Page 10 of Wicked and Claimed

“Ten, nine, eight…” the crowd chanted collectively.

As the deafening countdown rang out around them, Nash didn’t—couldn’t—pull his stare from Haisley as, one giant step after the other, he ate up the distance between them.

“Nash? What do you?—”

“Want?” he drawled.

“Seven, six, five…”

Grabbing her by the waist, he pulled her close, his dark stare unwavering. Raw, primal intensity scorched his veins. The urge to tear off her little black dress and plow his way into her doubled when her breath caught and her eyes widened.

He tightened his fingers around her.

“Four, three, two…

“You,” he growled, dragging in her familiar musky-sweet scent that had always been his undoing. “I want you.”

Fuck, one look, one touch, and she threatened to shatter the walls he’d constructed around his heart.

But that’s the way it had always been. The pull between them was so goddamn strong…

“One. Happy New Year!”

Nash surged forward, dragging Haisley against him. Their chests collided. She let out a whimper, her fingers tangling in his shirt. Then his mouth crashed onto her soft lips in a searing, desperate kiss. With a gasp, she thawed against him and kissed him back.

People whooped and hollered around them. Celebratory music started up. Glasses clinked and laughter ensued. All of it faded to a distant hum as he lost himself in Haisley and the sensual flavor of her mouth. Her fucking taste felled him… Sweet, light, so achingly familiar, just like her curves.

He was drowning, dying. The sensual overload threatened to undo him.

Instead of backing away, finding his breath, and collecting his thoughts before he did something really stupid—like tell her he was still in love with her—he lifted Haisley off her feet and carried her to the nearest wall. Without a second thought, he pressed her against the mirror-clad surface, pinned her with his body, and deepened their kiss.

Nash half expected her to protest. But no. She threw her arms around his neck and parted her lips wider.

That was all the invitation he needed.

He drove his tongue into Haisley’s mouth possessively, thrilled as fuck when she lifted her legs and wrapped them around his hips. He gripped her ass in his hands, dying to devour her, to lose himself in her intoxicating embrace. She had to feel how hard he was for her, like he’d always been.

God, he’d give anything to erase the last two years.

As suddenly as he’d kissed her, Haisley wrenched free, her chest heaving. She stared up at him, her eyes shimmering with a firestorm of unspoken emotions. “I can’t do this.”

Her trembling whisper nearly took him out at the knees.

Nash brushed a calloused thumb across her cheek and searched her gaze. “Why? Tell me what the hell happened between us.”

Tears pooled in her eyes. Her pain, her raw vulnerability, was like a stab to the heart. “Nash, I…”

“What?”

“I can’t do this. Again. With you.”

He strained to hear her whisper above the din of the rowdy crowd. But in that moment, as far as he was concerned, no one existed except them.

“What can’t you do? Talk to me? Touch me? I don’t understand.”

Haisley bit her lip to hold back tears and shoved out of his embrace. “I know.”

The loss of her touch left him frozen and aching. “But I don’t. Spell it out.”

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