Page 13 of Should I Fall
“Yeah?”
“Hell yeah.”
Our gazes lock across the room, and the overwhelming temptation to leave my station and go to her comes over me. For a single beat, I consider throwing caution to the wind. Letting my guard down for one night to see where this might lead. Stormi Winters might damn well be my future, if only I gave us the chance to explore this.
“You don’t strike me as the behind the desk type,” I say instead, keeping my feet rooted in place.
“I’m not,” she says, running her fingers along the blue streak in her braid.
“So why were you working as a paralegal?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I think we have time for one of those,” I offer, realizing I mean it. Probably because all I’ve wanted to do since the moment I first heard Stormi open her mouth is learn everything about her.
“I wanted to make my dad proud.”
I wait for her to continue, but instead, she busies herself rubbing her fingers over Blaze’s head like he likes. His eyes have fallen shut, and I’m pretty sure he’s smiling.
“That doesn’t sound like a long story,” I say.
“My dad’s a lawyer. He wanted one of his daughters to go to law school. After the divorce, I thought it was a way to stay close to him.” She pinches her lips, lifting her gaze to the rain-streaked windows to the east. “Let’s just say it’s the only thing we have—had—in common. And now…”
“And now?”
“My family’s…complicated.”
“They wouldn’t be proud of you for standing your ground?”
“I’m the whimsical one with no grounding in reality. The witchy one obsessed with crystals, overly sensitive to everything, and convinced things work themselves out if only we stop trying to force them. It’s the exact opposite of how they all live their lives. I’m the free spirit with no plan. That’s how they see me—my dad, my mom, my stepmom, my sister—there’s a reason she didn’t ask me to be her maid of honor. This practical job kept them from forming an intervention. They’ll see me quitting as a reason to be concerned, especially because I have no savings and no backup plan.”
“Stormi—”
“I’m sorry I attacked you,” Stormi says, smiling as she wipes the tears from her cheeks with the back of her hands. It’s a forced smile, but a clear indication that she’s ready to move on from the conversation, and I respect her wishes.
“I’d much rather be attacked by you than Brutus.”
This time when our eyes catch and lock, there’s heat that the woodstove can’t take credit for.
My cock starts to harden again.
Iwanther.
Ineedher.
And I haven’t allowed myself to need anybody for a long damn time.
But it’s the thought of her leaving in the morning that keeps my feet rooted in place and my eyes scanning the mountains. Because Stormi Winters doesn’t seem like the kind of woman I could ravage for a night and live without every night after.
I want her.
And if I give in, I know I’ll want her…always.
Chapter Seven
Stormi
“You’re not sleeping on the floor, Dash,” I insist, tugging him up by the arm. Or attempting to because I’m not strong enough to lift a brick house who’s doing exactly nothing in aiding my attempts. The shirtless lug just sits there, beside the actual bed, on a makeshift sleeping pad that hurts my back just by looking at it.
