Page 27 of Never Going to Care

“So pretty,” I murmur as my eyes roam over her skin. When my eyes come back up and meet hers, I smirk. “If you need to lie to yourself, that’s fine, Celeste, but don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not,” she swallows hard at whatever she sees in my eyes. A warning. A taunt. A challenge. “I wasn’t thinking you’d follow me in.”

“You were hoping for it, though,” I lob back at her. She nods slowly, her eyes dropping down to my lips. “Do you want me to kiss you again?”

“Yes,” she breathes out.

It’s the invitation I’ve been waiting for, and I don’t waste time now. My lips slam down on hers and I immediately pry her lips open with mine, my tongue snaking out and running along the plump flesh of her bottom lip. So fucking soft.

I groan the moment my tongue dips inside of her mouth to taste her. She tastes like whiskey, sin and something which is all Celeste. I instantly want more. It’s the same taste I’ve been thinking about since that night at Sala.

When her hands come up and grip the lapels of my jacket, I know I’m done for. I know I won’t be able to wait another night to have this woman. I might be strong in a lot of ways, but when it comes to this woman, I’m weak. So fucking weak.

As I keep one of my arms on the wall, I let the other one fall and grip her hip with my hand. I hold her in place, wanting to make sure she doesn’t try and run from me. I don’t think my heart could handle it.

I need her.

I don’t know what I’m going to have to do to prove it to her, but I’m determined to do it. I need her to see me. I desperately want to crack my chest open and show her the man I am. I want her to revel in it, see every single crack and scar, and then I want her to patch me up.

She can heal me. She can make the world full of color again. She can give me purpose beyond my job and my family.

She’s it for me.

I know it in this kiss more than I did the other night. I don’t know if it’s because my brain has caught up to every single part of me or if it’s because of what the guys said earlier. I don’t think it matters because I know the truth in it now.

When we break apart, it’s because we both need air, but I don’t step back. Instead, I shuffle closer to her, erasing any distance between us. I don’t want there to be any anyway.

“Come home with me,” my words aren’t quite a demand, but they aren’t a request either.

Celeste’s big brown eyes blink up at me as if she’s not sure if she heard me right or is simply trying to process. I open my mouth to say it again, just in case she’s in as much of a fog as I am, but she beats me to it.

“Okay,” her voice is a sweet, husky sound which makes my dick pulse.

Now to get her home and show her just how much I need her in my life. An excited buzz fills my veins and I know it’s all because of this woman. I’m going to get her in my arms and then I’m going to figure out how to keep her in my life.

CHAPTER 10

CELESTE

I’ve been a ball of nerves from the moment Hale entwined his fingers with mine outside of the bathroom and led me out of Piper and Landon’s reception. I probably should have told someone I was leaving and gave my last congratulations to the happy couple, but I couldn’t wrap my mind around it as Hale’s cedarwood scent wrapped around me and his lips frazzled my last remaining sanity.

It’s been a little while since I’ve been with anyone and as much as I want to keep this detached, just an experience, just a night, I have a feeling that is going to be more difficult than I’d like it to be. There’s something about Hale and the way he looks at me which feels like so much more. More heat. More meaning. More…everything.

I just don’t know how to reconcile that with the man I met in that conference room, the one who was so damn grumpy I could feel the dark cloud covering the entire room. I don’t think it was a matter of having a bad day either, being gruff is clearly not uncommon for him. It’s in the way he assesses everyone. Everyone except for me, apparently. At least now.

It’s disconcerting and it makes my heart riot in my chest.

Hale’s hand slips over the middle console in his SUV and he covers my knee, his touch soothing something in me and making the knot of nerves and anxiety lessen in my gut. How does he do that to me? How can it be so damn right?

I try and push the reality of it away and keep myself slightly detached from the situation. A night with a man, just one night, has never been an issue before. It wasn’t something I did often, but a woman has needs, damn it, and I wasn’t going to deny myself because of some misogynistic notion of purity.

His voice is husky, “What are you thinking about so hard over there?” He glances at me out of the corner of his eye. “Not having second thoughts, are you?”

I almost swallow my tongue at how forward he is and the little bit of hurt in his tone when he asks me about having second thoughts. Is that what this is? I don’t think so.

I swallow around the lump in my throat and shake my head slowly. “Not second thoughts, exactly, but I should have said goodbye to the newlyweds, Stella and my brother,” I admit softly.

I gasp as I realize that with me gone and Hale gone, it won’t take much for people to put the two together. I feel my cheeks heat with the truth of it. To stop myself from groaning in annoyance, I bite my lip.

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