Page 24 of Paxton

Paxton leans back, looking down at me with nothing but confusion.

“I mean, he’s not the first guy to say that about me.” I shrug. “Every time I try to be intimate with someone, I tense up. It’s too serious. Too big of a commitment to me. Too much to trust someone withallof me, you know?”

He nods. “I know how important trust is for you.”

“Maybe I am broken. Maybe I do put off the prude, non-desirable vibe.”

“You’re fucking joking, right?” he asks, and I blink in surprise at his tone. He releases me, taking a small step back, his eyes trailing me up and down. “Tell me you don’t believe that.”

I sigh. “I don’t know,” I say. “A girl can only hear those things so many times before she starts to believe it.”

“You’re listening to the wrong people then,” he says, stepping closer again. “Because you are the most beautiful, desirable person on the planet.”

A laugh rips from my lips, loud and raw.

Then I go silent when the face he’s giving me is anything but joking.

“Wait, what?”

“You are,” he says, a sort of resigned resolution on his face.

“You…you think I’m desirable?” I can barely get the words out from how hard my heart is beating.

“I don’t think it,” he says, eyes gliding along my body again. “I know it.”

My lips part, words failing me.

“You’re not broken,” he continues, stepping closer. He leans an arm on the building that I’m braced against, caging me in on one side. “You’re perfect. And I’ll show you right here and now just how damn desirable you can be. All you have to do is say the word.”

I’m not sure I’m breathing.

Wait, yes I am. Hard. Trying like hell to keep up with my heart as I look up at Paxton.

“Show me,” I say the words, feeling altogether like a different woman, another version of myself that is open and free and not scared of what may or may not happen should we cross these lines.

Paxton’s eyes flash from my lips to my eyes again. “You trust me, right?” He inches closer, his mouth a breath away from mine.

“Yes,” I whisper, feeling like a coiled spring.

“Say it again,” he demands as he glides one hand behind my neck, tipping my head back.

“I trust you, Paxton,” I say, breathless. “Show me. I want you to show me. Please.”

His mouth slants over mine in an unrestrained kiss, and I gasp at the contact. His lips feel so damn good against mine, and I tremble at the way he parts my mouth and slips his tongue in, expertly flicking it against mine and stealing my breath.

I reach up, sliding my arms around his neck, wanting him,needinghim closer.

This kiss is different. It has nothing to do with a game and there’s no one watching us. We’re outside the building, sure, but we’re around the corner and covered in shadows.

This kiss is everything.

It’s fire and hunger and trust.

It’s heat and passion and need.

He gives and I take, and he takes and I give in a clash that has me aching in all the right places.

Pax glides his free hand down my side, grazing my breast but dipping lower and lower, to where the edge of my flowy skirt ends. His fingers meet the skin of my thigh, and I sigh at the contact, my heart pounding as he slowly trails that hand up and up…

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