Page 65 of Seizing Mack
Chapter Thirty-One
~ Mack ~
Her heart stopped,then began to jackhammer furiously against the walls of her chest. Surely, he wasn’t saying what she thought he was saying. She tilted her head and found him looking at her with a combination of heat and promise, a look that made her body tingle and her mind think crazy things. “You are?”
He continued to hold her gaze — one of the few who could — and nodded. “I am.”
“What exactly does that mean?” she whispered. She needed him to be very clear. No misconceptions or misunderstandings this time, because as the last few days had proven, she wasn’t particularly good at looking beyond what she wanted to see.
His mouth curved slowly into a crooked, sexy grin. He really needed to stop doing that. It threatened to destroy every wall she’d been trying so hard to rebuild.
“Little slow on the uptake this morning, are we? Fine. I’ll spell it out for you. I like you, Mack, and I think you and I... well, I think we’d be really good together.”
She blinked. “You do?”
“Yes. Having you in my bed — regrettably without me beside you — seeing you in my shirt, making breakfast with you... I like it. I want more. A whole lot more,” he said, his voice lowering suggestively.
Mack sucked in a breath. Nick stepped closer, close enough to feel the heat radiating from his body. His large hands came to rest lightly on her hips, making her skin burn beneath them. “I’m even willing to give up donuts.” His eyes sparkled. “Coffee’s a deal breaker, though. I need my coffee.”
A brief war raged within her as her desire rose quickly, flooding common sense and her ability to reason with need and want. The air sparked and popped and crackled between them, filled with possibility. She wanted this man, wanted him with a ferocity she wasn’t used to feeling, and why shouldn’t she have him?
You barely know him.Her rational mind gave one last feeble protest.
It caved immediately beneath the intensity of her passion.I know enough.
Mack slipped her arms up around his neck, feeling the press of his arousal against her midsection. Another bolt of lust surged through her, overriding the last of her doubts. “Coffee’s good. I drink coffee.”
“Do you?”
“Yeah. Organic beans. Slow roasted.”
He groaned. “You’re killing me, woman.”
Being held in his arms felt so good, pressing up against all that warm, solid male flesh. It had been a long time since she’d allowed herself to get physically close to someone besides Jay, and even then, there was no comparison. Hugging Jay was platonic. Affectionate. Friendly. Hugging Nick was nothing like that. Her endorphins spiked and her hormones went into overdrive, and yet she still felt a sense of peace and comfort washing over her — along with a need to get even closer. Mack laid her head against his chest, the throb between her legs matching the powerful thump-thump-thump beating steadily beneath her ear.
She didn’t want to let go.
He pressed a light kiss on the top of her head. “Mmmm, I like smelling my soap on you.”
She liked the fact that he liked smelling his soap on her. She wondered how he would feel if he knew what she’d done in his shower that morning. That needy ache in her core grew even stronger, wanting more.
“Don’t you have to go to work today?” she asked, tilting her head upward and curling her fingers into his hair.
He shamelessly used the opportunity to move his lips down over her ear, along her jaw, to her neck. He kissed her gently, running his tongue over her birthmark and making her shiver. “No. I took the day off. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“You did?” she breathed, her eyes all but rolling back in her head. When was the last time a man had taken time off from anything for her? When was the last time a man had kissed her like this?
“Yes. I’d like to spend the day with you, get to know you better. What aboutSeize?”
“Jay’s got it covered.”
“Hm.” Nick hummed against her skin, sending more shivers up and down her spine. Really, really good shivers. “Got any ideas on what we should do?”
She pressed her body against his hard length. “A few.”
Nick pulled away enough to rest his forehead against hers and exhaled. “I want you, Mack. So fucking bad I can taste it. But I’m willing to work for it. I’m willing to wait. Say no and this stops right here, right now. But if we go much farther, it’s going to get harder...”
Her fingers tangled in his hair, grinding her body against one particularly stiff part of him. “I want it harder,” she breathed. “As hard as you can make it.”
