. “You have plenty of things that aren’t your strong suit, like…” She fell silent, coming up empty.
“Say it,” I teased. “Say I’m not bad at anything.”
“It’s not funny when it’s true!” She shoved me back and set her hands on her hips.
I grinned. “Come on. You know damn well I’m bad at plenty.”
“Name one thing.”
My smile faded. “Apparently, making sure you know I’m on your side.”
She seemed stunned, and my chest clenched.
“Haze, tell me you know this.”
She drew in a breath. “I do. But it’s nice to hear out loud.”
Then she rose onto her toes, sliding her hands up my chest and around my neck, giving a little tug.
I bent my head to meet her halfway, and she kissed me. Soft, warm, and alive. I hauled her in, anchoring us together like I never wanted to let go.
“Is this okay?” she whispered.
“It’s the best thing that’s happened to me today.”
She smiled against my mouth and then kissed me again, deeper this time, like the world was on fire and we were only a few feet above the flames. Messy. Desperate. Everything.
We came up for air, staring at each other. I had no idea what she was thinking, but I was wondering how fast I could get her behind a closed door with a lock and no brothers anywhere within a five-mile radius.
But first…I pulled back a fraction of an inch. “You want this?”
“I want this,” she whispered. “I want you. And I’m tired of pretending I don’t.”
“No more pretending—”
The words weren’t even out of my mouth before she launched herself at me. I caught her, turned, and headed for my bed without passing Go, hoping like hell Hank was snoring like the dead.
“Do you think this is just nostalgia?” she asked breathlessly.
I stopped in the living room to pin her to the wall with my body. “Our chemistry? It’s not nostalgia.” I held her gaze. “It’s real.”
She searched my eyes as if she wanted to believe me more than anything. She drew a breath. “You keep showing up, and I keep waiting for you to realize I’m nothing but trouble and not worth it.”
“You are.”
“Which? Trouble or worth it?”
“Both.” I pressed her into the wall hard enough to free up my hands to cup her face. “You’re worth it, Haze. You’ve always been worth it. Even when you’re setting my world on fire, you’re worth every damn second.”
Her mouth opened and closed. Twice. “No one’s ever said anything like that to me before.”
“Then they didn’t deserve you.”
She wrapped her arms around my neck as I gathered her in close and gently sank my teeth into her earlobe, pulling a full-body shiver from her.
“Tucker,” she gasped, breathy and shaky.
At least I wasn’t the only one losing myself here. I skimmed my mouth along her slim throat and smiled as she fought to hold in a moan and failed.
“How do you do this to me?” she whispered, turning her head to give me better access. “I don’t even know what to do with it all.”
“Just don’t run.” I lowered my mouth to hers, and what was meant to be something sweet turned into something else entirely as she climbed me like a tree.
“Love it when you do that,” I murmured into her ear. “Clutch at me like you can’t live without me.”
“You wish.”
“I do.”
She rocked against me. “You seem like a man on a mission.”
I laughed roughly. “You have no idea. I’ve given a lot of thought to this. There’s a list of things I want to do to you.” My hands squeezed her sweet ass. “A detailed, comprehensive list.”
Hazel’s hands fisted in my hair as she rocked her heated center over the fly of my jeans until I nearly embarrassed myself. I drank in her moans while I moved us down the hall, then froze when someone knocked at the front door.
“Tuck,” Ryder said through the door. “We forgot to ask you about the Moreno estimate.”
Excellent. Murder, it is.
Hazel’s wide-eyed gaze was on mine. We were still plastered up against each other, so close that I could see the pulse at the base of her neck fluttering wildly.
She didn’t have to say the words for me to know she wasn’t ready to loop everyone in on the fact she was staying with me. Not when neither of us even knew what we wanted this to be. No, that wasn’t true. I knew exactly what I wanted it to be. But damned if I’d rush her.
The front door’s handle turned but didn’t open because I’d locked it on our pass to the kitchen. “Go the fuck away.”
“Let us in.” Great. Caleb too.
I bit back a sigh. “I thought you left.”
“We were talking in your driveway. Got a question.”
I dropped my forehead to Hazel’s. “Go away.” I brushed my mouth against her ear. Then whispered, “I’m sorry.”
She shook her head as if to say, No apology necessary, and then she kissed me, reigniting the wildfire in my chest.
I had no idea how she could make me lose my mind at a single look, a single touch, but I couldn’t stop, couldn’t think.
There was only the sensation of Hazel matching my intensity, tongue stroke for tongue stroke, ragged moan for ragged moan, that fire in my chest rushing south as her hips ground against mine—
“Huh,” Ryder said behind us. “Interesting.”
I let go of Hazel’s legs so she could slide down, holding on to her for an extra beat while she found her equilibrium.
I turned to my brothers, who’d let themselves in through the unlocked back door. “I hope you enjoyed that,” I said tightly, “because I’m changing the locks tomorrow.”
They just grinned, and I knew it was because they cared about us both, that they wanted me happy, but fuck, their timing sucked.
“How are your feet?” Hazel asked.
“Smooth as a baby’s ass,” Caleb said.
I pointed to the door. “Out.”
Caleb’s brows were so high, they vanished into his hair. “You really expect us to pretend we didn’t just walk in here to find two of my very favorite people trying to swallow each other’s tonsils?”
I rubbed the headache forming at my temples.
Ryder looked at Hazel. “I hope you know what you’re doing, because this guy”—he hooked a thumb in my direction—“doesn’t.”
“Standing right here,” I muttered.
“Where’s the lie?” Ryder asked.
Hate that he’s got me there.