Page 54 of Fighting For You
Damn, she never would pull a punch. It was always something that drew me to her, but I’d been on the wrong end of the scenario for so long, it was a wonder I could still admire it. And yet I did.
I wouldn’t hold off from honesty… I hadn’t, and I wouldn’t start now.
“Yes.”
The atmosphere around us crowded in—the sounds of the live band shrinking to some point in the distance. My chest heaved, adrenaline firing through my veins so intensely, my hands shook.
“Because you were a coward? Because you really did hate me? If you loved me, how could you do that? It’s a nice story you’ve spun for yourself, but there’s no waythatis the truth.” Her voice had gained strength and she’d gotten this wild look in her eye like she was on the verge of spinning out.
Like any second she’d leave, and no matter what I did, she wouldn’t turn back.
I’d had it with her resistance to the truth. She could be shocked by my admission, but she wasn’t about to call me a liar. I was anything but, and I wasn’t going to stand here and let her reject the truth because it made her uncomfortable. I wasn’t perfect, but neither was she, and I was done accepting the role of villain because I’d loved her and hadn’t known what the hell to do with it.
I took her face in my hands and spoke slowly. “You may not like it, Jess, but I did love you. Clearly, I messed up. I’ve never said I’m smart, only that I had my reasons, and I?—”
I didn’t get out another word because she grabbed me by the collar of my jacket and pulled me in, cutting off my words with a kiss.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Jess
His mouth was surprisingly soft, and he’d trimmed his beard since last weekend, but he didn’t respond to the kiss—I’d stunned him with the contact. His hands fell away from my face, and he pulled back.
His eyes were wild, and my breath came rapidly.
Hadn’t planned on that.
Did I foresee kissing Jude Rawlins today?
No.
But had his repeated claims that he’d loved me somehow driven me so insane I was compelled to?
Evidently yes.
The confusion and fire in his eyes were torches in the dim light of the hallway. I scrambled for something to say—wouldwhoopsie daisycover it?
But then, the torch flickered and brightened, and his hands found my waist. Gaze glued to mine, he paced mebackward into an even darker corner and pressed me against the wall, anchoring my hips with his giant hands.
My heart beat so fast I could hardly breathe. “I’m?—”
“Sorry?”
The gravelly texture to the word and the way his hands warmed through the fabric of my clothes at my waist made me say, “No.”
I wasn’t sorry for kissing him. I was mostly sorry he hadn’t kissed me back. But this… situation he’d placed us in certainly didn’t feel like a rejection.
He waited a beat, staring at me with the intensity of an entire universe of suns before one of those deliciously large hands abandoned my waist and came to cup the back of my neck as he lowered his face to mine and took my mouth with his.
This time, there was no question he was engaged in the process—not only initiating the contact, but driving it, urging me to open for him, tasting me in a way that made me feel not just desired, but needed. Like I might be water in a desert place.
Like he’d always known I’d quench something in him, or douse a burning thing, and now he was collecting his proof.
My hands found their place at his shoulders, and I pulled him closer, urging him to glue me to the wall with his massive form. I’d never let myself think about a moment like this with him—at least not consciously. I’d had little fantasies shoot across my mind like stars when we’d first met, but since then, no.
In the last ten minutes, the cold, bruised thing known as my heart had warmed—unfurled, somehow. And hearing him insist he’d loved me… I’d had to test it. Had he really felt something for me? Was it all just talk? I’d had to push and words hadn’t worked, so in the moment, a kiss had come to mind.
Now, the kiss unraveled me thread by thread, and his thumb slipping under the hem of my top to feel the soft skin of my belly stitched me back into a woman who knew exactly what she wanted.
