Page 37 of Hart of Vengeance
“You need to relax,” he said in a raspy tone that I had missed terribly.
Regardless, what I needed was his muscled arms around me. I needed him to tell me everything was going to be okay. But Denim had never been one to lie or tell me what I wanted to hear. It didn’t matter what he said, though. He couldn’t break through the guilt that had me wanting to puke my guts out.
I shrugged out of his hold and resumed my ten steps down toward the emergency exit doors and ten steps back.
On my return, he tugged me to him and tipped up my chin with the knuckle of his forefinger. “I’m here for you.”
My bottom lip trembled. He didn’t know how much that statement meant to me or how grateful I was that he was there with me. “Why?”
He’d been a saint, holding my hand on the taxi ride from the coffee shop to the hospital. We hadn’t spoken in the taxi, and we hadn’t needed to. The light gentle circles he’d traced on my palm kept my madness at bay.
He dragged his calloused fingers up my cheek and tucked my hair behind my ear. “Because you need a friend, love.”
Love.His pet name for me was new. In high school, he’d called me baby or baby doll. I shouldn’t complain, but I wasn’t a fan of the pet name. The word “love” evoked too much heartache for me. Yet what had me looking away was the pity in his eyes.
I didn’t know what I hated more, the word “love” or his pity.
Nevertheless, I was ready to bawl my eyes out, and not only for Savannah, but for the memory of Denim walking away.
My pulse beat a furious rhythm in my ears.Pound. Boom. Pound.
He guided my face back to look at him. “Hey.”
A tear slid down my cheek. “Don’t, Denim.”
Cocking his head, he slid his hand around my waist until his palm was seated on my lower back. The heat of his hand penetrated through my clothes, and a string of tingles zipped down my body from my head to my toes.
He hauled me to him until our chests mashed together. “Don’t what?”
I shrugged. I didn’t know how to answer him or if I wanted to open a door that had been closed for years.
His sexy looks, gentle touches, and caring personality were making it extremely difficult to keep that door shut tight. Plus, his growing erection was pressing into me and creating heat so strong that it dampened my panties.
Damn him.
For so long, I’d wanted him in my life. I had wanted to feel him against me, feel his breath tickle my ear, and take in his manly scent, which had been a mixture of sandalwood and cherries. I smiled at the latter. He’d always washed his hair with his sister’s fruity shampoo.
His lips grazed my ear. “You should smile more, Jade. You’re beautiful, especially when you blush.”
I was more than blushing. Goose bumps popped up along my arms as butterflies fluttered in my stomach. God, I hadn’t had this light-headed feeling in forever.
Don’t get lost in his charm. You know what happens.
My heart couldn’t afford to get drunk on his words. Besides, I was there for Savannah not to fall back in love. I took one step back.
His hand caught mine. “Please.” That one word held an ocean of need.
I inched back another step. “I need to sit down.”Or run as far away as I can.
He let me go, dejection washing over him.
I mentally shook off the urge to throw myself at him as I found an empty seat in the back of the room. Sitting, I captured a nail in my mouth.
Denim followed, folding his hot and muscled body into the chair next to me. When his leg brushed mine, heat surged up my thigh and settled in the exact spot that was throbbing furiously.
Clenching my legs together, I scanned the room for nothing more than to distract my brain from fantasizing about a quick tryst with him in a closet somewhere in the hospital, much like we had done a few times in high school.
He leaned in. “Remember the janitor’s closet?”
