Page 48 of A False Start
“Stop it,” I spit, my annoyance building. “Just stop. Don’t make that seem cheap when it wasn’t.”
His eyes finally meet mine. The flash of sadness in them is hard to miss. “Okay.” One hand drags through his hair, and he takes a few tentative steps toward me.
He gently runs an index finger over the mark on one breast before pulling my shirt up over it, like he can’t stand to look at it. He does the same to the other side before turning his attention back to my face, namely my lips. The ones that are still swollen from the way he kissed me.Ownedme.
“Nothing about you is cheap, Nadia. You’re a fucking catch. You deserve so much more than a man who kisses you in dirty bar bathrooms or beside grease-filled dumpsters. Someone who leaves marks on your body...fuck.” He shakes his head. The heaviness that momentarily evaporated when we disappeared into each other is slinking back.
He can’t even make eye contact with me.
And I’m not having it. I reach up between us, capturing his chin in my fingers, gently turning his handsome face back to me. I wait until his eyes meet mine and let my thumb rub over his bearded jaw line, reveling in the feel. He’s so unlike any man I’ve ever given myself to. I’ve been playing with prissy city boys, and Griffin Sinclaire is the Wild West.
I want him right down to the tips of my toes.
“You know what I deserve?” His irises dance across my face. “Someone who needs me badly enough to take me without apology. A man who knows what he wants. A man who wantsme.”
He nods, pulse jumping in his neck.
“And do you know what you deserve?”
“What?”
“A woman who feels like a goddess when you leave a mark like this on her. A woman who doesn’t want a goddamn thing from you other than to be worshipped any time, any place.” The intense way he’s staring at me almost makes me squirm. “You deserve a woman who drives you crazy every damn day, and nothing less.”
Silence stretches between us. My words hang in the air, suspended, until his deep sigh blows them away. An opportunity dashed.
I stand on my tippy toes and press a soft kiss to Griffin’s lips. He kisses me back, but it’s not the same. It’s chaste. Innocent almost. The heat is dampened.
There’s something heartbreaking about the kiss. And now, I’m the one who can’t hold his gaze.
Suddenly, I feel infinitely less experienced. Colossally foolish. Who the fuck do I think I am going after a grown-ass man like I’m some kind of siren? Like I’m not just his best friend’s sad, troublemaking little sister?
A dejected, small laugh bursts from my lips when I pull away from him, my eyes trained on the ground as I roll myself along the wall away from him.
“I hope you find her.”
And then I slink away to my car, ready to lick my wounds in private.
16
Griffin
One month later
The fields whippast as I make the five-minute drive down the road, clenching the steering wheel hard enough that I could almost rip it right off. Tripod sits on my lap, happily looking out the window, my new constant companion. I swear the floofy little dog just follows me everywhere all day. I’m not mad at it either.
It’s the weekend, and we’re supposed to go up to my place to do some maintenance for a few days, so I don’t go back to a total disaster when my contract is up at the end of August.
But first, I told Stefan I’d come to his place early to help him with the massive load of hay he just received. Then he’ll come help do some things around my place for a couple of days. Even told him we could do some target practice to prepare for hunting season. A fire, some food, bring the wife—basically camp out for a couple of nights. A fair trade if you ask me.
Seemed like the least I could do, seeing as how I’ve been avoiding him. And avoiding his little sister. My plan to be a huge enough dick to push Nadia away has worked. In spectacular fashion.
Except now, I’m not so sure it was a good plan at all.
It’s been a month since I devoured her behind the local pub. Since she rode my leg while I put my marks all over her tits like an out-of-control caveman. I roughed up the twenty-one-year-old girl who hasmake loveon her fucking bucket list like she was just some eager jersey chaser waiting behind the stadium to turn a head.
Total douche.How selfish can I possibly be?
Obviously selfish enough to send her packing. Mission accomplished. So why do I feel like total trash about it?
