CHAPTER 62 #2
“That’s where I’m holding you,” I say calmly. “But you push me away too quick, and it gets tricky with the landing. The quad isn’t necessary.”
“You think I can’t handle it.”
A step closer to me.
“I never said that.”
A step closer to her.
“It’s implied.” Rich blue flickers, and the longest lashes bat, breaking my focus. If she wants my attention to be on the damn lift, she better take a step back. “I can handle it.”
Fuck me, of the list of things she could have chosen to say, she had to say that.
And how the hell did her hand end up on my shoulder?
More importantly, why the fuck am I taking this long to respond?
“It bothers you, doesn’t it?” she says, her voice teasing, knowing she’s trapped me.
I force myself to bring my gaze to her eyes, heat pricking against my neck at the luring sight. “What bothers me, Ana?”
“Listening to me when you’re wrong.”
“No, it bothers me when you don’t listen to me even when you’re wrong.”
“Thought you’d be used to it by now.”
“So did I.”
After almost twenty fucking years, so did I.
Each thought, each second that passes warns me how wrong this is, how acting on even the most innocent desire could destroy us both.
But, right now, here in this hazy kitchen, the most frustrating girl to ever exist parts the most beautiful set of lips to ever exist, and I just about forget the damage we’d do to each other.
I lower my head, barely towering over her impressive height. Startled by the move, Ana’s back collides with the kitchen wall, her eyes burning through mine.
I see it in those sirens, she’s waiting for me to fall. First.
I won’t.
My hands still to my sides, still steered with reason, I say, “It seems I’ve failed to account how well you’d manage to piss me off every time we’re in the same room.”
“Pissed, is that what you are?” She scoffs. “From where I’m standing it looks like you’re about to kiss me.”
“Looks are deceptive,” I say with conviction, though feel it exponentially harder to breathe this close to her face.
So I stare at her lips.
“When did you land it, Ana?” I rasp, flicking my gaze back to her eyes after a long beat of silence.
“Land what?” she gulps out, and it pains me to not reach my hand out and trace the shape along the column of her neck.
She knows what I’m referring to—her triple axel—the sudden flickering of her lashes sealing the fact.
Though she chooses to drag out her response, torturing me with a few more seconds of it, that ends in her whispering, “In summer.” She sighs. “The night we ran into each other at the rink.”
Hm.
“Really?” My scoff comes out of nowhere, searing right into her creased brows.
“Yes.”
“So my advice did work.”
Raising her heated face, Ana leans into me, tugging me back with her. “You know, you’re not as good as you think you are. There’s a thousand other people who would’ve given the same advice. I actually think there’s still time for me to find another partner, one that knows how to hold me correctly.”
“Careful.” I cup her chin. “That little attitude of yours is going to run down your leg one day.”
“Hm.” She laughs. Actually fucking laughs at me. “You’re all talk. And no action, Larsson.”
Okay, then I’ll give her what she wants.
Hiking up her right leg, hooking my arm under her other knee, I lift Ana up. The starting pose of our triple twist lift.
By the looks of her bottom lip pouted forward, she wasn’t expecting that.
“If this is wrong, please,” I challenge, “tell me exactly what I should be doing.”
She folds her hands over mine, sliding them down her body—much lower—making me reconsider the whole suggestion.
Still silent, she stops our joined skin at the edge of her hips.
“Better?” I punch out.
As I lower her to her feet, our gazes freeze when my hands snake around her backside, meeting at the curve of her ass.
“You didn’t answer,” I remind.
I don’t even remember the question.
“Oh,” she mutters breathily, “right. Barely.”
“Right.” Removing my hold on her waist, frustrated at her, at my inability to control myself around her, that restless spark reaches my fingers, sliding them back to her front.
“Of course that wasn’t to your standard.
Nothing I do ever will be, I know.” Her eyes fill with the deepest ink, carefully tracking each movement of my hands, one dragging up her chest, the other smoothing along her thigh.
“You agree with that, though, don’t you? ”
Ana nods.
“So it’s about me. If I was anyone else, you’d listen.”
She nods again.
“Why do I find that hard to believe.”
“I don’t care what you believe.”
“Then why are you still here?” Something cracks in her usually bulletproof eyes.
“I know why.” She sucks in a breath when my fingers slip underneath the bottom of her top.
“You like it when I touch you.” The crease in her brows deepens as she parts her lips to try and prove me wrong.
But she doesn’t. “And I know you hate how much you like it.” Her eyes shut, and I wonder if it’s because she can’t bear to look into mine while I slam her with the truth.
Skating up her stomach, my fingers memorize every goose bump that’s left in its wake, feeling Ana raise her leg along my thigh.
I help her, bringing her hips higher until she’s pinned my leg in place.
It would be so easy to go there. To let go and have her until she’s nothing but mine.
And she’s not making it easy, not when she grips my shoulders, rubbing herself along my leg. The soft rocking back and forth of her sex over my thigh has me cursing underneath my breath for wearing any pants at all, squeezing my dick painfully to ward off any pleasure of my own.
She moans, and the sound rips my heart right out at how vivid and magnetic it felt to hear. I should stop.
We should stop.
Smoothing my fingers right beneath the curve of her breasts, I trace them just enough to drive her mad, leaning back to get a better sight of her face.
Such a fucking wrong move.
It would be so easy to just move a little higher, touch those tight pebbles poking against her sheer top.
As if somehow reading my mind, Ana’s eyes finally slide open, and—my God—she looks hypnotizing.
Her temple creased sharply, her irises a haunting shade of sapphire.
Moving my lips toward her, I’m surprised at how quickly she surrenders, feeling the heat from her mouth already starting to poison my tongue.
When her eyes dip to my lips, I lean in slick.
“But wait,” I pause, “weren’t you the one who said you’d never kiss me?
” My nails scratch the impossibly soft skin around her tits, spotting the frustration and desire flood all over her tense features.
“Isn’t that right, Ana?” She stares at me wordlessly.
“You should know,” I rasp against her ear, “I’m not one to go where I’m not welcome. You want me, you need to come to me.”
Ripping my hand out from her shirt, I let go of her completely, watching as she slumps against the wall, eyes, lips, cheeks, all flushed and speechless. That we almost went there. That I stopped.
Turning away from her, the realization cuts through me.
This can’t end well.