Page 97 of Renegade Rift

She brings her hand up, tracing her fingertips across my chest. “It was nice to have you there. At first for reassurance that I wasn’t alone. And then as a constant.”

“Then I did my job.”

“Thank you, again. For planning these dates and helping me find my confidence.”

“Juliet, I—”Love you. Want you. Would do anything for you.

Whoa, where did that first one come from? The last two make sense, but love? Is that what this is?

She arches her brow. “What were you going to say?”

Nothing I can say out loud. But at the same time, I demanded honesty from her, so who am I to keep secrets? “It was dipping a toe into dangerous game territory.”

She pauses her fingers and splays her hand over my racing heart. “And if I want you to?”

I’m so fucked.

And yet, I can’t stop myself from playing this damn game with her. She’s fire, and I’m a moth caught in her glow.

My throat bobs and I carefully choose my words. “I’d tell you that you need to be very specific about what you want, because when it comes to you, I might get carried away.”

She presses her lips together and her hair brushes her shoulders as she nods. “Then tell me this. If we were in a game ofDungeons and Dragonsand you saved me from the terrible ogre king on our second date, what would happen next?”

“You and your hypotheticals,” I jest, but I freaking love the way her mind works. “I suppose, ever the gentleman, I'd deliver you back to your kingdom.”

Juliet shifts in my lap, and for a split second, I think I’ve said the wrong thing as she stands and turns away from me. It’s not until she looks back and holds out her hand. “Then deliver me.”

I arch a brow and play along, sliding my hand in hers. She turns and tugs me toward her door, but my eyes are focused on the curve of her ass and the way her cheeks sway in those damn shorts.

We arrive too quickly, and she spins so fast that I almost bump into her.

Her hand releases mine, and she raises both to press against my chest, her eyes connecting with mine. “And once you safely delivered me home?”

“I’d reassure you that you were safe, and I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you.”

“And if I thanked you and offered you a reward?”

“I’d humbly decline.” I dip my head, making a dramatic show of bowing to the goddess before me. “The reward is taking care of you.”

“But, valiant knight,” she protests, and God, if her role-playing doesn’t send all my blood rushing south. “What if the reward was a kiss?”

She’s trying to kill me.

“You know not what you’re offering me,” I say through clenched teeth, barely holding on to what’s left of my resolve to

“I’m fairly certain you stripped me of my kiss on our last encounter,” she teases with her words, but the heat in her brown eyes tells a different story.

She’s thinking about the other night, and now I am too. The way I wanted nothing more than to kiss her after we got back to the apartment. I’ll never tell her the way I had to force my hands into my pockets so I didn’t tangle my fingers in her hair and crash my lips to hers.

And then when she called me—fuck—I should be nominated for sainthood for staying on my side of the apartment.

But she’s not ready to hear any of that.

I bring my hand to her chin and trace my fingers up to her ear until my hand cups her jaw. “But I gave you so much more. And considering, I now have the knowledge of what you sound like when you come, fair maiden, I’m positive if I kiss you tonight, I won’t be able to stop myself from finding out what you look like in the throes of passion. So, best not to tempt my fragile will.” My response is playful but honest. Normally I’d be the king of ironclad resolve. But after tonight—after seeing her with my friends and witnessing what could be if she were mine—I’m weak. She needs to know that.

“A dangerous game indeed.” Juliet’s lower lip finds its way between her teeth, and I watch as she chews on what I’ve shared. She inhales deeply and nods to herself. “But I think it’s one I’m willing to play if you are.”

I blink. Once. Twice.

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