Page 12 of The Stolen Dagger
Perfect.Dangerously perfect.
He smiled with a look of wonder on his face and leaned in again, but a wave of panic rose inside me.
What the hell am I doing?
I couldn’t get involved with a cop. No matter how nice and handsome and caring and dreamy he was. Not afterAdrian. Not after what hedid.
I placed my hands on Drew’s chest, and as wrong as it felt, I pushed him away.
“I—” I started at the same time he spoke.
“I’m sorry.” Drew straightened and dropped his hands from my body. The loss of his touch was like being submerged in ice water. He stepped back and ran a hand through his dark, wavy hair. His brows crunched in concern and confusion. “I thought?—”
“I know.” The urge to spill everything right then was strong, but I couldn’t do that to him. I couldn’t burden him with my shitty past that followed me like a storm cloud.
Adrian’s warning to me after what I witnessed rang through my head at full volume. His fear-inducing words still had an unrelenting grip on me.
“But we can’t,” I tried to explain. “I can’t.”
“Did I do something wrong?” Drew asked, hurt mixed in with his confusion.
“No.” I looked down at my feet, not wanting to look him in the eyes as I lied. “It’s just … Leah is my friend. I don’t want to ruin that by sleeping with her brother. I’m sorry.”
He was silent, so I glanced up, expecting him to be angry or to yell at me for being a tease, but he wasn’t doing any of that.
Instead, there was a small, knowing smile on his face.
“Leah?” Drew asked in amusement.
“Yes …” I said, but it came out more like a question.
What is he doing? Shouldn’t he be angry that I was rejecting him?
Drew chuckled. “Is that the best you could come up with? Because of my sister?”
“I—”Fuck. What do I say?
“Okay,” he said simply. “I’ll accept your bullshit excuse about Leah being the reason I can’t kiss you so hard we’re both drunk with desire.”
He placed one hand on my hip and pulled me until I was flush against him. I sucked in a sharp breath at the feel of his hardened cock through his thin gym shorts.
His mouth hovered beside my ear as he whispered, “And believe me, darlin’, I want to do much more than just kiss you silly.”
I shivered as his hot breath fanned over my chilled skin.
“But I’m not giving up.” Drew pulled back slightly, his viridian eyes holding me captive. “Because whatever this feeling is between us, it feels too right to ignore.”
At a loss for words, I just stood there, not used to a man so confident in his feelings. A man who didn’t lose his temper at me saying or doing something he didn’t like.
This is all too much.I can’t … I need to get out of here.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, stepping back and out of his arms.
I grabbed my bag from where I had left it on the corner of the training mat and practically ran out of the room without looking back.
Because if I did, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from giving in to the one man who could easily unravel everything I had tried so hard to bury deep inside myself.
CHAPTER THREE
